Can anyone fill me in on why there is so much hate on AV1? I use it every single day, and it has incredibility strong compression ratios at an equivalent quality even compared to h265.
Are people misusing the tools? I don't get it.
this post was submitted on 31 May 2026
190 points (100.0% liked)
Linux
13853 readers
389 users here now
A community for everything relating to the GNU/Linux operating system (except the memes!)
Also, check out:
Original icon base courtesy of lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
I wouldn't call it hate, it's more like my Plex server just can't play the files without turning into a stuttering mess.
I think I'll wait for the third or fourth 1.0 release, just to be safe.
The specification reaches is 1.0 release. It can now be implemented. Until this can actually be used and I'm a consumer friendly easy will be years. Not to mention when hardware acceleration will be available. We only relatively recently got that for AV1.
AV1 is widely used? Seemed to me like it's still in its infancy regarding widespread use.
It‘s the default for Youtube, Netflix and most video conferencing software like Webex, if you‘re using somewhat up-to-date hardware. So I‘d say it‘s commonly used by now.
Youtube basically defines what is called widely used, and on youtube it is iirc. Idk what instagram, tiktok, etc use, but youtube still gotta be the biggest video platform.
I think I'm just getting old, but I thought AV1 was still new too. Do I even own any devices that can decode it? I'm not sure I've even got h265...
PC hardware has widely supported it for five years. If your GPU is from 2021 or newer it should support it. On phones situation is more complicated, Qualcomm and Mediatek has been stingy and restricted it only to their flagship socs. Idk if that had changed recently.
Right, okay, I definitely haven't bought a new computer in the past 5 years. I wonder if anyone has "how old is the average computer" percentiles, because I have a feeling most people haven't bought a new computer in the past 5 years, so it seems surprising to supercede a codec after so few years, but maybe I'm the weird one?
It will take years more for it to get adopted by hardware and content vendors. However in order for that to happen the software needs to be available so that people can start to experiment with it. It's a chicken and egg situation.
For sure, someone needs to build stuff. What feels weird to me is less that there's a new codec, but rather that it's so closely on the tails of AV1. There will only have been a few years of hardware that ever had AV1 but not AV2. Seems like they should be more spaced out? But maybe that's nuts.
even if the 'next generation' of gpu and cpu have av2 support baked-in, hardly anyone (with a budget to adhere to) will be able to afford it.
Cheap APUs will probably remain the only affordable option.
AV1 works well, don't see the need for this