Codecs

Every year around this time, like an early Christmas present, Bitmovin releases its Annual Video Developer’s Report, a must-read for all streaming media professionals. Now in its fifth year, the report contains valuable insights regarding codec usage, production workflows, and the issues that are keeping streaming professionals up at night, literally or metaphorically. To produce the report, Bitmovin surveyed 538 …

VVC reached First Draft International Specification in July 2020. We’re about 18 months past that date and it’s useful to check in on VVC progress to date, including licensing, performance, chipset development, and trials. VVC Patent Owners Video quality is nice, but money makes the world go-’round, so let’s start here. Understand that video compression standards like VVC will have …

Given that VVC is top of mind right now, I just wanted to report that IAM has announced that it appears that Apple has purchased 14 VVC-related patents from a Korean inventor. IAM is connecting a lot of dots to (I think) make this claim, which goes something like this. A Korean inventor set up a company that performs video-related …

This video compares VVC, EVC, and LCEVC with H.264, HEVC, and AV1, considering quality, USP, royalty status, key stakeholders, producibility, and playability. You can watch an archived version of the webinar on YouTube by scrolling to the bottom of the page. You can download the handout here. This video is a webinar comparing VVC, EVC, and LCEVC with H.264, HEVC, and …

OK, I’ll say it. As far as I know, this is the first time any study has compared the quality and performance of codecs representing Essential Video Coding (EVC), Versatile Video Coding (VVC), and Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding (LCEVC), as well as AV1, HEVC, and H.264. It’s not as exhaustive as I would like but the results should help …

A recent Netflix post trumpets AV1’s suitability for mass-market distribution, but high encoding costs, the lack of HDR support, and nascent support in the living room make AV1 a non-starter for most producers. Most of these issues should be resolved by mid-2023, when mainstream usage should really start to blossom. Netflix: AV1 on (Some) Smart TVs In their November 2021 …

I’m a big fan of the Video Insiders podcast and have learned a lot from many of the episodes. I’m proud to have joined Dror Gill and Mark Donnigan for episode 70, which you can listen to or download here. Here’s the description: EPISODE SUMMARY The Video Insiders podcast is celebrating 70(!) episodes with a very special guest – Jan …

This article describes what youtube-dl is, and outlines several basic youtube-dl commands for audio/video/subtitle downloads. I’ve always been fascinated with how YouTube encodes the endless hours of videos uploaded to the site. YouTube employs the best and the brightest and their task is positively Sisyphean. For years, I’ve gotten a glimpse of YouTube’s encoding practices via download tools like the …

This article analyzes the codecs used by YouTube for 4K videos with millions of views, and the savings that AV1 and VP9 deliver over YouTube’s full encoding ladder.  This is the third in a series of articles written about which codecs YouTube uses. The first covers which codecs YouTube uses for high-volume 1080p videos. The second covers the codecs used …

YouTube encodes some videos using the AV1 and VP9 codecs. This post identifies the H.264 versions also created by YouTube for devices incompatible with VP9/AV1 for 1080p and larger videos.  In a recent post, I explored which codecs YouTube used for videos ranging from a few hundred views to a few million. The conclusion was H.264 for videos with a …