Comment on YouTube moves to AV1 by default to the dismay of some Android users
conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Because they can’t use hardware decoding.
Which is fair, but AV1 isn’t new any more, and it’s pretty universally recognized as better.
lemmyvore@feddit.nl 8 months ago
Hardware decoding is the whole point. Hardware support is notorious for lagging greatly behind software. Desktop support is not great either right now. It makes you wonder what Google’s reason is, they have to be aware that must people won’t be able to use it properly.
conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
I know hardware decoding is the point. But you can’t just wait until every phone on the planet supports it.
Their reason is that it’s a massively better format.
lemmyvore@feddit.nl 8 months ago
…massively better for whom? I mean I understand if they start using it and offering it to devices that support it. But if they push something that needs software decoding when there are other formats that have hardware support it’s going to be a shit fest.
Right now AVC (H264) has hardware 4k support and HEVC (H265) has hardware 2k, while AV1 only has 1080p software. What’s the point of offering AV1 4k?
conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Massively better quality per byte.
You know, the sole purpose of a lossy video codec?