AV1 can improve the flow, so why not everyone uses it?

When you jump into a video on YouTube or Netflix, a lot happens very quickly behind the scenes. Video data is quickly downloaded on your device, which then has to empty and normalize this information in a smooth vicious flow. The process of coding video data and deciphering them has changed significantly over the years, with H.264 (AVC) survival and behind H

But in 2015, gathering technology giants including Netflix, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta together to develop the latest development of video pressure: AV1. Companies, which are part of the comprehensive alliance of open media (Aomedia), says that the video coding program is About 30 percent is more efficient Compared to other criteria such as HeVC and VP9, ​​which was developed in Google, allowing them to connect a high -quality video in a lower frequency range. Aomedia also claims that it is free of royalties, which means that the broadcasting devices and video offices should not have to push patent holders to use technology.

Everything should have been enough for AV1 to seize the video scene. But even with all these improvements and support some of the biggest names in technology, the coding program has not become everywhere. Many of the main names are still in broadcasting, including Max, Peacock, and Paramount Plus, not adopted AV1.

Since AV1 appeared for the first time in 2018, we have seen big players jumped on the plane and used coding to flow high -resolution content in 4K and 8K. Google AV1 test started on YouTube In 2018, while Netflix The support added to AV1 in 2021. Amazon Prime Video also adopted AV1 in 2021, and the coding program Used in Instagram rollers As well as to capture screenshots Microsoft teams. dispute Support was launched in 2023, and Twitch works To implement it. Browsers such as Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge and Firefox AV1 are also adopted.

For anyone else, there are some reasons why they have not adopted AV1 yet, and simple games are devices. In order for the AV1 to work properly, the device must have the device to support it-or operate intensive resource programs that can handle the AV1 content instead.

During the past five years or so, a wave of AV1 devices has been adopted, including televisions, phones and broadcasting devices such as the latest Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Chips makers such as NVIDIA, AMD and Intel launched graphics processing units with technology. Meanwhile, Apple designed the AV1 decoding unit in iPhone with IPhone 15 Pro launch in 2023He later added AV1 support through the entire iPhone 16 squad last year. But not every hardware maker is keen to adopt the AV1 coding program, Rocco also accused Google of coercion The company to support the standard in 2021, claiming that it will increase the costs of consumers.

“In order to get its best features, you must accept a much higher complication,” says Larry Perlechtein, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New Jersey College. freedom. “But there is also a complexity of a higher disintegration, and this is at the end of the consumer.”

There are solutions for devices that do not have a unit dedicated AV1 coding unit, but they are not effective. Google, for example, Android app developer allows DV1D applications,, AV1 decoding unit developed by Videolan. YouTube is just one of the DAV1D applications, which allows it to fill AV1 videos for users on older or medium -range phones. but, Some users on YouTube They reported problems with the life of the phone battery after implementation.

now, Aomedia says about 95 percent From Netflix content encoded with AV1, unlike 50 percent of YouTube videos. “It will always be chicken and eggs, right?” Harry Calva, President and Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Florida Atlantic freedom. “Who should build this technology before the content of (AV1), in exchange for do they have enough players to play this content?”

Other criteria appeared in the video pressure space as well. VVC, also known as H.266, has been developed by a group of animated photo experts (MPEG) and a group of video coding experts (VCEG) – the same collections behind Hevc and AVC. It was completed in 2020 and it is The video is supposed to click Using 50 percent less data compared to HeVC, a little more than the AV1 promise by 30 percent of efficiency savings. However, unlike AV1, VVC is not free of royalty.

Even with the most efficient video compression, AV1 comes with some barters that can hinder adoption. For one, the pressure of the videos using the AV1 takes more time and energy. Pierre Anthony Limo, CEO of Aomedia, said in an interview with freedom. “With the increasing efficiency of coding programs, it requires more energy.”

Although Lemieux said freedom The AV1 perpetrators agreed not to impose fees on the use of the coding program, as it may not be the claim of the free rights group as shown as shown. For years, companies with video compression coding programs had to pay fees for the use of standards, usually through patent gatherings. Invention patents allow companies to license a set of patents for a specific technology at one time, instead of having to negotiate with individual patent holders. Companies such as the VIA VIA, Access Advance and SISVEL alliance are running access to patent gatherings for technologies such as HeVC and VVC.

“The video pressure, in particular, is the field that has many smart people working on for a long time,” said Robert Moore, a lawyer for intellectual property at Volp Quinig. freedom. “The innovations created by these people are what I call the IP forest – mainly a very difficult environment for anyone to develop a commercially viable technology.”

Since the emergence of some gatherings bathrooms and calls for investigations on the patents used by AV1, As it was identified Approval mediaand With the latest formation in January 2025. Medium Respond To the news of the first licensing program in 2019, saying that “it was established to leave behind to leave behind the same environment supported by the advertisement and settling” the terms of the patent license in the foreground. “

The European Union has also opened an investigation into the AOMEDIA licensing policy in 2022 due to fears that its “cross -free license” may reduce innovation, as it can affect “creators who were not part of AOM at the time of the creation of AV1 technical, but patents that are necessary (specific) artistic, technical,” ” according to Reuters. Committee The investigation closed In 2023 for “Priority Causes”.

This uncertainty still does not stop Aomedia and its adopting devices from moving forward in AV1 as a future online broadcast – and working on its potential caliph. “AV1 will be here forever, and perhaps,” said Limorex freedom. “But of course, our members work on the next big thing, and I expect something later this year.”