Guide: AV1 video and VR
DeoVR fully supports the new AV1 video format. This state-of-the-art codec provides improved visual quality and streaming efficiency, meaning a dramatic increase in quality. Our libvrary is currently being processed, but we have two AV1 video samples for you to stream and test below.
Full AV1 support
As of October 2024, DeoVR supports the new AV1 codec. Our video library is currently being converted to AV1 - this means better quality, with around 30% lower bitrate than the HEVC codec. This means more efficient streaming and lower memory costs.
The Quest 3 and Quest 3S headsets fully support AV1. DeoVR will automatically detect if your headset can support AV1 and apply it.
Stream AV1 video at DeoVR
Want to see the quality of AV1 and streaming efficiency for yourself? Stream this short video from DeoVR Insights:
Prefer to try a lower resolution? Stream this version:
Play in your VR headset and let us know your thoughts at the DeoVR forum.
What is AV1 and why is it better?
AV1 provides equal video quality at a lower bit rate. This means a smaller filesize, which in turn means greatly improved streaming properties for high-quality video, reduced bandwidth costs and a major boost for those users with less-than-ideal internet connections.
As well as this vastly improved efficiency, it is open source with a royalty-free algorithm, making it free-to-use for everyone, worldwide.
Playing AV1 video with PCVR
To play AV1 videos in DeoVR using PCVR, you'll need to install the AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft app store. It's completely free and this will enable AV1 video playback support for the DeoVR Steam app. Windows 10 and above.
Future plans
We will also perform comparisons looking at the performance, quality and device support of the VP9 codec vs h265. There is more information about the differences between the AV1 and VP9 codecs at this blog.
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