Budget Android Phones To Get AV1 Boost: Smoother Streaming & Less Data Usage،
Android smartphones are set to get a major boost in video playback, as Google works to implement a new AV1 codec. Google will add libdav1d, an open source video codec from VideoLAN, to Android code, which will allow budget devices to use AV1 Boost devices without AV1 encoders at the hardware level.
The AV1 codec, developed by Alliance for Open Media or AOMedia, is an open source codec format used to compress large videos without compromising video quality. The feature is enabled by a hardware accelerator built into a device's chipset. This is why only a handful of high-end and flagship phones benefit from the full potential of the AV1 codec.
Many streaming platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, and Netflix, use AV1 encoding to compress videos on their platform. So, devices without the hardware accelerator would have to rely on VideoLAN's libgav1 AV1 software decoder, which offers much lower performance.
Just like libgav1, libdav1d will also decode AV1-encoded videos, but at a much faster rate while requiring the same amount of power, or even less. In Mishaal's testing, where he played an AV1 encoded clip using both decoders, libgav1d averaged around 25fps while libgav1 only averaged around 10fps.
As you can probably understand, libdav1d is a huge leap in performance over libgav1. So, when will Google bring the libdav1d decoder to all Android devices? Well, Google has confirmed that it will replace libdav1d with libgav1 in a new Google Play system update coming in March 2024. This will be done in the same way that Nearby Share was replaced by Quick Share.
While the update may have a negligible impact on devices with a dedicated AV1 decoder, it will definitely make a huge difference for budget and mid-range devices that lack a hardware accelerator. So, if you have a budget or a mid-range Android device; Buckle up, because you are about to experience the maximum potential of the AV1 codec on your device.
What is the AV1 codec? Why is it important?
AV1 Codec is the successor to Google's VP9 codec which offers significantly higher performance while consuming less bandwidth. AV1 has reduced bandwidth requirements by up to 30%. One of the cool features of the AV1 codec is that it can deliver excellent performance even at lower bitrates.
Compared to H.264 and HEVC, AV1 has much better compression efficiency. At low bitrates, AV1 outperforms HEVC, H.264, and AV9 in performance.
When it comes to quality, AV1 outperforms previous codecs in several areas, including PSNR, VMAF, bitrate savings, and split encoding. The overall file size is also reduced by 20% compared to AV9.
Why is this important to the average user? With the AV1 codec, the average user can enjoy a better overall streaming experience with less data consumed. This can be a huge problem for users who rely solely on mobile data to stream content. Note that the AV1 codec will only work if the streaming app supports it.
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