VP8 and H.264 stay put until AV1 reaches mobile ubiquity
The article suggests that some industry players are currently utilizing VP8 and H.264 codecs but plan to transition directly to AV1 once it achieves universal availability on mobile devices, bypassing intermediate codecs. The discussion highlights a strategy for codec adoption focused on waiting for widespread mobile support for AV1. It implies a preference for future-proofing video encoding strategies by skipping incremental codec updates.
Key Takeaways
- Current workflow still relies on VP8 and H.264 for video delivery.
- AV1 adoption is being delayed until it is universally available on mobile devices.
- The plan is to skip intermediate codec transitions and move directly to AV1.
- Codec strategy is being shaped by mobile availability, not by incremental desktop rollout.
Why It Matters
The immediate implication is that encoding teams are keeping VP8 and H.264 in place until mobile support for AV1 is broad enough to remove compatibility risk. That favors a deliberate, future-facing codec roadmap over incremental upgrades. In the broader streaming stack, the decision shows how mobile device support can dictate codec timing more than desktop readiness, especially when the goal is to avoid multiple migration steps. The key signal to watch is whether AV1 becomes universally available on mobile, since that is the explicit trigger for the switch described here.
Read full article at news.ycombinator.com
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