Netflix now streams selected films and series in its Android app with the economical AV1 codec.
EnlargeNetflix will change gradually to the free codec AV1.© Netflix
As Netflix this week about his Netflix Tech Blog announces that Android app of the streaming provider now supports videos that were created with the royalty-free codec AV1. The video codec AV1 is an alternative to the paid H.265 codec and was developed by the Alliance for Open Media, whose founding members include Amazon and Netflix.
So far, Netflix has relied on the free VP9 codec for its content. The long-term goal is to switch to the Codec AV1 and deliver it on all platforms. AV1 compresses videos around 20 percent more effectively than VP9, according to Netflix. Videos that are streamed via the Netflix Android app are around 20 percent smaller on average and are said to save valuable data volume.
The AV1 codec is currently only used in the Netflix Android app with only a few contents. Netflix claims to fall back when the option “save data” was selected in the software on the mobile device. The streaming provider has not yet submitted a detailed list of AV1 content on Netflix.