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AV1 Open Video Codec Now Powers 30% of Netflix Streaming (tvtechnology.com) 41

Posted by BeauHD from the chipping-away-at-HEVC dept.
Netflix says its open AV1 video codec now powers about 30% of all streaming on the platform and is rapidly becoming its primary delivery format thanks to major gains in compression, bandwidth efficiency, HDR support, and film-grain rendering. TVTechnology reports: The blog by Liwei Guo, Zhi Li, Sheldon Radford and Jeff Watts comes at a time when AV2 is on the horizon. [...] The blog revisits Netflix's AV1 journey to date, highlights emerging use cases, and shares adoption trends across the device ecosystem. It noted that since entering the streaming business in 2007, Netflix has primarily relied on H.264/AVC as its streaming format. "Looking ahead, we are excited about the forthcoming release of AV2, announced by the Alliance for Open Media for the end of 2025," said the authors. "AV2 is poised to set a new benchmark for compression efficiency and streaming capabilities, building on the solid foundation laid by AV1. At Netflix, we remain committed to adopting the best open technologies to delight our members around the globe. While AV2 represents the future of streaming, AV1 is very much the present -- serving as the backbone of our platform and powering exceptional entertainment experiences across a vast and ever-expanding ecosystem of devices."
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AV1 Open Video Codec Now Powers 30% of Netflix Streaming More

AV1 Open Video Codec Now Powers 30% of Netflix Streaming

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  • AV1 lacks hardware support compared with H.264 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by williamyf ( 227051 ) on Friday December 05, 2025 @10:30AM (#65837333)

    For most devices, especially older ones, AV1 support comes courtesy of Software support using the rendering Pipeline inside whatever GPU is in the device.
    Netflix has been very involved in these efforts in many a hardware platform/ecosystem.

    Meanwhile, H.264 has dedicated hardware decoders in world+dog devices, including ancient ones.

    But either h.264 or AV1 is great compared to the clusterFSCK that is H.265, especially the licensing part, where many companies are elimination H.265 support, either retroactively like Synology:
    https://nascompares.com/2024/0... [nascompares.com]

    Or on a going forward basis like Dell and HP-ink:
    https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]

    So, for me, wider adoption of AV1 is a ggreat development, warts and all....

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      HEVC is everywhere, it's not in decline despite a small number of stories like Synology. Its rate of adoption is actually accelerating too. And don't forgot, AV1 has Sisvel looming over it. HEVC is in all professional camera formats, broadcast and production industries, any decent mobile phone, security cameras, medical imaging, 4K HDR streaming, anywhere you see "Dolby Vision" and more more. I was even surprised recently to see that Firefox had quietly and belatedly added support earlier in the year.

      • It's worth mentioning, though, that HEVC is everywhere because it's the lowest common denominator for delivering HDR, AV1 is what everyone uses as the next-gen HDR standard (VVC is nowhere to be seen except some planned broadcasts in Brazil).
      • BTW when it comes to Sisvel, I'll believe that those guys and the patent holders they represent are serious when they launch a single lawsuit against a single AV1 implementer. Until then, it has the whiff of Ballmer-era Microsoft threatening patent litigation against the Linux kernel but never doing it, aka the whiff of FUD.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      That's why it's 30%. As more devices support AV1, the number will rise.

    • > Meanwhile, H.264 has dedicated hardware decoders in world+dog devices, including ancient ones.

      Ancient ones, yes, but most devices sold in the past five years have AV1 *decode* support.

      Hardware with AV1 *encode* is still pretty rare but a fair number of up-market chips from the past few years have it.

      What we mostly care about here is the $20 amtel or mediatek devices sold today, and those are fine.

      Netflix can support the older devices with H.264 as long as it makes more sense to pay the patent license f

    • HEVC is still used because UHD TVs from the late 2010s only support HDR with the HEVC standard, and their SoCs can't decode AV1 in software. As a result, services such as Netflix that charge extra for 4K HDR have to also use HEVC for 4K HDR or risk some customers downgrading to the HD subscription package. Also, broadcasters (terrestrial and satellite) are legally obligated to use an ISO/ITU standard, and as a result are stuck with HEVC if they want to broadcast HDR (or want to move on from H.264).

