AV1
A royalty-free video codec from the Alliance for Open Media. ~30% more efficient than H.265/HEVC at the same quality. Hardware-decoded on most 2022+ devices; encoding still GPU-accelerated rather than universal.
AV1 was designed to succeed both VP9 (open) and H.265/HEVC (royalty-encumbered). Its compression ratio is meaningfully better at the same visual quality — the cost is encoder complexity.
Where it's deployed
- YouTube, Twitch, Netflix — increasingly default for 4K+ tiers.
- Hardware decode — RTX 30+, RX 6000+, Arc, Apple M3+, recent phones.
- Hardware encode — RTX 40+, Arc, Ryzen 7000-series APUs.
Streaming impact
AV1 lets 4K HDR fit comfortably in 8 Mbps where HEVC needed 15 Mbps. The bandwidth saving lets services either reach more viewers at the same quality or improve quality at the same bandwidth.
File workflow
For local archive, AV1 saves 25–40% storage vs HEVC at the same quality — at the cost of long encode times unless you have hardware encode.
How to use AV1 in a real comparison
A royalty-free video codec from the Alliance for Open Media. ~30% more efficient than H.265/HEVC at the same quality. Hardware-decoded on most 2022+ devices; encoding still GPU-accelerated rather than universal. In practice, this is most useful as one part of a decision rather than a standalone quality badge. Compare it alongside the workload, room, ecosystem, budget, and ownership constraints that apply to you; the strongest published figure is not automatically the best outcome for every buyer.
What to check next
Open a product page and check the stated value, configuration, price, and related trade-offs before treating this term as decisive. It is especially relevant in .
Avoid the one-number trap
Manufacturers can describe the same capability under different conditions. Compare like-for-like variants, check the unit and test condition where available, and use a head-to-head page to see whether a measurable difference is material for your own use.
vsMars presents structured catalog values to make trade-offs legible. The linked product and spec pages are the right place to inspect the underlying values before buying.