The Alliance for Open Media, which includes the likes of Amazon, Apple, ARM, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, and Nvidia, among others, has announced the release of the AOMedia Video Codec 1.0 (AV1) specification. The new open source and royalty-free codec is based on elements of other codecs that were recently in development: Daala, Thor, and VP10.
Tests of the codec have found that it can reduce the bitrate by 10-40% at the same quality when compared to VP9 and H.265/HEVC. The difference is more apparent at higher resolutions such as 4K/2160p.
By delivering 4K UHD video at an average of 30 percent greater compression over competing codecs according to independent member tests, AV1 enables more screens to display the vivid images, deeper colors, brighter highlights, darker shadows, and other enhanced UHD imaging features that consumers have come to expect – all while using less data.
“We expect that the installed base of 4K television sets to reach 300 million by the end of 2019 and therefore there is already latent demand for UHD services over today’s infrastructure. AV1 will be widely supported across the entire content chain, especially including services. We forecast rapid introduction of AV1 content delivery to help the widespread proliferation of UHD streaming,” said Paul Gray, a Research Director at IHS Markit, a global business information provider.
Also at Engadget, Tom's Hardware, and Advanced Television.
(Score: 2) by Apparition on Friday March 30 2018, @04:03AM (6 children)
I look forward to replacing my television and re-purchasing all of my movies and television series yet again. Let's see, this would be the... sixth time I would buy the original Star Wars trilogy.
(Score: 2) by eravnrekaree on Friday March 30 2018, @04:16AM (1 child)
You would likely purchase a decoder box for your current tv rather than replace the whole thing. Would be worth the $50 investment since the 40% improvement and 400% improvement over MPEG-2 could increase the number of subchannels so that a market with 30 total broadcast subchannels over all its broadcast stations would go to 60-100.A much better deal than for pay TV.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @04:45AM
Doesn't allow for converter boxes. It requires the support to be built into the television along with 'optional' internet access for providing targeted advertising experiences.
The entire point of ATSC 3.0, in the US at least, will be to plug the 'analog and broadcast flag free digital' hole once and for all, while also providing for the possibility of per view licensing and targeted advertising.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @04:25AM (1 child)
1. VHS
2. "New Hope" reprint
3. Betamax
4. Lazerdisk
5. Special Edition VHS
6. DVD
7. BluRay
and I feel like there is something I missed.
(Score: 1) by GDX on Friday March 30 2018, @05:53AM
you have missed D-VHS
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @04:39AM (1 child)
But ONLY if Han shoots first.
(Score: 2) by chromas on Friday March 30 2018, @06:49AM
Granted, but his blaster has been replaced with a walkie-talkie