The Rebel Alliance's AV1 Video Codec Encoding Guide

30 Apr 2018

the rebel alliance has finally released the av1 video codec

aomenc encoder aomenc
aomdec decoder aomdec file.webm output.y4m or aomdec file | mpv -

-v for verbose
--cpu-used= for quality level like x264s profiles and 0 is placebo and 4 is fastest
-w for width and -h for height

ffmpeg to prep the source video

ffmpeg -i 8bit-src.mkv --pix_format yuv420p 8bit.y4m
ffmpeg -i 10bit-src.mkv --pix_format yuv420p10le 10bit.y4m
ffmpeg -i 12bit-src.mkv --pix_format yuv420p12le 12bit.y4m

* Encode 8-bit AV1

aomenc -v -w 1920 -h 1080 --cpu-used=0 --target-bitrate=1500 --threads=16 --profile=0 --aq-mode=0 --lag-in-frames=25 --auto-alt-ref=1 -o av1-8bit.webm 8bit.y4m

Encode 10-bit AV1

aomenc -v -w 1920 -h 1080 --cpu-used=0 --target-bitrate=1500 --threads=16 --profile=0 --aq-mode=0 --lag-in-frames=25 --auto-alt-ref=1 -o av1-10bit.webm 10bit.y4m

Encode 12-bit AV1

aomenc -v -w 1920 -h 1080 --cpu-used=0 --target-bitrate=1500 --threads=16 --profile=0 --aq-mode=0 --lag-in-frames=25 --auto-alt-ref=1 -o av1-12bit.webm 12bit.y4m

ffmpeg output yuv420 (8-bit), yuv420p10le (10-bit), yuv420p12le (12-bit)
Encodng Speed/Quality --cpu-used 0 to 4 is currently tuned

if this is wrong please contact me on twitter or by email

Compile qvdpautest on Ubuntu 16.04

19 Apr 2018

apt-get install git build-essential libvdpau-dev libpci-dev qt4-dev-tools qt4-qtconfig cmake pkgconf
git clone https://github.com/robertmassaioli/qvdpautest.git
DISPLAY=:0 ./qvdpautest ./data

$ DISPLAY=:0 ./qvdpautest ./data

Warning: LLVM emitted unknown config register: 0x4  
qvdpautest 0.5.2++  
AMD A10-7800 Radeon R7, 12 Compute Cores 4C+8G  
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Device 67ef (RX 460)

VDPAU API version : 1  
VDPAU implementation : G3DVL VDPAU Driver Shared Library version 1.0

FATAL: get_bits failed : No backend implementation could be loaded.!!

MPEG DECODING (1920x1080): 117 frames/s  
MPEG DECODING (1280x720): 251 frames/s  
H264 DECODING (1920x1080): 263 frames/s  
H264 DECODING (1280x720): 459 frames/s  
VC1 DECODING (1440x1080): 48 frames/s  
MPEG4 DECODING (1920x1080): 40 frames/s

MIXER WEAVE (1920x1080): 2384 frames/s  
MIXER BOB (1920x1080): 2494 fields/s  
MIXER TEMPORAL (1920x1080): 1279 fields/s  
MIXER TEMPORAL + IVTC (1920x1080): 1310 fields/s  
MIXER TEMPORAL + SKIP_CHROMA (1920x1080): 1343 fields/s  
MIXER TEMPORAL_SPATIAL (1920x1080): 1141 fields/s  
MIXER TEMPORAL_SPATIAL + IVTC (1920x1080): 1326 fields/s  
MIXER TEMPORAL_SPATIAL + SKIP_CHROMA (1920x1080): 1421 fields/s  
MIXER TEMPORAL_SPATIAL (720x576 video to 1920x1080 display): 2077 fields/s

MULTITHREADED MPEG DECODING (1920x1080): 94 frames/s  
MULTITHREADED MIXER TEMPORAL (1920x1080): 1224 fields/s