    • Even the 6 year old Broadcom BCM7218X supports AV1. I think we're at a stage where picking AV1 by default is viable for HD streaming, with standard def fallback for other codecs. (even if those other codecs can do 4K, maybe the older devices aren't up for doing it)

      • 6 years ago is late 2019. There have been lots of UHD TVs sold between 2016-2019. Again, some services like Netflix charge extra for 4K HDR, and they don't want those customers with 2016-2019 UHD TVs downgrading to the HD subscription package.

        • I bought an HDTV too early and it quickly became obsolete because it didn't support 720p only 480p and 1080i. That's what happens when you buy technology, someone doesn't bother supporting it because it's too much of a pain, there is too little money to make, and ultimately they know that people are just going to buy new hardware when their old hardware stops working.

          • First of all, support for 480p and 1080i but not 720p or 1080p was common for most CRT-based HDTVs and projectors, since they were modified "EDTV" 480p picture tubes (the line rate of 1080i being similar to 480p). It was an attempt by CRT TV manufacturers to keep the technology relevant for a bit longer without having to do any real R&D. Secondly, 1080i kept being supported by set-top-boxes, consoles, and Blu-ray players for a very long time, just to support those few early HDTVs and projectors.

            Simil

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      First, h.264 has been around for close to 20 years now, and hardware support for at least 15 years of that. The licensing for it is stupidly cheap and easy and to stream it even more so. That's why it retains the status as default codec.

      h.265 was supposed to be licensed the same way as h.264, but many patent holders disagreed and broke off forming their own licensing group. Arguably, they saw the success of h.264 as leaving money on the table because of how it's the de-facto standard and they don't wan to d

    • For most devices, especially older ones, AV1 support comes courtesy of Software support

      Errr no. AV1 hardware support has been standard in Android phones for 6 years, similar for iPhone. So virtually every mobile device has native hardware AV1 decoding. It has been standard as a hardware decoder for all AMD GPUs and CPUs for 6 years, NVIDIA for 5 years, Intel for 5 years, and video hardware specifically for 6 years as well.

      *Most* devices support AV1 hardware decoding. Some older one support software only. At this point the world+dog has no issue with AV1. Your post belongs back in 2022.

      • The problem is UHD TVs sold between 2016-2019, and TVs aren't replaced that often because they are bulky expensive devices.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by allo ( 1728082 )

      Netflix doesn't care about your energy cost, if they can lower their streaming costs.

  • Good place to ask for advice then (Score:3)

    by RenHoek ( 101570 ) on Friday December 05, 2025 @11:11AM (#65837407) Homepage

    I'm on an aging 'Chromecast with GoogleTV' that has no AV1 HW support.

    Can people give me some suggestions on a good replacement that supports AV1 on 4K, hopefully with Netflix support. And is there anything to buy that is a little futureproof or should I just get a generic NUC?

    For those with generic NUCs, what do you suggest for a settop box experience? Some specialized distro of Linux or a x86 Android install or something?

    • IIRC, a chromecast with google tv support, while ancient, is new enough that AV1 support is there, via software decoding using the rendering pipeline of the GPU.

      Meanwhile, my chromecasts 1st and 2nd gen are stuck in H.264 land.

      You will probably need to update to the latest firmware. Even allow the beta firmwares while updating, and then revert to "normal" channel.

      Best of luck.

    • For futureproofing, a SFF computer is best, either X86, ARM or RISC-V. Riscv will have less software available, arm will be underpowered unless you wait for the nVIDIA Shield 2, if you go X86, make sure you get something with Xe3 or RDNA 3.5. and make sure you get upgradeable memory and PCIe M.2

    • Can people give me some suggestions on a good replacement that supports AV1

      Have you tried a Chromecast? I mean not the "aging" one you have but the current HD model.

