---
title: 'What You Need To Know About AV1 | The Video Codec For The Internet?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=BMAccTJBDjE'
video_id: 'BMAccTJBDjE'
date: 2026-06-14
duration_sec: 469
---

# What You Need To Know About AV1 | The Video Codec For The Internet?

> Source: [What You Need To Know About AV1 | The Video Codec For The Internet?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=BMAccTJBDjE)

## Summary

AV1 is a modern, open-source video codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media, offering superior compression and quality over older codecs like H.264 and H.265. It uses block-based frequency transformation with super blocks (128x128 or 64x64 pixels) to reduce file sizes by up to 46.2% compared to H.264, enabling features like 4K HDR streaming with less bandwidth. Being royalty-free and supported by major companies (Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, Netflix, YouTube), AV1 is poised to become the standard for internet video streaming.

### Key Points

- **Streaming HD video is complex** [00:00] — Streaming high-definition content requires cutting-edge technologies, with improvements driven by better codecs and increased bandwidth.
- **What is a codec?** [00:46] — A codec compresses video for transmission; raw 1080p video is 5.6 MB per frame or 8.4 GB per minute, making compression essential.
- **AV1 overview** [01:57] — AV1 is a new codec by AO Media, replacing VP9, offering significant advantages over H.264 and H.265.
- **Block-based frequency transformation** [02:16] — AV1 divides frames into blocks (super blocks of 128x128 or 64x64 pixels, subdivided to 4x4) and uses Fourier transforms to store data efficiently.
- **Efficiency and features** [03:33] — AV1 enables streaming 4K HDR with less bandwidth and can potentially stream 8K content.
- **Compression improvement** [04:00] — Facebook's 2018 study showed AV1 achieves 46.2% better compression than H.264.
- **Open source and royalty-free** [04:21] — AV1 is open source and requires no licensing, unlike H.264/H.265 which involve complex patent pools.
- **Hardware support** [05:26] — Intel Arc GPUs first to feature AV1 encoding; NVIDIA RTX 40 series, AMD RX 6000 series, and PS4 support decoding.
- **Industry adoption** [06:12] — Netflix used AV1 since 2020, seeing 20% compression improvement over VP9; YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Vimeo also support it.

### Conclusion

AV1 offers better performance and eliminates licensing complexities, making it the future codec for internet video streaming. Its adoption is a matter of when, not if.

## Transcript

it may not seem like it but streaming
high definition content on the Internet
is a very complex problem that requires
dozens of cutting-edge Technologies to
work properly improvements in video
streaming in the past few years have
been due to many different factors most
importantly due to the development of
better video codecs and the increase in
bandwidth available to the average
consumer in today's video we will be
looking at av1 to see how it works the
advantages it offers and how companies
are embracing this new codec hello
everyone my name's Mike and here at
sabrin we love to make and talk text so
if that's what you're into then make
sure to hit that subscribe button and
notification Bell so you can stay
updated with all our future videos so
firstly you might be asking what is a
codec and what does it do and why do we
need it so let's quickly address those
first before we start looking at what
av1 is the main job of a video Codec is
to to compress the video and make it
friendly for transmitting over the
Internet the reason we do this and not
just stream the raw video is the files
are just too large to give you some idea
about raw video files a pure
uncompressed 1080p video is around 5.6
megabytes per frame or about 8.4
gigabytes per one minute video so it's
impractical to store and transmit videos
in their uncompressed form codecs solved
this problem by using really Advanced
algorithms to compress the video down by
70 to 80 without much loss in
perceivable video quality simply put
transmitting video over the Internet
would not have been possible if we
weren't using codecs to compress them
first not just that even the storage of
videos on local storage devices like
memory cards and hard drives wouldn't
have been made possible if we simply use
uncompressed videos all the time so av1
is a relatively new video Codec made by
AO media and it's meant to replace the
older vp9 codec av1 offers significant
advantages over the current
well-established codex like h.264 and
h.265 or also known as hevc av1 uses a
process known as block based frequency
transformation to encode video This Is
Not A New Concept and other video codecs
do use similar techniques av1 basically
divides each frame of the video into
smaller blocks comprising of pixel
groups and then it uses Fourier
transforms and other mathematical
Wizardry to store that data in a way
that can be recreated easily when needed
so now instead of the video storing data
about each and every pixel in that video
only the data of the block is stored
thus reducing the amount of data needed
to remember that video this ultimately
reduces the video ourselves considerably
av1 uses super blocks of either 128 by
128 pixels or 64 by 64 pixels which are
further subdivided into smaller 4x4
pixel blocks this is then combined with
new techniques for partitioning said
blocks and better encoding algorithms to
further enhance the compression the
result is a stream of video that
requires less bandwidth for a given
video quality while at the same time the
video can look better at the same bit
rate as compared to other video codecs
the efficiency gained with av1 means
that this codec can support a number of
extra features that other codecs just
can't these include things like
streaming HDR 4K content with a range of
color gamuts while at the same time
using less bandwidth av1 can also
potentially stream 8K content even
though there isn't a demand for that yet
it just shows what the technology is
capable of to put it into numbers
according to a study done by Facebook in
2018 the av1 encoder achieved is 46.2
percent better data compression as
compared to h.264 av1 Simply offers
higher image quality while at the same
time using less bandwidth what's not to
like other than better performance av1
has another thing going for it that
makes it the almost obvious choice for
the next commonly used codec av1 is open
source and doesn't require a license av1
was developed by AO media which is short
for the alliance for open media AO media
is basically a Consortium of various
technology companies ranging from AMD
arm Intel in video Google Microsoft to
even streaming companies like Netflix
YouTube and Amazon codecs like h.265 and
h.264 require licensing so in order to
make a product with let's say hevc
compatibility
the company needs to acquire licensing
from at least patent pools like velos
media Technicolor hevc advance and MPEG
La this makes the whole process
complicated and expensive with av1
there's no such restrictions as there's
no licensing requirements as it's open
source and royalty free anyone can just
use it av1 encoding has already been
made easy to the public thanks to
companies like Intel integrating the
technology into their newest Arc gpus
Intel Arc is the first GPU from Intel
and it is the first to feature this
technology and its initial results have
been pretty impressive for av1 av1 is
Making Waves in the video streaming
industry in terms of decoding nvidia's
RTX 40 series gpus and amd's RX 6000
series support av-1 content even older
gaming consoles like the PS4 support
playing AV want encoded videos this is a
positive sign that on the consumer side
of Video Entertainment and video
consumption there is already support for
this new codec Netflix has even been
using av1 since 2020 and in fact Netflix
was the first company to use av1 in
production it started with select titles
on Android devices and Netflix saw a 20
Improvement in their compression as
compared to the older vp9 codec since
November of 2021 Netflix has been
streaming content using av1 on TVs and
devices that have hardware-based av1
decoders YouTube have also been rolling
out support for av1 other major players
now support av-1 include Facebook twitch
and Vimeo av1 offers better performance
and frees everyone from the complexities
of Licensing these two factors should
make it enough to make it popular codec
in the future it's a matter of when not
if for av1 to reach a truly global scale
as more and more companies see the
benefit of using av1 over other codecs
and we're kind of seeing it now anyway
let me know what you think of everyone
I'd love to hear your opinions down in
the comments section but anyway that's
it for today's video if you've enjoyed
it then make sure to smash that like
button and also hit that subscribe
button and notification Bell so you can
stay updated with all our future videos
anyway thanks for watching and we'll see
you in the next one
bye
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