A few years ago we presented the brand new codec used for video compression the AV1 Open Source Video Codec, this new compression allowed us to have over 75% quality and bandwidth savings compared to the previous codec used; since this codec is new, not all browsers, at the time of implementation, supported it 100% natively and some also needed hardware encoding support that not all hardware could afford, we therefore decided to combine it with the vp9 codec. So at the moment when a video is compressed, it is done in two steps with the vp9 codec and then with the av1 codec (more performing). In the next few weeks, however, we will present the new 2k and 4k formats that will use exclusively the av1 codec. We have also already updated our open source player to the new versions with the possibility of choosing which codec to use for viewing (if there are multiple codecs used); whoever views the video will then be able to switch from a 720p encoded with vp9 to a 720p encoded with av1 in a few seconds, and vice versa, and if the codec is supported. This is an exclusive feature for MYETV and until we use a single codec for video comprehension.
Update of the video player
In view of the 17th anniversary of MYETV, in the last few days we have updated the MYETV video player with many interesting new features; the first of all is the possibility of choosing which codec to use for viewing both through the video player itself (bottom right) and in the platform- [Platform: the set of the main domain and all the subdomain of a particular website; also the computer architecture and equipment using a particular operating system] - settings (choosing the codec and the default definition of the contents- [Contents: every content intended as text, images, audio or video] - ). This will allow you to customize the viewing of the contents differently for each device used (for example you might want to choose the maximum resolution for a TV device, or the minimum resolution for a device connected to a pay-per-use network- [Network of Contents: is the channel in which owners can post their content and the audience can see the contents posted by the owners] - such as a telephone). These changes will be made progressively over the next few days.
Presenting the 2k and 4k formats
We have updated our entire infrastructure to be able to distribute videos in 2k and 4k but this time they will be compressed one way only with the av1 codec because it is much more performing; so up to 1080p resolution both the vp9 and av1 codecs will be used, from 2k and 4k resolution onwards only the av1 codec will be used. While waiting to use a single codec for all content- [Contents: every content intended as text, images, audio or video] - , we decided to do so above all because the av1 codec has more performance as the resolution increases.
The state of things in 2025
Browser support for the av1 codec has improved significantly today, but it must also be said that this codec uses hardware encoding that is much more complex than the vp9 codec and therefore requires much more processing power to be decoded correctly, thus also using much more energy for the end user; this is one of the reasons why we still use vp9 for low resolutions. Furthermore, the time taken to compress the audio/video is longer with av1 and therefore cannot be used live while encoding. As the hardware used improves, then we could also consider using the vp9 codec only for very low resolutions or even abandoning it and using only av1.
Conclusions
In the next few weeks we will implement the new 2k and 4k formats that will be encoded exclusively in av1; we will also evaluate the possible transition of 100% to the av1 codec in the next few months. A new system to decide resolution and codec will be implemented and will be associated with the device used; the user can already choose through the new updated video player which resolution and/or codec to use for each video content.
