Microsoft will support hardware-accelerated AV1 codec in latest Windows 10 systems

[Karlston]

Microsoft will support hardware-accelerated AV1 codec in latest Windows 10 systems

Back in 2015, numerous companies including Microsoft, Google, Netflix, Amzon, Cisco, Intel, and Mozilla joined forces to form the "Alliance for Open Media" (AOM) in a bid to create open source media formats and technologies. In 2018, the consortium released the AV1 video coding format, which Netflix also began supporting in its Android mobile app earlier this year.

 

Now, Microsoft has stated that with the next generation of hardware being made available shortly, it will also begin supporting AV1 on Windows 10 devices.

AV1 offers 50% better compression than H.264 and 20% better than VP9. Microsoft also states that since AV1 is hardware-accelerated rather than being dependent upon software, it also reduces battery usage on mobile devices.

 

As such, the company will be rolling out support for AV1 on new Windows 10 devices with the latest GPUs this fall. The requirements for this new codec are as follows:

• One of these new GPUs or CPUs:
  • 11th Gen Intel Core processors with Intel Iris Xe Graphics
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs
  • AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series Graphics (coming soon)
• Windows 10 build 1909 or later
• The AV1 Video Extension
• A web browser or other application with hardware acceleration support for AV1, including apps built on top of Media Foundation
• As is common with new features like this, you may need to update your graphics driver from time to time to get the latest features and improvements.

You can find out more about AV1 by visiting AOM's dedicated webpage here.

 

 

Microsoft will support hardware-accelerated AV1 codec in latest Windows 10 systems

 

[random]

For the curious, you don't need a lot of CPU power to decode AV1 in software. To play a 4K/22.7mbps/25fps (no drops, flawless playback) it took about 20-30% of a stock 6 core 8700K, about 30W of power used, max. Interestingly enough my Pascal 1070ti card is somewhere around the same area when it has to decode 4K in hardware with different codecs. 

For example, 4K HEVC 10 bit/24 fps/29.6mbps/Dolby Vision will eat about 25W after the card settles at video decoding clocks.

So basically almost anything 4 core/desktop from the last decade should be able to decode AV1 up to reasonable 4K bitrates, sure you might be able to find underpowered laptop chips and the sort, but even those should be able to do 1080p.

[steven36]

VP8 was  the 1st try  by a  relatively unknown company  to use  a open source codec. VP9  was the 1st try by a major company  ,  AV1   is the 1st attempt  by a   alliance of major  companies   to use a open source  codec  .  AV2  most likely will be blocked  , once  Intel  go bankrupt because  Moore law dies they will be little interest for incorporating problems of media companies . Mores law is already catching up with them VP9(2012) -> AV1(2018) was ~100x slower to encode, 2x slower to decode and 35% more efficient.  Each time they make a new version it becomes less efficient. 
 

Quote

 

CPU cores have only gotten slightly faster over the past 15 years because of the same problem, but now we have multi core CPUs with super efficient cache technologies and new specialized instructions that disguise the fact that the CPU core itself is pretty much against the theoretical wall.

 

 

Quote

In 2016 the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, after using Moore's Law to drive the industry since 1998, produced its final roadmap. It no longer centered its research and development plan on Moore's law. Instead, it outlined what might be called the More than Moore strategy in which the needs of applications drive chip development, rather than a focus on semiconductor scaling. Application drivers range from smartphones to AI to data centers.

It no longer centered its research and development plan on Moore's law. Instead, it outlined what might be called the More than Moore strategy in which the needs of applications drive chip development, rather than a focus on semiconductor scaling. Application drivers range from smartphones to AI to data centers.

 

Quote

 

IEEE began a road-mapping initiative in 2016, Rebooting Computing, named the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS).

Most forecasters, including Gordon Moore, expect Moore's law will end by around 2025.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law#History_of_the_concept

 

Meanwhile  you still got  people forcing H264 in there browser .

 

And the most used codecs in piracy is H264  and H265 . AV1  or any of the others  is nothing the people  wanted  its what companies wanted . Back in 2012 people cried  because the scene stop doing XviD  for H264 so  p2p groups  stared  doing it and  got lots of downloads . In Piracy XVID is just  now phasing  out in English  speaking countries  .But in the parts of Europe  XVID is still  conman.  And  a few years  ago  Microsoft joining something like  this would have been blasphemy  .