Intel's SVT-AV1 Video Encoder Saw Yet Another Performance Boost In April

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel's SVT-AV1 Video Encoder Saw Yet Another Performance Boost In April

Intel's Clear Linux operating system wasn't their only open-source project seeing various performance improvements over the course of April but it turns out their Scalable Video Technology AV1 (SVT-AV1) video encoder also saw a nice performance improvement at the end of April...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=SVT-AV1-Ending-April-High

[wswartzendruber]

Indeed it's been a wild ride watching the SVT video encoder performance evolve and I can't wait to see what more they'll be able to squeeze out of HEVC/VP9/AV1 this summer.

I'm not so sure anyone's really interested in VP9 anymore, and I'm not so sure HEVC even has a future.

[Prescience500]

My understanding is that HEVC definitely has a future, but not so much on the web. HEVC can handle use cases that the movie industry needs that AV1 can't. We'll have to wait for AV2 and beyond for open codecs to truly conquer.

[flashmozzg]

I'm not so sure anyone's really interested in VP9 anymore, and I'm not so sure HEVC even has a future.

YouTube is using VP9 almost exclusively for 1080p+ content. IRC, Netflix is going to start streaming using VP9 soon. Right now it's the only good (better) royalty-free alternative to h264/5 and it'll remain that for at least a few years until AV1 hw support becomes mainstream (decoding situation is quite good already, but encoding is not realistic a.t.m),

[andreano]

Who has a future, pessimistic edition:

As we speak, Sisvel is doing the world a mega-disfavor by trying to monetize undisclosed submarine patents in VP9 and AV1, by definition killing them as royalty-free formats. If anything, it will be a datapoint on how incredibly destructive standard-essential patents are compared to what they are worth, which is nothing, because AoM in this case would never have used the patents if they had known about them.

[Azrael5]

Which are the best cpus to support this codec in decoding and or encoding? What about GPUs acceleration?

[wswartzendruber]

YouTube is using VP9 almost exclusively for 1080p+ content. IRC, Netflix is going to start streaming using VP9 soon. Right now it's the only good (better) royalty-free alternative to h264/5 and it'll remain that for at least a few years until AV1 hw support becomes mainstream (decoding situation is quite good already, but encoding is not realistic a.t.m),

YouTube is already streaming some music videos as AV1, and Netflix has been streaming 4K in VP9 for a while now.

HEVC has two use cases left:
1. UltraHD Blu-ray (Samsung just dropped out of the market).
2. ATSC 3.0 (the FCC states that there will be no required transition this time, and stations must continue to provide legacy ATSC compatibility).

Neither of these look particularly promising.

[wswartzendruber]

Who has a future, pessimistic edition:

As we speak, Sisvel is doing the world a mega-disfavor by trying to monetize undisclosed submarine patents in VP9 and AV1, by definition killing them as royalty-free formats. If anything, it will be a datapoint on how destructive standard-essential patents are for the money they bring in.

Nobody gives a flying @#$% about what Sisvel thinks. If I was dictator of the world, they'd get an hour's notice to evacuate, then I'd send a Strike Eagle in to give their building Mk84 therapy.

[Grinch]

My understanding is that HEVC definitely has a future, but not so much on the web.

Unless it goes royalty free it has no future as a web codec, however it currently holds the markets of >1080p streaming and the niche Ultra HD Bluray. As AV1 is designed to be better than HEVC at 4k, it could take that market from HEVC once hardware acceleration is widely deployed, particularly given that all the streaming giants are part of the group creating AV1.

HEVC can handle use cases that the movie industry needs that AV1 can't.

What use cases are those ?

[tildearrow]

What use cases are those ?

DRM? Or maybe just the fact that it's proprietary?