AMD Radeon Navi 2 / VCN 3.0 Supports AV1 Video Decoding

[skeevy420]

Not sure how hardware acceleration for media decoding is relevant for gaming. Android media boxes had hardware 4k/HEVC decode years ago for example.

It means that I haven't bothered buying any media device that actually has 4K/HEVC. Since the primary purpose of my devices are to play games and watch shows on Linux (which is usually gimped by streaming providers to crap resolutions) I have no need for 4K anything. But if 4K is the entry barrier, I won't be passing it anytime soon.

Not to mention that I have fscking bandwidth quotas on my wired, cable internet which makes 4K undesirable.

[wswartzendruber]

More importantly, it has HEVC encode. Sorry, but HEVC is far more important that AV1.

Christopher Montgomery at Xiph recently said in a talk that less than half of the patents for HEVC are currently a part of licensing authorities.

Nobody wants to touch HEVC with a ten meter stick and even Apple has come on board to AV1.

AV1 has a future and HEVC does not.

[chithanh]

Wow, I didn't expect this so soon from AMD. Great news! VP9 took them much longer on discrete graphic cards compared to Nvidia.

I wonder of it's because AOM were pushing it more.

I think it is rather because something like AOMedia exists at all now. VP9 was a standard that was entirely controlled by Google, and there was no real spec, just the reference decoder. This had some interesting consequences, like hardware implementations having to match the bugs in the decoder. Certainly that is why chip designers were wary of VP9.

In contrast, AV1 and H.265/HEVC are open standards controlled by industry consortiums.

[shmerl]

In contrast, AV1 and H.265/HEVC are open standards controlled by industry consortiums.

AV1 is, HEVC is documented, but not an open standard.

[cl333r]

Who are you to ask such questions, are you the owner of Phoronix ?
I can visit it from the terminal if I want to.
Anyway, I normally visit it from Linux, but even if I do it from Windows or Android I don't think it's anybody's business.
Have a nice day!

It was a sarcastic question related to somebody questioning you for using window$.

[chithanh]

AV1 is, HEVC is documented, but not an open standard.

H.264/HEVC may be patent encumbered, but it is controlled by a standards body (a joint working group of ISO/IEC MPEG and ITU-T VCEG) with fair and non-discriminatory participation rules. Therefore it is an open standard by the common definition of that term.

[starshipeleven]

Good point. But as soon as someone gets sued, they have to pay lawyers to go find that prior art.

We are talking of multinational companies here, not poor sods. They have lawyers on staff 24/7.

And even if we are taking of poor sods, a patent won't protect you from a bigger fish, they just legal troll you until you are bankrupt.

[starshipeleven]

Not to mention that I have fscking bandwidth quotas on my wired, cable internet

Condolences.

[skeevy420]

Condolences.

Yeah, it's so totally awesome having only one wired internet provider to choose from.

[CFWhitman]

H.264/HEVC may be patent encumbered, but it is controlled by a standards body (a joint working group of ISO/IEC MPEG and ITU-T VCEG) with fair and non-discriminatory participation rules. Therefore it is an open standard by the common definition of that term.

That rather depends on what you think is "the common definition of that term." Most academics, the European Union official definition, as well as that of the governments of several individual countries do not consider that an "open standard." According to their definition, that would be a "standard," but not "open." According to that definition, use has to be unrestricted (and therefore free of charge) for the "standard" to be "open."