AV1 Encoder

Category: Multimedia
Type: Chromium catches up
Status: Enabled by default (Chrome 90)
Intent stage: Shipped

Breaking change: No
Enterprise impact: None
Spec maturity: Incubation
Web Platform Tests: No

WPT details: TBD

Summary

This feature ships an AV1 encoder in Chrome desktop, specifically optimized for video conferencing with WebRTC integration.

Motivation

AV1 encode is requested by a number of RTC applications, including Duo, Meet, and Webex. The primary benefits of AV1 are: - better compression efficiency to reduce bandwidth consumption and improve visual quality - Enabling video for users on very low bandwidth networks (offering video at 30kbps and lower) - Significant screen sharing efficiency improvements over VP9 and other codecs We are also promoting this launch to enable easier testing and experimentation with AV1 RTC calls.

Standards & signals

Specification: https://aomedia.org/av1-bitstream-and-decoding-process-specification/
Firefox: Positive
Safari: No signal
Web developers: Positive
Tracking bug: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1095763

Ecosystem

Web Platform Tests: https://wpt.fyi/results/?q=av1-encoder
Chrome Platform Showcase: https://chrome-platform-showcase.paulkinlan-ea.deno.net/features
GenDN reference: https://gendn.paulkinlan-ea.deno.net/features
chrome.dev demos search: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Achrome.dev+AV1%20Encoder
MDN Web Docs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/search?q=AV1%20Encoder
Baseline status: https://webstatus.dev/?q=AV1%20Encoder

Docs: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/webrtc/issues/detail?id=11404

View on chromestatus.com