YouTube tests use of AV1 codec for videos

YouTube has put the first AV1 transcoded videos on its platform. This is a test that requires a browser with support and that only shows AV1 at a resolution lower than 480p.

It is currently an AV1 playlist with fourteen videos, but more videos are on the way, YouTube promises. Support for the AV1 codec in MP4 containers is provided in Chrome 70 and the nightly builds of Firefox 63, where media.av1.enabled and media.mediasource.experimental.enabled must be enabled.

Participants in TestTube also have to activate ‘Prefer AV1 for SD’ in the settings and still they will only receive AV1 if they watch a resolution lower than 480p, at higher resolutions YouTube will still show VP9. The videos are encoded at high bitrate to test the decoder’s performance.

AV1 is a video codec that should notably cost less bandwidth than existing video codecs. Another advantage is that the technology can be used royalty-free. The driving force behind AV1 is the Alliance for Open Media, which includes Google, Netflix, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. The specification appeared early this year.

Update: AV1 videos can also be viewed in higher resolution via TestTube. For this there are the settings Automatic, Preference for AV1 in SD and Always preference for AV1.