VideoLAN Announces Dav1d, a New Libre and Open Source AV1 Decoder (jbkempf.com) 88
Jean-Baptiste Kempf, president of VideoLan and developer of VLC media player, made the following announced Monday: AV1 is a new video codec by the Alliance for Open Media, composed of most of the important Web companies (Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft,...). AV1 has the potential to be up to 20% better than the HEVC codec, but the patents license is totally free, while HEVC patents licenses are insanely high and very confusing.
The reference decoder for AV1 is great, but it's a research codebase, so it has a lot to improve. Therefore, the VideoLAN, VLC and FFmpeg communities have started to work on a new decoder, sponsored by the Alliance of Open Media. The goal of this new decoder is: be small, be as fast as possible, be very cross-platform, correctly threaded, libre and (actually) Open Source. Without further due, the code: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/dav1d Recommended: A talk during VDD 2018 conference about dav1d.
The reference decoder for AV1 is great, but it's a research codebase, so it has a lot to improve. Therefore, the VideoLAN, VLC and FFmpeg communities have started to work on a new decoder, sponsored by the Alliance of Open Media. The goal of this new decoder is: be small, be as fast as possible, be very cross-platform, correctly threaded, libre and (actually) Open Source. Without further due, the code: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/dav1d Recommended: A talk during VDD 2018 conference about dav1d.
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Got some skin in the game, hmm?
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So where is the open and free ENcoder?
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Not sure what the most popular video format is for the game industry now, a few years back it was Bink. Maybe it still is. For audio, the standard has been Ogg for a long time. Looks like the Dav1d codec could do for game video what ogg did for audio.
Taking over the web is more of a challenge. Given the roster of backers, it's a cinch that all the main browsers will support it. Basically, if browsers and Youtube supports it, it wins.
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Dav1d is not a codec. It's an encoder. It encodes video into the AV1 codec. AV1 is the updated codec that will replaced last generations version VP9. Just as HEVC/x265 is replacing last generations x264.
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>"Dav1d is not a codec. It's an encoder. It encodes video into the AV1 codec."
Not according to the summary nor the description on the code site:
"dav1d is an AV1 decoder :)"
Nor inside the code readme:
"**dav1d** is a new **AV1** cross-platform **D**ecoder, open-source, and focused on speed and correctness."
How long before ... (Score:3)
a patent troll magics up some patent relating to AV1 ?
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Trolls are always a problem for anything you do, but at least here's a long list of companies [aomedia.org] that are providing royalty-free licensing of their video patents for AV1. It's no guarantee, but it sure beats any other free video codec effort.
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a patent troll magics up some patent relating to AV1?
Well that could certainly happen but it's a risk for all codecs or indeed software in general, they've done an IPR review to make sure it doesn't infringe on the patents of their competitors in the HEVC camp so it'll have to be a surprise contender. But if you look at the Fortune global 500 they got #11 (Apple), #18 (Amazon), #52 (Alphabet/Google), #71 (Microsoft), #92 (IBM), #146 (Intel), #212 (Cisco) and #274 (Facebook) on board. I think they can afford a few lawyers to get the patent declared invalid or
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a patent troll magics up some patent relating to AV1 ?
*I* have a patent on letters, and my wife has a patent on numbers. My son, however, has the patent on mixing letters and numbers so HE'LL be the one doing the suing in this case. Expect a notice R3a1 S00n N0w.
(Oh nuts, he saw that, I'm in trouble now!)
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Good thing this is a real open source project so you can check.
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And how would that work with a _codec_? The interfaces are just not there. A backdoor of this type could be found with a simple string-search.
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Ah, sorry. Sometimes it is hard to tell.
Re: Content creation is too expensive (Score:4, Informative)
LOL nobody uses H.265 in wide distribution because nobody can afford to with the multiple patent pool licensing. It's dead, and will never generate the revenues needed to fund development of any further standard. MPEG killed the golden goose and sent their members to build their own org to cut them out, and AV1 is the result.
The codec will get faster with optimization and forthcoming hardware en/decode acceleration, just like all codecs do.
Nice FUD though.
