Huge improvements for AV1 users over the last stable HandBrake release.

I think with the weight of Apple finally behind AV1 it is as blessed of a format as anything can be. Sisvel be damned.

And, a new media engine now includes support for AV1 decode, providing more efficient and high-quality video experiences from streaming services.

I do not see AV1 encode support on this chip's announcement, however.

Another aom psy fork, by me, utilizing patches from the unmaintained psy fork and its popular lavish fork, as well as original changes. It's overall closer to mainline, as I have decided against applying a lot of patches that I found to be more harmful than beneficial for efficiency when applied to current mainline aomenc. If you're missing parameters from aomenc-lavish, please request them with a short explanation, I might add them, currently I have only applied those that I am interested in using myself. Other suggestions are welcome as well.

I plan to frequently merge mainline changes into this fork.

Defaults are much improved, something like a simple --end-usage=q --threads=16 --tune-content=psy --cpu-used=4 --cq-level=20 should provide very good results.

In the world of AV1 encoding, achieving high-quality, efficient compression often requires intricate knowledge & fine-tuning of confounding parameters (aom-av1-lavish ... looking at you, wink). This difficulty is compounded by the fact that you are faced with three open-source encoding options that are all compelling for different reasons. This can make tapping into AV1's potential a daunting task for novice and even intermediate users.

That's where rav1ator-cli comes in. I have attempted to distill weeks (months?) of community parameter testing & expertise into an easy-to-use interactive command line interface. With just a few prompts, rav1ator-cli guides you through choosing an encoder & selecting settings to achieve maximum perceptual efficiency at any speed or quality setting you prefer. Adding in the ability to specify custom parameters, rav1ator-cli provides a smooth on-ramp for newcomers while remaining flexible enough for power users.

Here are some of rav1ator-cli's standout features that make it a superb encoding tool: rAV1ator CLI can:

• Check if it is installed & up to date on its own without a package manager
• Download AVX2-optimized encoder binaries compiled with -O3 -flto in most cases & allow the user to install them with detailed instructions
• Encode with x264, x265, aomenc, SVT-AV1, or rav1e & set a speed preset, CRF/quality value, FFmpeg parameters, and encoder parameters
• Use pre-defined encoding parameters that are provided so you can say goodbye to cargo culting
• Generate Av1an encoding commands with the user's chosen settings & run them to encode a provided input video to an MKV output
• Encode from scratch, or resume a previous rav1ator-cli encode
• Engage with rich interactivity featuring spinners, prompts, dropdowns, & other glitz
• Error check downloads by checking hashes on the downloaded binaries for security & convenience

This tool is Linux only. If you'd like to install: These instructions are for Arch Linux specifically, but if you have all the dependencies, you can skip to Step 3 & it'll work on any distro (I'm assuming this includes WSL, too).

0. Update your system before doing anything. On Arch:

sudo pacman -Syu

1. Install yay (Arch only) by running the following commands:

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay && makepkg -si

2. Next, you'll want to install all of rav1ator-cli's dependencies. You can do that by running:

yay -Sy rust ffmpeg python mkvtoolnix-cli vapoursynth gum numactl l-smash vapoursynth-plugin-lsmashsource av1an ffms2

3. Install rav1ator-cli:

curl -sOJ https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gianni-rosato/rav1ator-cli/main/rav1ator-cli && chmod +x rav1ator-cli
sudo cp rav1ator-cli /usr/local/bin

Thank you for looking at rAV1ator CLI! You can see demos as well as more info on the project at either link below. GitHub | Codec Wiki

Connect with me: https://discord.gg/bbQD5MjDr3

Hey AV1 Enthusiasts, encoders, and newbies alike,

I remember being completely new to the world of multimedia codec technology, and being totally lost on where to begin learning. To address this, I've decided to create a server tailored toward new learners. If you're looking to deepen your knowledge of multimedia codecs, particularly AV1, or you believe you have valuable insights to share, we've got an amazing community waiting for you.

I am thrilled to invite you to the AV1 for Dummies Discord server, a place dedicated to demystifying the fascinating world of AV1 encoding & beyond. Whether you're a seasoned codec professional or just dipping your toes into this field, there's something here for everyone.

Alongside this, I'm publicly announcing the Codec Wiki, a place where you can read about anything codec-related for hours on end. This wiki aims to demystify the realm of multimedia compression while connecting codec enthusiasts to create a sink of knowledge for the benefit of everyone. It is still under heavy development, so please heed this as you take in the information available on the site. If you have any questions or concerns, the place to ask is in the AV1 for Dummies server.

What's in it for you?

