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Netflix’s AV1 Journey: From Android to TVs and Beyond

(netflixtechblog.com)
548 points CharlesW | 1 comments | 05 Dec 25 00:09 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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ls612 ◴[05 Dec 25 01:12 UTC] No.46155673[source]▶
On a related note, why are release groups not putting out AV1 WEB-DLs? Most 4K stuff is h265 now but if AV1 is supplied without re-encoding surely that would be better?
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avidiax ◴[05 Dec 25 01:29 UTC] No.46155793[source]▶
I looked into this before, and the short answer is that release groups would be allowed to release in AV1, but the market seems to prefer H264 and H265 because of compatibility and release speed. Encoding AV1 to an archival quality takes too long, reduces playback compatibility, and doesn't save that much space.

There also are no scene rules for AV1, only for H265 [1]

[1] https://scenerules.org/html/2020_X265.html

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1. MaxL93 ◴[05 Dec 25 08:20 UTC] No.46158007[source]▶
AV1 is the king of ultra-low bitrates, but as you go higher — and not even that much higher — HEVC becomes just as good, if not more. Publicly-available AV1 encoders (still) have a tendency to over-flatten anything that is low-contrast enough, while x265 is much better at preserving visual energy.

This problem is only just now starting to get solved in SVT-AV1 with the addition of community-created psychovisual optimizations... features that x264 had over 15 years ago!