As we demand more high-quality videos to be available over the Internet, media companies have been facing challenges to serve HD videos quickly and easily without crippling the bandwidth. After all, we don’t have unlimited amounts of bandwidth and space on our local disks. As a result, various codecs are developed to compress video files, particularly AV1. Here we will show you how to enable AV1 video playback in Windows, Linux and macOS.
What is AV1?
The AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) is an up-and-coming codec that was designed specifically to be used for Internet streaming. What’s really great about AV1 is that it is about 30 to 50 percent more efficient at compressing videos than the widely-used HEVC codec. This translates to up to 30 percent less bandwidth used during streaming when compared to the HEVC codec. Essentially, this means you will use less space and bandwidth than HEVC for a video of the same size. In addition, this codec is royalty free and open source, which makes it easy for wide adoption. That sounds great, but how do you install it on your device so that you can reap these benefits?
Enable AV1 Video Playback on Windows, Linux, and macOS
Windows
To get AV1 support on Windows, simply head to the official Microsoft store and download the official AV1 extension.
To test to see if the extension is working, simply download a video that has been encoded with the AV1 codec. It should open and play in the Windows Movies & TV app. You can find videos to test the playback on Elecard’s website. You’ll also be able to play back AV1 encoded videos with Microsoft Edge after downloading this extension.
Linux and macOS
Finding a system-wide solution for AV1 video playback on Linux and macOS isn’t as clearcut as it is with Windows. However, there are solutions. VLC, the versatile media player, supports AV1 playback. You just have to install VLC and use it to play your AV1 videos.
In addition, Firefox also supports AV1 playback. To confirm that AV1 playback is enabled:
1. In the Firefox URL bar, type:
about:config
2. Click the button “Accept the risk and continue.”
3. In the search field, type “media.av1.enabled.” Make sure the entry says “true.” If it says false, toggle the value to “true.”
Chrome is expected to also support AV1 playback with the release of Chrome 85.
With all the video-streaming services out there, there are plenty of times you have to improve your Internet speed for a decent watching experience. With the AV1 codec, it will allow you to stream high-quality video more easily.
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