Apple recently joined the Alliance for Open Media as a founding member, according to an updated member list first noticed by CNET.

The Alliance for Open Media, according to its website, was formed to "define and develop media codecs, media formats, and related technologies to address marketplace demand for an open standard for video compression and delivery over the web."

allianceforopenmedia
The Alliance is developing a royalty-free video codec known as AOMedia Video 1 (AV1), which is designed to compress video before it's stored or sent over a network. Apple's move to join the Alliance for Open Media is notable because implementing such technology requires it to be widely supported, and Apple was one of the only major companies not participating.

AV1 continues to be a work in progress, with the Alliance for Open Media planning to release the first version of in the near future. Mozilla supports an early version of AV1 and has said that it reduces file sizes by 25 to 35 percent compared to HEVC, which Apple implemented support for in macOS High Sierra and iOS 11.

Other members of the Alliance for Open Media include Amazon, Cisco, Facebook, ARM, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, Hulu, NVIDIA, and more.

Top Rated Comments

jhiesey Avatar
jhiesey
44 months ago
I'm so glad this happened. Apple is one of the companies who have the most to gain from royalties for HEVC (aka H.265), so up to now they haven't supported open and royalty-free codecs like VP9 or AV1.

Hopefully this means that AV1 will be supported on every major platform, avoiding the need to support different codecs for different devices and operating systems.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
superduperultra Avatar
superduperultra
44 months ago
The first step towards 4K YouTube in Safari and tvOS.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
modulusshift Avatar
modulusshift
44 months ago
Yes! This is such good news! Just last month someone was hinting that Apple might not be opposed to supporting it, but this was well beyond what I was expecting. I wonder how quickly they'll add hardware decode support? The bitstream is supposed to freeze this month. I think 2019 iPhones will have it.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
69Mustang Avatar
69Mustang
44 months ago
I’ve been watching 4K YouTube videos on my 5K iMac through Safari for a couple years now. Haven’t you been able to?
There's some confusion with people regarding 4K YouTube. You can, in fact, watch some 4K YT in Safari. The caveat being 4K video uploaded before Dec 2016 or 4K YT embedded video. Google started broadcasting the majority of the 4K video on the YT site using VP9 at some point early Dec. '16. Apple doesn't support the VP9 codec so for all intensive purpo- hahahahahahahahaha sorry, couldn't help that-:oops: intents and purposes you can't get 4K YT in Safari or on the ATV.

AV1 will hopefully kill two birds with one stone. Content for customers and savings for the companies in the alliance.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lunarworks Avatar
lunarworks
44 months ago
Yay. Another standard. Can't wait for the next one in 5 years, and its hardware support in 10.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
simonmet Avatar
simonmet
44 months ago
I’m more impressed with the 25 to 30% smaller file size compared to HEVC/h265! That’s pretty amazing! Royalty free might translate to a quick way into set top boxes and broadcast industry. Could you imagine 4K on every cable channel and still a 20%+ reduction in bandwidth requirements!
Are you not the least bit skeptical of a big claim like that? I’d prefer to see the evidence and comparisons first, but I’d be hugely surprised if it’s anywhere near that in the majority of cases. Google and VP9 liked to talk the big talk in order to push their standard too, but their efficiency wasn’t significantly greater than H.264 or H.265 as far as I’m aware.

I didn’t think there were any magic bullets left that can result in such substantial gains, but who knows, I could be wrong. What I do know is I was taught and have learnt to be skeptical about claims - especially in a commercial environment - until they’re independently tested and verified, so I wouldn’t go getting too excited just yet.

Now, encoding speed for a given quality and compression ratio is what I’m more interested in.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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