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UHD Bluray and ATSC 3.0 (the upcoming US television broadcast standard) both use HEVC. Newer smartphones use it for encoding video taken with their cameras. AFAIK video sites like Youtube don't use it for distribution because software decoding is impractical on older mobile devices (and Google was pushing VP9 instead, which Youtube does use).
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LOL nobody uses H.265 in wide distribution
Nobody except for netflix and streaming producers who offer 4k.
Nobody except for anyone producing any content for VR.
Nobody except for live streamers who have native hardware codecs available.
AV1 is the future, but HEVC will be around for quite a while yet. AV1 risks missing the boat entirely. There are native hardware decoders and encoders available in pretty much every computer right now. They are shipped with graphics cards, mobile phones, in TVs, media players, they are required for 4k Netflix support f
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If MPEGLA pull their heads out of their arses and makes the codec as cheap to use as MPEG2
The problem is that it's not just the MPEG LA. It's HEVC Advance [hevcadvance.com], it's Velos Media [velosmedia.com], and it's individual companies that aren't in any patent pool. There's a reason why Leonardo Chiariglione calls HEVC an unusable modern standard [chiariglione.org].
AV1 will almost certainly be as dead in the water as Theora was
Theora never had the backing AV1 has [aomedia.org]. Theora wasn't on the roadmap for YouTube and Netflix [anandtech.com].
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And again AV1 only has the backing due to the licensing issues. If the lunatics that are shitting in their bed see some resemblance of common sense then the AV1 alliance will be about as big as the rebel alliance at the end of the Last Jedi.
Ultimately you're still underestimating the staying power. "Netflix: I have a great idea, let's make the fans twirl when people play 4k content by switching to a computationally expensive codec without hardware decoder support!" Me personally I run a plugin that forces y
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And again AV1 only has the backing due to the licensing issues.
No, it has the backing because it has better licensing and better quality at the same bitrate (or the same quality at a lower bitrate) than HEVC.
Netflix: I have a great idea,
The great idea is that Netflix accounts for 15% of downloads globally [variety.com], so AV1's bitrate savings over HEVC are needed.
pretend to not be capable of VP8
I think you mean VP9. If you really are only blocking VP8 then you're probably using VP9 a lot without even realizing it.
It's amazing how well people use the unusable.
There's no value in the HEVC tax any longer. AV1 is the future. Might as well get on board.
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LOL nobody uses H.265 in wide distribution because nobody can afford to with the multiple patent pool licensing. It's dead,
That will be news to people playing 4K video as streaming media or off 4K UHD Blu Ray video disks.
What happens when one isn't fluent in English (Score:2)
When one isn't fluent in English, either because it's not the primary language or because one is an idiot incapable of being fluent in any language, the result is minor mayhem like replacing "without further ado" with "without further due".
Why do Slashdot editors exist at all, if not to maintain that fluency when submitters cannot?
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I don't discount that possibility, since I accounted for it in the phrase "because one is an idiot incapable of being fluent in any language". Such a person will repeat the same stupid mistake with any language he only learns phonetically and otherwise not fully.
Regardless, the question that demands an answer is: did the current Slashdot editor(s) also only learn English phonetically, or did they approve the submitter's stupid mistake for some other equally stupid reason? In either instance, why are they
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Nowadays, everyone already uses H.265. ... Nobody cares.
With regard to the licenses
Nowadays, the streamer negotiates with the client to chose the codec. People watching Netxflix on a Chromcast are probably using a different codec to those watching Netflix in a web browser and those watching Netflix on an ipad. Streamers care about the license fees - they will chose the cheapest codec that the client supports.
Web browsers will have AV1 support next year and hardware devices will probably start rolling out in 2021. There's a huge installed base that won't have AV1 support, but the same thin
Re:That whole "license" bullshit is so silly. (Score:4, Interesting)
What were you saying about HEVC being too expensive to be available in less-expensive devices? [roku.com]
$40 for a 4k HDR h.265 Roku is pretty much mainstream. Which means aV1is dead-in-the-water.
AV1 hardware acceleration will be TWO YEARS behind the $40 Roku, and you can be sure that it will cost OVER $100 o release (like the first 4k Roku).
