For those who’ve ever completed any livestreaming on the web, then you definitely already know that one of the vital essential technical facets of doing so is correctly configuring your stream settings. Your collection of video encoder and its bitrate can have a specific affect. Most people streaming as of late are utilizing the open-source Open Broadcaster Software program (OBS) and its built-in x264 software program encoder. This CPU-based software program encoder is mostly thought-about to provide higher outcomes on the identical bitrate in comparison with GPU-based {hardware} encoders.
No one is utilizing AV1 for livestreaming but, and there are two causes for that. One is solely that it’s too advanced for all however the quickest CPUs to encode in “real-time.” Meaning constantly encoding the video stream at its full body fee, one thing that’s clearly crucial for reside streaming. We will work round that downside through the use of a {hardware} encoder, however neither NVIDIA nor AMD can encode AV1 video with their GPUs. There are video playing cards that may, although, and people are Intel’s fledgling Arc GPUs.
YouTuber EposVox, the self-described “Stream Professor,” has completed an awesome many movies dissecting the variations between video encoders and their settings. For those who’re an aspiring livestreamer, you’ll do nicely to take a look at his content material, however significantly this newest video, the place he obtained ahold of a Gunnir Arc A380 Photon card and examined Intel’s AV1 encoder.
For folk who do not feel like ending the 16-minute video, we’ll lay it out for you: In EposVox’s testing, at larger bitrates like 6 Mbps and eight Mbps, the Intel AV1 encoder within the Arc A380 produces related high quality to x264 in its “veryslow” preset. That is spectacular, as x264 has had a decade of optimizations and tweaks whereas Arc is a brand-new product with self-admitted unripe drivers. The “veryslow” preset for x264 is simply too demanding for nearly any PC to do in real-time, so that is just about a straight win for Intel.
Nevertheless, the outcomes at 3.5 Mbps—a extra practical add velocity for a majority of the world—are much more spectacular. At this low bitrate, encoding 1080p60 video often ends in a blocky, blurry mess. Intel’s AV1 encoder produces a comparatively clear video in comparison with x264—and each of those choices completely obliterate NVIDIA and AMD’s GPU encoders, which severely wrestle with too-low bitrates.
These outcomes are encouraging for Arc, because the AV1 codec is an actual step up over the older H.264 and even the H.265 HEVC format. Nevertheless, you could recall that we talked about there are two causes that no person’s utilizing AV1 for livestreaming. The second motive is as a result of there aren’t any web sites that help ingestion of AV1 video in real-time. In different phrases, even for those who can encode it rapidly, you’ll be able to’t use it for livestreaming.
Does that imply Arc’s AV1 encoding potential is ineffective? No, not even shut. AV1 video continues to be a preferable choice for importing to the web, and YouTube particularly—YouTube makes use of the AV1 codec internally, so for those who add in AV1, your movies will full the “conversion” course of super-fast, that means HD video is prepared sooner. Plus, your precise uploads will be considerably smaller due to the superior compression ratios provided by AV1.
Moreover, it isn’t more likely to be for much longer earlier than somebody figures out a approach to make use of AV1 for livestreaming. The advantages, significantly at low bitrates, are too huge to disregard for lengthy. We anticipate AMD and NVIDIA to have AV1 encoding built-in of their GPUs earlier than later, however that is nonetheless a win for Arc within the interim.
