If you watch Netflix on Android devices, you may have noticed that streaming has become much better recently.
The company has started using a “new” video codec for Android devices that provides “improved performance inclpressures by 20%” through the VP9 codec that the company used before to display shows and movies on Android devices.
The new encoder used by Netflix is called AV1, and it is a free video encoder.
AV1 is supported by some of the biggest companies technology, such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Mozilla and Nvidia. So there is a very good chance that it will become the next generic codec.
What has happened in recent years:
Mozilla and Google offer comprehensive support for AV1 in Firefox και τον Chrome αντίστοιχα, είχαμε την έναρξη υποστήριξης του AV1 στο YouTube το 2018, αλλά και μια beta application που κυκλοφόρησε η Microsoft με την επωνυμία AV1 Video Extension στο τέλος του 2018 για να προσθέσει υποστήριξη σε βίντεο AV1 στα Windows 10. Το AV1 codec υπόσχεται καλύτερη compression without affecting the video quality.
Android was chosen as the first mobile platform to adopt the AV1 encoder, and there are reasons for that. Mobile networks are not always reliable, and bandwidth is often not as fast on mobile.
Netflix customers can enable "Save Data" feature on Netflix to make use of the new AV1 streaming. This is done from the menu Menu - Application Settings - Using Cellular Data. There is an option "Save Data" or "Save Data".
The company states that there are currently "selected movies" that use AV1, but does not say which are and which are not. We certainly expect availability to increase over time.
Netflix is a founding member Alliance for Open Media, which oversees the development of AV1. The company has decided to use the new encoder for Android exclusively for now, but plans to extend its use to "more devices".