YouTube confirmed this week an extremely important change that will be implemented for users all over the world, it is currently being tested in beta version for everyone. More precisely, YouTube is going to adopt the new AV1 video standard for Google Chrome si Firefox, this being tested with future versions of browsers, and will be used to play video clips from the American company's platform.
YouTube is integrating this new next-generation video codec because it promises to improve video compression by up to 30% compared to the current VP9 video codec. This will generate a very large reduction for the data consumption generated during the viewing of video clips, but it will also improve the general performance of the devices that use YouTube, the technology being tested including by Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and not only.
YouTube: Very IMPORTANT Change Confirmed
YouTube has announced that it will use the new AV1 codec for 14 video clips that are currently on its platform, but for now we are only talking about a test carried out by the American company. Unfortunately, for now AV1 only allows playback at the maximum resolution of 480p, while for other resolutions YouTube uses VP9 for the respective video clips, but this is going to change as the testing of the technology gets closer to the end.
"Just a few videos today, but our commitment to AV1 is strong, and we have ambitious goals for rolling out the new format. Look for AV1 transcodes on the videos from your favorite creators soon. The videos selected here represent a large slice of content that YouTube users enjoy, from talking-head programs to popular music videos. We've chosen action videos featuring snow and water spray, as these tend to stress encoders and decoders alike."
YouTube knows how important it would be to reduce the size of video clips viewed via video streaming by users, and how important it is to increase performance for playing them on various mobile devices. The technology that YouTubers are preparing to implement is extremely important, it is from the future, but it is still very far from being ready, so the chances of it being launched in 2018 are zero.
