Netflix introduces AV1 streams for smart TVs and PS4 Pro

Thanks to the new AV1 streams, Netflix should henceforth offer improved picture quality when used on smart TVs and the PlayStation 4 Pro. Movies and series should look significantly better at the same frame rate thanks to the new codec.

Netflix AV1 codec to be expanded

Netflix will increasingly rely on the AV1 codec for the compression of its streams in the future, in order to be able to offer improved picture quality at the same bit rate. It is to succeed H.264 or H.265 (High Efficiency Video Coding, HEVC) in the future.

In addition to a better picture at lower bandwidth, there are no license fees for the streaming provider due to the open character of AV1. In the native Netflix app on current smart TVs or Sony’s Playstation 4 Pro game console, the AV-1 codec is already available, as Netflix reveals in a post. The codec has been used in the Android app for about two years now.

Unlike smartphone apps, however, at least smart TVs do not use a software decoder. Instead, Netflix only streams via AV1 if the processor in the TV has its own hardware decoder.  If that is not the case, the app still uses HEVC or other codecs. On the PS4 Pro, the console’s shader cores are used for decoding.

Higher picture quality thanks to AV1

Streams with the Netflix AV1 codec benefit from the highest possible resolution and frame rate, always shining with a depth of 10 bits per color channel. Thanks to it Dynamic Optimizer, an AI checks the complexity of each frame within a stream and dynamically adjusts the bitrate per frame.

Only movies and series with high dynamic range (HDR) are not yet streamed by Netflix with AV1. In an internal test by Netflix, users who watched a stream with the AV1 codec attested to the codec’s better quality, especially with a poor network connection at a reduced bit rate.

In general, more streams could be played back in the highest quality level, and the resolution level was also reduced less often to avoid loading times. Netflix currently does not reveal which TVs exactly receive AV1 streams. In the blog, the company links to a message about the AV1 support of Samsung’s QLED smart TVs with 8K resolution and writes that more smart TVs are steadily being provided AV1 streams.

Smart TV chips such as MediaTek’s MT9602 and Realtek’s RTD2851M already have an AV1 decoder. As XDA Developers reports, Google has been mandating support for the codec since the beginning of the year in order to get certification starting with Android TV 10.