Good news to all Netflix users! If you are planning to watch on Netflix using your cellular data plan but do not want to use up all of it, Netflix has a news for you. Recently, the popular streaming service will begin streaming AV1 encoded content. This means using your data but saving up for it at the same time.
What is AV1?
AV1 is a royalty-free video codec that offers 20% compression efficiency over currently used codecs. This means that users will get better compression on their streaming services thus having similar video quality but at a lower data rate. It will help save money, save on data without compromising much on image quality.
As of now, Netflix, as well as other streaming services including Hulu and Disney Plus, are using different codecs such as VP9, H.264(AVC), and HEVC. The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) built the AV1 to replace VP9 in the future. AOMedia includes high profile companies like Netflix, Facebook, Samsung, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Mozilla among others are founders and members.
With the new AV1 content, Netflix aims to deliver more efficient and high quality video streams. Its compression efficiency fits users with limited data plans and unreliable cellular networks on their Android mobile.
How to Stream AV1 on Netflix for Android?
AV1 is available on select titles on Netflix. It is also in effect only on the Android mobile app. To watch these select titles, users can enable the “Save Data” feature found in the app.
- Open the Netflix app and login your account.
- Go to More and click on App Settings.
- Look for Video Playback and you will find the Mobile Data Usage under it. Tap to open a window.
- From the option, click Save Data and click OK to save the changes. You can now start watching the AV1-supported titles.
Netflix announced that its AV1 content is in limited capacity. For now, AV1 is still an optional data-saving feature and not a total replacement for the VP9 coded videos. This is in part due to the limited software and hardware support for the codec for now.
Final Thoughts
AV1 is indeed a promising feature for Netflix mobile users. While it is still on a limited rollout, Netflix is planning to make AV1 as its default codec in all platforms. It is certainly an improvement for mobile users to look forward in the future.
What can you say about Netflix streaming AV1 launch?
Featured Image by The Verge
