Intel Releases Open Source Encoder for AV1 Video Codec

Intel has released an open source encoder for the av1 video codec. This video codec, which will replace existing codecs such as hevc and the vp9 used by Google, requires much less bandwidth.

Intel has released its new encoder called SVT-AV1 on GitHub. The software is primarily intended for servers deployed for streaming video online, with Intel optimized for Skylake-generation Core processors and Intel Xeon CPUs. Until now, there was actually no software that could encode the av1 codec at any speed; in October last year an av1 decoder was released: dav1d.

The specifications of SVT-AV1 show that this is not immediately a suitable encoder for the average consumer. For example, there are relatively heavy system requirements in terms of memory: On a system with 112 logical cores, 48GB is needed to run a stream in 4k resolution with 10bit colors. 1080p resolution still requires 16GB, while 720p drops to 8GB and 480p requires a minimum of 4GB.

The AV1 video codec should lead to better compression; Mozilla indicated last year that compression with this codec in the Firefox browser results in videos that are 25 to 35 percent smaller in file size than if hevc or vp9 were used. In addition to this benefit, the new codec is also royalty-free. The Alliance for Open Media is behind AV1, which includes Google, Netflix, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. The specification for the AV1 codec was released in March last year.