Big upgrade for YouTube live streaming quality

3 years ago 1

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YouTube is beta testing live streaming support for the open-source AV1 video codec, which promises significantly better image quality and more efficient bitrates than current popular codecs.

YouTuber Adam Taylor, who goes by EposVox, recently reported on the development, stating that the codec would bring an end to pixelated live streams.

YouTube has supported uploaded videos that were recorded and encoded in AV1 for some time but has just started beta-testing real-time video encoding for the codec.

This is made possible by a standard called Enhanced RTMP, previously known as RTMP+ which supports the AV1, VP9, and HEVC codecs.

Taylor said he received access to a development build of OBS, a popular video stream recording and live streaming app, that has added support for real-time encoding of AV1 for YouTube.

He highlighted that YouTube was not actually delivering the content in AV1, but converting it in VP9.

“You are still getting that transcoding; you are still getting some quality degradation,” he said.

However, he found that the image sharpness and bitrate usage was significantly better than on other popular codecs and that VP9 avoided blockiness by using a smoothing effect in certain instances.

He recommended using a 4-8Mbps bitrate for a 1440p stream at 60 frames per second (FPS), while 10-15Mbps was sufficient for 4K at 60fps.

“These are incredibly low numbers, all things considered, with 6Mbps often being considered nowhere near enough for 1080p under the past regime and on other streaming sites,” Taylor stated.

He said the bitrate could be reduced to as low as 500kbps for 1440p or 1-2Mbps for 4K and still be watchable.

“It looks better than so many other streams on another streaming platform at a much higher bitrate in H.264,” Taylor said.

While he did not call it out by name, he was likely referring to Amazon’s Twitch, the preferred platform for video game live streaming.

Taylor said the codec would change live streaming “forever”.

“Viewers don’t have to see blocking anymore, streamers can save on bandwidth, and those with slower Internet connections can still stream in amazing quality,” he explained.

“Data caps will feel less restrictive, and you can save money on hard drive space as well.”

AV1 development a combined effort

AV1 was developed by the

It also enjoys support from several promoter members such as Adobe, AMD, LG Electronics, VideoLan, and Vimeo.

The main idea behind its development was to deliver higher quality and lower bandwidth, while also freeing companies from paying licencing costs for major codecs like H.264 and H.265.

AV1 has required new hardware and software to be developed over several years to ensure its encoding and decoding performed well.

Netflix started replacing its H.264-AVC encoder with AV1 on TVs in November 2021.

The video streaming giant said AV1 offered significant compression efficiency improvements, reducing the bandwidth needed for high-quality streaming.