Today, we’ll look into how to play AV1 videos on Windows 11/10 PC. Services that stream and play back videos can now use a new video codec instead of H.264, H.265, or HEVC. The name of this new codec is AV1. It is an open video coding format that doesn’t cost anything to use. It is mostly used to send videos over the Internet.
It’s meant to be better than the VP9 coding format. It is meant to be used with OPUS in a future update to the WebM container format for HTML5 web video and WebRTC technologies. This codec promises that the stream will be the same quality, but the file size will be smaller. Also, no money will be given to the people who own the patents on this codec because it will be used.
How to play AV1 videos on Windows 11/10 PC
The AV1 codec doesn’t work out of the box with Windows 11/10. So, you won’t be able to play any videos in AV1, whether you stream them or download them. There is a way to watch videos on Windows 11/10 using the built-in Movies & TV or browser app. If you go to the Microsoft Store and type “AV1” into the search box, you will get an AV1 Video Extension.
Check the System Requirements before installing the add-on, which is less obvious but just as important. If you don’t, you will still get a warning message when you try to play AV1 videos because your PC doesn’t have the minimum hardware or OS requirements. You can also go to the official Microsoft support site to know more information about this.
Step 1: Click on the Windows icon on the button left corner, go to find and click on “Microsoft Store“. If the “Microsoft Store” is missing from your Start interface, you can go to the webpage to go to the next steps.
Step 2: Click on the search box and type “AV1“, then click the search tab.
Step 3: Find the “AV1 Video Extension (Beta)” and then click “Get” you can start installing it.
Step 4: Once the installation is done, you are free to go and you can watch videos in AV1 on the web or Movie & TV.
What is AV1?
AVI is an open-source, royalty-free video coding format that was developed and finalized by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) consortium. It has better compression algorithms that improve efficiency without sacrificing video quality. The AV1 codec can handle bitrates of up to 800 Mbps and frame rates of up to 120 FPS in 8K resolution. Bit depth for color can be 8, 10, or 12 bits, and color sampling can be done down to full pixel levels of 4:4:4.
Streaming services mostly use H.265, HEVC, VP9, or a combination of these codecs. New codecs like AV1 help deliver faster frame rates, better color contrast, and lower bandwidth costs. For example, Netflix started streaming AV1 content to the Android app so that Android customers could pay less. When possible, the “Save Data” feature on Android devices gives priority to AV1 streams that use less data.
The company also promised to use AV1 codec in all of its products in the future. Naren Venkataraman, SVP of Technology at Vimeo, said, “AV1 is setting a new standard for video compression and delivery over the web. It will greatly improve the quality and availability of content streamed on our platform to audiences around the world.” The streams on Vimeo’s “Staff Picks” channel now use AV1.