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takyon writes:

VideoLAN has released version 3.0.0 of the VLC media player for Windows, Linux, BSD, Android, and macOS. The new version is billed as enabling hardware decoded playback of 4K, 8K, and 360-degree video (in a demonstration video, VLC 3.0.0 is shown playing 8K 48fps 360-degree video on a Samsung Galaxy S8).

3.0.0 adds support for (not exhaustive):

• Network browsing of distant filesystems (using SMB, FTP, SFTP, NFS...)
• External audio tracks (ac3, m4a, aac, dts...)
• 12-bit color and (10-bit) high dynamic range
• Chromecast (an open source implementation of the proprietary Google Cast protocol)
• 360-degree video/audio
• Ambisonic audio and more than 8 audio channels
• Audio passthrough
• Blu-Ray Java menus
• H.265/HEVC hardware decoding on Windows, Android, OS X, iOS
• AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) video, and Daala (elements of Daala have been incorporated into AV1). VideoLAN is a member of the Alliance for Open Media, which develops the AV1 format.

Linux/BSD default video output is now OpenGL, instead of Xvideo.

The 3.0.x branch of VLC will be maintained as long-term support versions and will be the last releases on Windows XP (with significant limitations), Vista, macOS 10.7, 10.8 & 10.9, iOS 7 & 8, Android 2.x, 3.x, 4.0.x & 4.1.x, and the last to run on compilers before gcc 5.0 and clang 3.4, or equivalent.

From VLC Android developer Geoffrey Métais's blog post about the release, which discusses why Chromecast support took so long to add, as well as other missing features that have now been added to the Android version:

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

Chromecast support is everywhere and VLC took years to get it, right, but there are plenty of good reasons for it:

First of all, VideoLAN is a nonprofit organization and not a company. There are few developers paid for making VLC, most of them do it in their free time. That's how you get VLC for free and without any ads!

Also, VLC is 100% Open Source and Chromecast SDK isn't: We had to develop our very own Chromecast stack by ourselves. This is also why there is no voice actions for VLC (except with Android Auto), [and] we cannot use Google Play Services.

Furthermore, Chromecast is not designed to play local video files: When you watch a Youtube video, your phone is just a remote controller, nothing more. Chromecast streams the video from youtube.com. That's where it becomes complicated, Chromecast only supports very few codecs number, let's say h264. Google ensures that your video is encoded in h264 format on youtube.com, so streaming is simple. With VLC, you have media of any format. So VLC has to be a http server like youtube.com, and provide the video in a Chromecast compatible format. And of course in real time, which is challenging on Android because phones are less powerful than computers.

At last, VLC was not designed to display a video on another screen. It took time to properly redesign VLC to nicely support it. The good news is we did not make a Chromecast specific support, it is generic renderers: in the next months we can add UPnP support for example, to cast on any UPnP box or TV!

Also at The Verge and Tom's Hardware.

Related: Stable Release of VLC 1.0 for Android
VLC 2.0 for Android Released
EU Offers Cash Bounties to Improve the Security of VLC Media Player
Google Won't Take Down Pirate VLC With 5M Downloads (Update: They Have Taken it Down)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

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.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Intel Releases Open Source Encoder for Next-Gen AV1 Codec

Intel published its own open source CPU-based encoder for the next-generation and royalty-free AV1 codec (a codec is a program for encoding / decoding a digital data stream or signal). Intel is one of the main founding members of the Alliance for Open Media (AOM), the non-profit group behind the development of the AV1 codec.

Intel's new encoder, called Scalable Video Technology AOMedia Video 1 (SVT-AV1), aims to fill the role of a good CPU-based encoding software tool until dedicated AV1 encoders are ready for prime time. The encoder supports the Linux, macOS and Windows operating systems.

A CPU-based encoder requires a beefy system, so it's no surprise the real-time encoding specifications for SVT-AV1 are no joke. SVT-AV1 requires Skylake-generation or newer Xeon processors with at least 112 threads and at least 48GB of RAM for 10-bit 4K video encoding. Outside of video streaming companies, these type of systems are out of reach for most. Consumers that want to encode AV1 videos may want to wait for dedicated AV1 encoding hardware to appear, which make take another year or so.

