Which is better, AV1 or HEVC?

AV1 compresses better (roughly another 20–30% at equal quality) and is royalty-free; HEVC hardware arrived earlier and older devices support it. Platforms re-encode to AV1 automatically, so creators should still upload H.264 for compatibility.

Why will my phone not play AV1 smoothly?

Older devices lack AV1 hardware decode; software decode maxes the CPU, causing heat, drain, and stutter on low-end hardware. Devices from 2022 onward begin carrying AV1 hardware decode — for older ones, convert back to H.264.

How it works 4 min read

What is AV1: the royalty-free codec and its compatibility reality

Sooner or later you spot AV1 in a codec readout: the newest member of the codec family, the most efficient, yet unplayable on older phones — the tug-of-war between efficiency and compatibility defines AV1.

Where AV1 came from and why it is efficient

Every codec generation carries patent costs: commercial H.264 and HEVC implementations pay royalty pools. That pushed Google, Amazon, Netflix and others to form the Alliance for Open Media and release AV1 — royalty-free for anyone to implement and use, its most fundamental difference from its predecessors.

On efficiency AV1 saves roughly another twenty to thirty percent over HEVC, and far more over H.264: smaller files at equal quality, better quality at equal size. The price is extreme encoding complexity — software AV1 encoding runs several times slower than H.264, which is why creator-side adoption has been slow.

Compatibility today: hardware and platforms

Hardware decode defines the experience: mid-range and flagship phones, new GPUs, and TV chips from 2022 onward carry AV1 hardware decode; older devices fall back to software decode — CPU maxed out, hot and battery-hungry, outright stuttering on low-end hardware. Use the codec checker to see whether a file is AV1, then judge against the device year.

The platform side tells a different story: mainstream browsers decode AV1 in software, and distribution re-encodes at YouTube, Netflix and friends lean heavily on AV1 — platforms transcode for the viewer, so playback feels seamless. Adoption is a platform-first, hardware-catching-up process.

Should creators output AV1 now?

For publishing: no need. Platforms take your high-bitrate H.264 master and re-encode to AV1 themselves — uploading in the most compatible codec with generous quality headroom beats agonizing over output codecs.

Personal use can experiment: private archiving (smallest files at equal quality) and browser-only libraries are AV1 sweet spots — provided playback devices are new enough. Files for other people or cross-device transfer still go back to H.264: in distribution, compatibility is always the first priority.