Intel Releases SVT-AV1 1.0 For Speedy AV1 Video Encoding

[brucethemoose]

It would be nice to add H265 too.

I recently started transcoding all my old H264+AAC files into H265+Opus (CRF mode). Even though they are only 1080p videos, the savings are excellent and I could not detect any degradation in the video or audio quality. The space saving and ease of decoding even on old machines compensate the awfully long encoding time.

Yet, I would like to know: should I be doing AV1+Opus instead of H265+Opus? AV1 encoding and decoding hit way harder on my ageing CPUs than H265.

H265 is definitely better supported on TVs and such, and its quite good.

AV1 is much better with animation or really grainy video though, with the right parameters.

Also, TBH I would not re-encode the audio if its already a reasonably small AAC track.

[Quackdoc]

H265 is definitely better supported on TVs and such, and its quite good.

AV1 is much better with animation or really grainy video though, with the right parameters.

Also, TBH I would not re-encode the audio if its already a reasonably small AAC track.

av1 sw decode preforms much better for me on average I find, so if you have an older android TV with neither and rely on VLC or MPV, av1 could be a good bet too

[brucethemoose]

av1 sw decode preforms much better for me on average I find, so if you have an older android TV with neither and rely on VLC or MPV, av1 could be a good bet too

Actually I've had bad luck with SW AV1 on ARM Android hardware, but I've only tried 4k and high-bitrate 1080p files, and I haven't tried in awhile.

[evil_core]

The "benchmark" I would love to see but is difficult to perform, is a comparison between SVT-AV1 for encoding to AV1 and x264 for encoding to H.264 and comparing the quality between the two when encoder settings are used that result in the same encoding time.

h.264 is deprecated codec, that was a thing, when it replaced MPEG2 in mainstream(DVD) and MPEG4, part2 for ripped movies.
h265 takes half of space at same quality, is better supported (all UHD Bluerays uses it) and encoding takes multiple less time than AV1(which saves only only 20% of space, which is a win, with mass-distribution)

[Quackdoc]

Actually I've had bad luck with SW AV1 on ARM Android hardware, but I've only tried 4k and high-bitrate 1080p files, and I haven't tried in awhile.

it's' pretty usable all things considered. on my S9+ anyway, my p20 pro seems to have some odd issues.

[brucethemoose]

it's' pretty usable all things considered. on my S9+ anyway, my p20 pro seems to have some odd issues.

Yeah, I got a Razer Phone 2 with an SD845 as well. Last I checked with mpv-android, it works, but drops a few frames and really heats up (whereas hardware h.265 decoding is flawless).

[Chugworth]

Are there any good guides on how to get good results with AV1? Each time I mess with it, I find very little documentation on that and I end up with poor results. Either the video quality is worse than the original or the file size is worse than the original. I'm hoping at some point to find a simple set of switches that will make a nice reduction in file size without making a noticeable difference in video quality.

With HEVC for example, I usually have good results with this simple command:

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v libx265 -crf 25 -c:a aac -b:a 128k out.mkv

[arQon]

That is, if I have a fixed amount of time to spend on encoding a video, would that time be better spent using SVT-AV1 or x264?

Both of the previous replies to this are "correct", but Anux's is closer to answering the question you're "really" asking: x264, by at least a noticeable amount, probably a large amount, and quite possibly a staggering amount.

That doesn't make Quackdoc's reply any less valid though, other than that unless your "fixed amount of time" is quite large AV1 won't even get off the ground. (At least, not historically, and this release isn't going to change that). His main point though, that this is *always* about juggling tradeoffs of one kind or another, is worth repeating.

[FPScholten]

Are there any good guides on how to get good results with AV1? Each time I mess with it, I find very little documentation on that and I end up with poor results. Either the video quality is worse than the original or the file size is worse than the original. I'm hoping at some point to find a simple set of switches that will make a nice reduction in file size without making a noticeable difference in video quality.

With HEVC for example, I usually have good results with this simple command:

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v libx265 -crf 25 -c:a aac -b:a 128k out.mkv

I have been playing with AV1 quite a bit and before that with X265. Encoding with X265 is faster, but quality is less than with AV1, also the filesize for AV1 generally is smaller than with x265. Also found out that SVT-AV1 generally has less visual quality for the same filesize, and takes about the same time as Libaom for that. The only speed advantage for SVT-AV1 is when you do not care about size or quality.

with ffmpeg I usually use these settings:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -i inputfile -c:v libaom-av1 -cpu-used 4 -row-mt true -threads 8 -crf 35 -tiles 4x3 -aq-mode 3 -c:a copy outputfile

Ususally I do not convert the sound, unless it is in uncrompressed pcm format. Depending on the type of video I then prefer flac for music, or opus for other video.
Explanation:

-cpu-used 4 : Quality setting, lower numbers is higher quality but longer encoding time (range 0 - 8)
-row-mt true : enables multithreading
-threads 8 : using 8 threads for encoding speeds up encoding significantly (do not set higher as the number of cpu cores you have) if not specified only 1 core is ever used
-crf 35 : single pass ratecontrol encoding slightly better quality as 24 for x265, use 0 for lossless encoding.
-tiles 4x3 : Speeds up encoding (significantly) by slicing every frame in 4 rows en 3 columns, but gives slightly bigger files for the same quality.
-aq-mode 3 : best quality setting for normal video, range (0-3)

[FPScholten]

For SVT-AV1 the command is as follows:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -i inputfile -c:v libsvtav1 -crf 35 -preset 4 -svtav1-params tile-rows=2:tile-columns=1:aq-mode=2:tune=1 -c:a copy outputfile

for the same crf it generally creates a bigger file with less visual quality, either specify lower -crf number for higher quality (even bigger files) or lower -preset (taking much longer to encode) for smaller filesize with same (lower than libaom) quality.

tile-rows=2: every frame is split in 4 rows (speeds up encoding, for a small increase in filesize)
tilecolumns=1: every frame is split in 2 columns (speeds up encoding, for a small increase in filesize)
aq-mode=2: best quality for normal video (range (0-2)
tune=1: use psnr tuning (or 0 use VQ better quality but very much larger filesizes)