Data extraction expert Mishaal Rahman, renowned in the Android community, reports that Google is gearing up to implement the new, more efficient AV1 video decoding library. This advancement enables older smartphones lacking built-in AV1 decoding capability to play AV1 videos using the CPU, while consuming less battery compared to the previous method.
In the past, Android utilized Google’s own libgav1 library since Android 10. However, the widely adopted video decoding library in the industry is VideoLAN’s libdav1d, which offers advantages such as being partially written in assembly language, directly compatible with ARMv8 chips, significantly reducing CPU overhead, and suitable for decoding AV1 on older hardware.
Rahman’s experiments on the outdated Pixel 3 XL smartphone revealed that video playback using libgav1 achieved a mere 10 fps, whereas libdav1d smoothly delivered frame rates ranging from 25-50 fps.
According to Rahman’s sources, Google aims to incorporate the AV1 library through Google Play System Update (part of Project Mainline allowing certain OS components to be updated) by March 2024. However, it remains uncertain which Android versions will receive this new library.
Source – Android Authority
TLDR: Google is set to introduce a more efficient AV1 video decoding library, allowing older smartphones to play AV1 videos with less battery consumption. The transition from libgav1 to libdav1d offers improved performance, particularly on outdated hardware. The implementation plan through Google Play System Update is expected by March 2024, with specific Android versions yet to be confirmed.
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