After more than five years of research and development, AOMedia, the Alliance for Open Media, has finally released the first version (v1.0.0) of the AV2 codec. This version is described as the first release version of AV2. After years of draft phase, it is now finalized, and then software developers and hardware manufacturers can prepare to provide support for the AV2 codec.
AV2 codec introduction:
AV2 is a new video codec specification launched by the Open Media Alliance. AV2 improves on the AV1 codec specification and aims to provide higher compression efficiency to achieve high-quality video transmission at a significantly reduced bit rate. Optimized for the evolving needs of streaming, video streaming and real-time video conferencing, AV2 also provides enhanced support for AR/VR applications, support for split-screen display of multiple programs, improved on-screen content handling, the ability to use a wider range of visual qualities, and more.
AV2 is also an open source, royalty-free codec standard, which means that any software developer and hardware manufacturer can support AV2-related codec standards and provide services to users. If AV1/AV2 can be widely supported, consumers will no longer need to pay licensing fees for codec standards such as H.264/H.265 (these fees are paid by device manufacturers).
VLC player is already actively adapting:
The open source media player VLC team has been developing a DAV2D decoder based on CPU processors as early as the AV2 draft stage. This decoder supports a variety of different platforms, taking into account speed and accuracy. After a long period of development, the VLC team has publicly released the DAV2D decoder to the warehouse. The development team said that this new decoder has successfully passed a variety of tests and can be deployed in a production environment.
However, AV2 is still in the initial stages of release. Professional users have tested and found that AV2 works very well at extremely low bit rates. However, the AV2 encoder still has problems with detail retention and encoding speed. Therefore, the Open Media Alliance will continue to collect feedback and optimize it. After all, it may take several years before hardware natively supports the AV2 standard.