HEVC enjoyed early adoption beause of early phone spec war. My Galaxy S4 had HEVC playback built in,
HEVC encode support was added to devices after the S4 a Apple, because video storage space is limited on a cellphone. The TVs have actually been slow to adopt HEVC compared to the rest of the industry, but 4k TVs with HEVC haw been around fo five years now, an 4k BluRay is almost two years old. Both are standard devices that don't support AV1.
The other upcoming standard hat will also kill AV1 is ATSC 3.0.
https://www.atsc.org/newslette... [atsc.org]
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There's a huge installed base that won't have AV1 support, but the same thing is true for H.265.
My several year old budget graphics card boasts a hardware h.265 decoder. As does my TV (pretty much every 4K TV does), any UHD bluray player, any computer with a Skylake or more recent CPU (though you could happily decode UHD in software on Haswell)
You can see which codec Youtube is using in a web browser by right clicking on "Stats for nerds". On most systems I see it's using VP9.
And? Netflix uses HEVC for 4k streams, as do UHD blurays. The install base is far larger than you think.
Eggcorn (Score:4, Funny)
Without further due
For all intensive purposes, this has peaked my interest in one foul swoop.
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Ah men!
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I had to look-up "egghorn" and discovered all kinds of comical errors:
"eggcorn" instead of acorn. "Mating name" instead of maiden name. "On the spurt of the moment" instead of on the spur of the moment. "Passes mustard" instead of passes muster. "Sammwich" instead of sandwich.
- And since it's Oktoberfest: "Ziggy Zaggy" instead of the actual German phrase Ziche zache.
- And in India: "Updation" instead of update.
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Here's my list, fellow gnurds.
Once and a lifetime opportunity, laundry mat, ad homonym attack, commynism, weight lifting can stump your groth, trial by error, refudiate, all of the sudden, a whole nother thing, nucular, aniliation, laxadaisical, irregardless, so long as, anyhow, besides the point, asterix, ax a question, Daylight Savings Time, every once and a while, misunderestimate, should of, a mute point, wreck havoc, hang grenade, brandy sniffer, bob wire fence, statue of limitations, try and make
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"Passes mustard"
Oww... that just got to hurt...
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My god don't these people have spell chequers on their pee sea?
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I am glad you can now breath easier.
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that's fowl swoop .... you insensitive cloud.
the very best compression (Score:2)
do we still need to squeeze every last byte out of video files given how big our storage devices have gotten to be and how fast our networks are getting to be? or what about a decade from now? or is this going to be a cause for compression for the next millenium?
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Yes. Look into the bitrates required for light-field videos (~2 terabytes per minute IIRC). Mobile bandwidth caps are still going to suck in the USA a decade from now.
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The change to H265 allowed for 4k Blurays which wouldn't be possible with the older codecs. Also many phones still have relatively small amounts of storage so saving space when recording video is worthwhile.
English (Score:2)
AV1 is a new video codec by the Alliance for Open Media, composed of most of the important Web companies (Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft,...).
I would have added "developed" or "written" or "created" before "by", but whatever, I'm busy figuring out how a codec is composed of "most of the important Web companies" or why we're capitalizing "Web".
AV1 has the potential to be up to 20% better than the HEVC codec, but the patents license is totally free, while HEVC patents licenses are insanely high and very confusing.
I'm going to give you a pass on the unexplained "better", and "the patents license" may be an awful Britishism that I'll ignore (for now), but if the HEVC "patents licenses" are "insanely high", isn't that a problem? Are they going to go out and announce that they're taking HEVC public at $420?
The reference decoder for AV1 is great, but it's a research codebase, so it has a lot to improve.
I'd throw in "
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It's "without further adieu", you clown!
Try "without further ado [grammarist.com]," you clown!
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Woosh
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When it is incorrect, it is, at least *authoritatively* incorrect. -- Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy
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AV1 isn't "by" the Alliance for Open media unless it's physically beside it. It's a minor nitpick, sure.
If the "composed of" piece refers to the codec, then there should be an "and" before "composed of" to indicate that the codec is both "by..." and "composed of ...". Otherwise, it's ambiguous as to what "composed of" refers to. Alternatively, you could add a comma after "codec".
"Web" is not a proper noun. It's an adjective here, describing the type of companies. The companies are not owned by the "Web
VLC is poorly now (Score:2)