    • I would suggest an Nvidia Shield or a MECOOL KM2 Plus Deluxe. If you want an easy to set up TV stick product, these are at the top tier. There are some great advantages to rolling your own media player hardware but for most people it's not worth the cost and hassle.

  • I just want video patents to go away (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xack ( 5304745 ) on Friday December 05, 2025 @11:20AM (#65837427)
    Every few years they make a "new" codec that expands the video patent landscape for another 20 years, even MPEG-2 has a patent still active in Malaysia, leaving MPEG-1 as the last codec if you want a truly free video system. The recent stories of laptops having their decoders removed because of patent frees are infuriating.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Malc ( 1751 )

      The recent stories of laptops having their decoders removed because of patent frees are infuriating.

      Maybe you're referring to this story:
      https://arstechnica.com/gadget... [arstechnica.com]

      It says:
      Per a breakdown from patent pool administration VIA Licensing Alliance, royalty rates for HEVC for over 100,001 units are increasing from $0.20 each to $0.24 each in the United States ... "This is pretty ridiculous, given these systems are $800+ a machine, are part of a 'Pro' line (jabs at branding names are warranted â" HEVC i

    • Re:I just want video patents to go away (Score:4, Informative)

      by algaeman ( 600564 ) on Friday December 05, 2025 @12:22PM (#65837525)
      AV1 was initiated with the intent of being royalty-free and patent-unencumbered by the Alliance for Open Media. AOM has a defense fund which can be (and has been) used to defend against threats of patent enforcement, or even anti-trust charges as brought by the EU against the standard. It is royalty free, and there are a number of vendors that make drop-in hardware accelerators for various cpu and gpu architectures.
    • To be fair, those standards weren't "new", they were actually new, the compression efficiency gains of every new MPEG format were very noteworthy. To give you a sense of what I am talking about, 1080p and 1080i existed in the MPEG-2 era (just search Wikipedia for "Euro1080" and "D-VHS", and ATSC had 1080i channels since the late 1990s), but it was MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 that made 1080p and 1080i commonplace, requiring only double the bitrate of a MPEG-2 SD broadcast.

      But that's in the rear view mirror, now that

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Malc ( 1751 )

        The baseline profile of MPEG-5 Essential Video Coding (EVC) (ISO/IEC 23094-1) is supposed to be the modern MPEG codec that only uses tools made public 20 years ago or have been declared royalty free. It hasn't really gathered traction though either because there's not enough incentive for the stakeholders or because nobody wants to invest in adding another codec to their pipeline that doesn't improve enough beyond HEVC.

        • The problem with the EVC Baseline is that it's only marginally better than the very widely deployed H.264 High Profile (aka the profile of H.264 everyone uses), and it's worse than VP9 (not to mention AV1). If one of the companies in the Sisvel patent pool manages to secure one legal victory against AV1 and VP9, EVC Baseline may become useful for reducing the bitrate of 4K HDR content (since HDR support is unreliable in H.264 anyway), until then, nah.

  • That's nice. (Score:3)

    by newcastlejon ( 1483695 ) on Friday December 05, 2025 @12:54PM (#65837589)
    I still pirated Stranger Things though, despite being a paying customer, because anyone watching Netflix on a PC still can't get 4K or HDR.

  • Cool (Score:3)

    by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Friday December 05, 2025 @12:59PM (#65837601)

    AV1 seems like a good codec - I'm always happy to use it though, even hardware assisted encoding is still a bit slow for me. If I'm reencoding videos for my own use I usually will encode to x265 instead, which has a good balance between file size/quality and compression speed.

    • even hardware assisted encoding is still a bit slow for me.

      My experience with 40 Series and 50 Series NVENC is that the AV1 hardware encoder massively out performs their HEVC encoder in terms of speed.

      • I'll need to test it (its been a while) - I'm using an Intel Arc A310 on my rig where I encode. I've got an AMD 9070 XT in my gaming machine but I haven't really tested encoding on that one.

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