First AV2 encoder release lands, but optimized builds are still far away
AOMedia has published the first AV2 1.0.0 tag in its AVM GitHub repository. The tag is listed with the message “First released version of AV2,”. The release was spotted by users on the AV1 subreddit.
AV2 is the successor to AV1. AOMedia says the royalty-free codec is designed for better compression efficiency, streaming, broadcasting and real-time video conferencing. The public AV2 page also lists improved support for AR/VR, split-screen delivery, screen content and a wider visual quality range.
The current Git version is identified there as “av2 – AOMedia Project AV2 Encoder 1.0.0-3-gf236400,” with references to avm-av2 and libaom-av2/libavm-av2. AVM is the AOM Video Model reference software for AV2. This means it is meant to help define and test the codec, not replace optimized encoders used for normal video workflows.
Source: Github
Just the first steps
The encoder is still slow and not ready for broad use. Users testing the current build say it may work best at very low bitrates for now, but detail retention and encoding speed are still issues.
AOMedia’s public AV2 specification page still describes the current document as a draft release. The GitHub tag confirms that the AVM reference software has reached 1.0.0, but AOMedia has not yet replaced the public draft wording with a final specification notice. But do we really need an official blog post about the milestone? Probably not, by the time we see the first hardware with official acceleration for AV2, we won’t even remember this post. As we already mentioned, AV1 required years to become mainstream among GPU vendors.
Source: AVM (Github)