• 📚 Learning Resources: Access encoding tools, their developers, and an entire wiki dedicated to AV1 & other multimedia codecs.
• 💬 Engaging Conversations: Join lively discussions, ask questions, and share insights with fellow codec enthusiasts.
• 🧙‍♂️ Expert Insights: Seasoned experts with rich codec experience are available to discuss your needs with you as you learn.
• 🎲 Fun Challenges: Participate in codec-related contests and games to make learning enjoyable. (coming soon)
• 📌 Organized Topics: We have dedicated channels to ensure focused discussions, and a forum for asking & answering burning questions.

Ready to dive in? Here's the invite link: discord.gg/bbQD5MjDr3

We're all about respect and open-mindedness, creating a safe space for everyone to learn and grow. Come say hello, introduce yourself, and be a part of our growing community!

Let's learn, explore, and master the intricacies of AV1 and multimedia codecs together. Join us at "AV1 for Dummies" & unlock the world of AV1!

See you there! 🚀 ps: I posted this on Reddit as well, but this was not automatically also posted to Lemmy - I did that manually, as I like Lemmy more ;)

Updated SVT-AV1 to 1.7.0, which features rebalanced presets & more massive speed improvements In light of SVT-AV1's speedy development, Preset 7 is now high enough quality to be featured as Aviator's default speed preset "Copy Audio" now disables other audio options in the GUI New "Adaptive SCM" toggle (explained in tooltip) Small fixes & adjustments

Download for Linux on Flathub!

Encoder

• Improve the tradeoffs for the random access mode across presets MR-M13:
• Quality improvements across all presets and metrics ranging from 0.3% to 4.5% in BD-rate (!2129)
• Spacing between presets [M1-M6] has been adjusted to account for the tradeoff improvements achieved
• As a user guidance when comparing v1.7 vs v1.6 in a convexhull encoding setup:
• v1.7.0 M2 is now at similar quality levels as v1.6.0 M1 while being ~50% faster
• v1.7.0 M3 is now at similar quality levels as v1.6.0 M2 while being ~50% faster
• v1.7.0 M4 is now at similar quality levels as v1.6.0 M3 while being ~40% faster
• v1.7.0 M5 is now at similar quality levels as v1.6.0 M4 while being ~30% faster
• v1.7.0 M6 is now at similar quality levels as v1.6.0 M5 while being ~25% faster
• Added an experimental tune SSIM mode yielding ~3-4% additional SSIM BD-rate gains (!2109)

Build, cleanup and bug fixes

• Various cleanups and functional bug fixes
• Fix build conflict with libaom

I have been encoding some videos in AV1 lately and I thought I'd share my technique for those who may wish to do some AV1 on their own without having a messy setup. I think this is a pretty clean way, ultimately, to use Av1an's Docker image.

A forewarning: AV1 can be pretty to slow encode with. I've been doing it with DVDs where the 640x480 resolution of the video means a frame can be processed relatively quickly, but videos in 1920x1080 or 4k resolutions might be pretty intense where the encode speed only ends up being a frame a second.

Forewarning pt. 2: Something I learned that I CANNOT rely on is trying a faster encode speed to guesstimate the resulting file size and picture quality and then really maximize my results by lowering the encode speed. My observation has been that a slower encode speed will in fact improve the picture quality (and file size), such that I cannot be sure what something will look like without just encoding a very short sample at a slow speed. OK. Let's begin.

Operating System & Environment

I am using Fedora Linux 38. I'd like to use the Av1an package but that only has an official Arch release. I definitely don't want to spend time compiling this myself, so I will use the official Docker image instead. And I won't use Docker, actually, but Podman. I also use the Fish Shell. Its syntax is very slightly different from Bash's.

Now, Fedora users may know about SELinux. And something that kept happening to me was the security context of some of the files I'm shuffling around my hard drives would end up being not correct, making Podman incapable of seeing the files I'm trying to use. So instead of fixing the context per file (annoying) I just temporarily disabled SELinux.

sudo setenforce Permissive

Container image

From here things are pretty straightforward. I'll pull the docker image, which has a full Av1an setup ready to go.

podman pull docker.io/masterofzen/av1an:master

One little note is that you should use the master tag. A confusing thing about this image is that the latest tag is the old python version, and we want the current Rust version.

Executing Av1an

Now, navigate to whatever directory your source video is in. In my case, I losslessly encoded the DVDs with Handbrake into h264 and passed through the audio/chapter markers, etc. This gave me a good source to work with, even though it was a little bloated in file size. I don't think Av1an accepts MPEG-2, which is why I did that.

