Netflix has announced that it is rolling out AV1 streaming for compatible smart TV models as well as the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro console.
AV1 is an open, royalty free codec that has several advantages over the omnipresent AVC (aka H.264) codec currently used by all major streaming services. One of the key advantages of using AV1 over AVC is higher compression efficiency, which allows using lower bit rates and thus lower data to achieve similar image quality.
Netflix claims that in their testing the reduced data consumption with AV1 results in up to 38% noticeable drops in image…