Here's a recent 42-minute talk (no transcript) about AOMedia Video 1 (AV1). Hardware support for AV1 should begin appearing around 2020.

Related: Alliance for Open Media Announces Release of AOMedia Video Codec 1.0 (AV1) Specification
YouTube and Netflix Upload AV1-Encoded Videos for Testing

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Realtek Demonstrates RTD2893: A Platform for 8K Ultra HD TVs

Just like with any other major transitions, the shift to 8K Ultra HD TVs will require not only new display panels (and even new display technologies), new cables, and new media, but also new codecs as well as new SoCs. To this end, Realtek demonstrated its first platform for 8K televisions and Ultra HD set-top-boxes/players at Computex.

Realtek's RTD2983 SoC can support decoding 8K resolution videos encoded using the AV1, HEVC, and VP9 codecs. The chip can process all HDR formats, reduce noise, upscale, and perform all the other functions common for processors for televisions and digital media players. The RTD2983 has PCIe and USB 3.0 interfaces, it can receive data via an HDMI 2.1 48 Gbps interface, and transmit pixel data over Vby1 wires. One advantage the RTD2983 has is embedded memory, which eliminates necessity to use external DRAM devices, lowering the BOM costs for finished products.

Vby1 = V-by-One HS.

AOMedia Video 1 (AV1).

See also: Vimeo adds support for the royalty-free AV1 video codec

Related: A New Wave of 8K TVs is Coming
YouTube and Netflix Upload AV1-Encoded Videos for Testing
LG Announces its 2019 OLED TV Lineup, Plus an 8K Monstrosity
Intel Releases Open Source Encoder for AV1 Codec

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Google reportedly requires new Android TV devices support AV1 video decoding

While it's clear that AV1 is gaining popularity for online streaming and media consumption, only a handful of streaming services to date encode some of their content in AV1. YouTube streams some videos encoded in AV1 on select Android TV devices, Vimeo started to encode some of the videos on its Staff Picks channel in AV1, and Netflix streams select titles in AV1 if the service's data saving mode is turned on. Google, one of the biggest proponents of AV1, recently announced its plans to use AV1 for "the whole range of Google's video applications and services".

For more widespread AV1 adoption to happen, however, there needs to be more devices with hardware to decode AV1, which is a necessity to ensure power-efficient and speedy video playback. To that end, Google is requiring that all new Android TV devices launching after March 31, 2021, support AV1 video decoding. This requirement is said to apply to all new TV products launching with Android 10 or Android 11 later this year, according to an internal slide reviewed by XDA. This slide is part of a presentation that Google held for its Android TV partners last year. Therefore, we do not know if this deadline is up-to-date, and we did not receive a response from Google when reached for comment. Shortly after the publication of this article, it was brought to our attention that Protocol's Janko Roettgers first broke this news in a newsletter dated October 29, 2020.

There's more evidence behind Google making AV1 support a requirement for all future Android TV devices. The company reportedly already requires AV1 video decoding support for all 4K HDR and 8K Android TV devices that launch with Android 10. Industry insider AndroidTV Guide points out that many recently launched 4K HDR Android TV devices ship with an AV1-compatible SoC, such as the MediaTek T30/T31/T32 or the Realtek RTD2851M. TCL's X915 8K TV, for instance, supports AV1 decoding thanks to its Realtek RTD2851M SoC combined with the RTD2893, making it one of the first TVs to support streaming 8K videos from YouTube. Since Google is already pushing high-end TVs to support AV1, it makes sense that they're soon extending this requirement to all Android TV products, which Google is able to do since it controls the Android TV platform.

"Android TV devices" includes actual TVs along with ARM set-top boxes that plug into TVs and run Android TV.

AOMedia Video 1 (AV1).

Also at Notebookcheck.

Related:
Intel Releases Open Source Encoder for AV1 Codec
YouTube and Netflix Upload AV1-Encoded Videos for Testing
Alliance for Open Media Announces Release of AOMedia Video Codec 1.0 (AV1) Specification

Original Submission