First I'll explain what the Podman command is doing for those who aren't familiar with Docker/Podman, and then I'll give a full working example.

podman run -v "$(pwd)":/videos:z --userns=keep-id -it --rm docker.io/masterofzen/av1an:master -i sourcevideo.mp4 -s scenes.csv --pix-format yuv420p10le -o output.webm -v "--VIDEO_OPTIONS" --keep -a "--AUDIO_OPTIONS"

• podman run - Execute a container
• -v "$(pwd)":/videos:z - Mount the present working directory as /videos in the container, and the :z is an SELinux labeling thing that can be dropped for non-SELinux users.
• --userns=keep-id - This flag helps keep the user id and group ids consistent between the host and container so that they don't get mangled. Your output file will belong to your user.
• -it - Execute the command in a visible shell session
• --rm - Remove the container (not the image, the container) when the command is done executing.

Final example

The rest of the flags are for Av1an itself, or for the encoders. So here's a full working example of how I used it, to encode with aomenc and Opus for the audio. Av1an uses aomenc by default.

podman run -v "$(pwd)":/videos:z --userns=keep-id -it --rm docker.io/masterofzen/av1an:master -i sourcevideo.mp4 -s scenes.csv --pix-format yuv420p10le -o output.webm -v " --cpu-used=3 --enable-qm=1 --threads=4 -b 10 --end-usage=q --cq-level=28 --lag-in-frames=48 --auto-alt-ref=1 --enable-fwd-kf=1" --keep -a "-c:a libopus -b:a 128k"

I think for an explanation for what individual flags do, and perhaps some guidance on how to use them effectively, I can only refer one to the guide written by Reddit user BlueSwordM https://www.reddit.com/r/AV1/comments/t59j32/encoder_tuning_part_4_a_2nd_generation_guide_to/

Since what happened with Reddit could happen with Discord at any time (corporate greed), I started an AV1 server on Revolt. Please come check it out! Unlike discord, Revolt also supports AV1 video embeds...

some of this information may be out of date

Guide to compiling Av1an on Windows.

Download vapoursynth r57 portable from https://github.com/vapoursynth/vapoursynth/releases it's a 7z file so you should have 7-zip installed

Get Msys2 from https://www.msys2.org/, click on "download the installer" & install it with everything

Close msys2

Open msys2 mingw x64

Commands

• pacman -Syuu

this updates msys2 packages, write Y when needed and press enter, it will close the window when it finishes so open msys mingw x64 again

• pacman -S cmake git nasm python3 mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-ffmpeg mingw-w64-x86_64-rust mingw-w64-x86_64-lld mingw-w64-x86_64-clang mingw-w64-x86_64-make

this will install necessary stuff

Open VapourSynth32-Portable-R57.7z and copy all the libraries from \sdk\lib64 to C:\msys64\mingw64\lib

• git clone https://github.com/master-of-zen/Av1an

this downloads the Av1an source

• cd av1an

this will take the shell to the Av1an folder

This is optional but if you want a bit more of performance,(i'm talking a small bit) go in explorer to C:\msys64\home"your username"\Av1an and open Cargo.toml and edit it with your text editor of choice, i used notepad++ and in the [profile.release] section change lto = "thin" to lto = "fat", i also added opt-level = 3 but that may not be necessary

• RUSTFLAGS="-C target-cpu=native" cargo build --release

#this compiles it with march native which gives a bit of performance

Profit, the executable should be created in C:\msys64\home"your username"\Av1an\target\release

Encoder

• Improve the tradeoffs for the random access mode across presets M1-M13: (!2120)
• Speeding up the higher quality presets by 30-40%
• Improving the BD-rate by 1-4% for the faster presets
• Improve the tradeoffs for the low delay mode for both screen content and non-screen content encoding modes (!2122, !2118)
• Add a toggle to remove the legacy one-frame buffer at the input of the pipeline allowing the low delay mode to operate at sub-frame processing latencies
• Add a new API allowing the user to specify quantization offsets for a region of interest per frame

Build, cleanup and bug fixes

• Various cleanups and functional bug fixes
• Fix the startup minigop size BD-rate loss
• Add ability to run the ci-testing offline

Hi everyone,

Montec, admin of the AV1 discord & moderator of the AV1 subreddit, has decided to join the Reddit blackout following Reddit's predatory API changes. I created this Lemmy community to help continue to foster AV1 community engagement as the Reddit blackout continues, and potentially create a new home for AV1 discussion. Reddit/Discord AV1 Community mods will be given mod here if they ask.Here's a link to the AV1 discord (30 day exp): https://discord.gg/2nqdkAMN4

Thanks, gb80