- AV2 enables higher video quality using less bandwidth
- Multiple simultaneous streams for multi-cam, AR/VR and 3D TV
- Expected to be adopted towards the end of 2026
AV2, the next generation of the widely used AV1 streaming standard, could give your favorite streaming service a big boost – and it can improve the efficiency of delivering hi-res 3D movies too, which is brilliant news for the six people who still have a 3D TV.
A new report from FlatpanelsHD shows that AV2 offers considerable benefits over the existing AV1 standard. In a presentation by Netflix research scientist Andrey Norkin who, along with experts from the likes of Apple, Google, Meta and Tencent is a contributor to AV2's creator the Alliance for Open Media, shared new benchmarks detailing the improved performance.
The short version: higher quality, lower bandwidth, smiley faces all round.
What does AV2 actually deliver?
In Norkin's presentation he demonstrated that AV2 delivers 30% better video compression than AV1. In other words, AV2 can deliver the same quality as AV1 with 30% less bandwidth. That has particularly big implications for 4K and 8K video, as it could persuade streamers to deliver higher quality video streams without restricting them to the most expensive tiers. Although it's worth noting that Norkin didn't offer comparisons to the H.264 (MPEG4), H.265 (HEVC) or H.266 (VVC) codecs. As the report notes, H.264 is the most widely used codec for HD video and H.265 is the same for 4K.
One of the most interesting things about AV2 is that it's also designed to deliver multi-stream video, which is when multiple streams of the same thing are transmitted simultaneously – such as the stereo visuals of a 3D movie, or multiple camera views or live and studio feeds of a sporting event.
Given that AV2 is going to be supported by Disney, Apple, Google and more, that could prove very interesting – and it could mean more immersive video content such as the Los Angeles Lakers games that'll be streaming to Apple's Vision Pro. VR and AR are both expected to be key beneficiaries of the standard.
The full AV2 specification will be released later this year, and 53% of the Alliance for Open Media members say they'll adopt it within 12 months.
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