AV1 encoding for #qo100 #datv

  • Hello,


    not all members and readers are in the Whatsapp group or do follow me on twitter, where I published multiple results about the AV1 codec and how big the benefit is for us, doing small bandwidth DATV. That´s why I now publish some pictures and results here or recommendations like the GPU´s. You don´t have to spend 1000,-bucks for it!


    Maybe you have never heard of AV1 before then in short I can say: this is the future, also for commercial usage. It is open source! better quality at same bitrates, resulting in lower streaming bandwidth or filesize. This sounds magic? It is :)


    At the moment I´m using udp streaming via OBS (v29) to the pluto for uplink and minitiouner --> vlc for downlink. OBS v28 I think was the first version which supported AV1 but i recommend to update to the latest.
    RTMP i am not able to get any stream, yet - i have read that there limitations but for me it is simply not working. If you have tested and it is working, please contact me.


    first i tested only software encoding, because I had no hardware which supported it. But in the last weeks I also was able to test hardware encoding with one of the new Intel GPUs. The "cheapest" A380, 130,-€ the time I am writing this can do the job in hardware. I also had the chance to test on the A750, much more expensive and no real benefit for us, so don´t spend the extra money if you are only interested in AV1 encoding. As expected, the hardware encoding is almost "no" stress to the system and with system I mean CPU or RAM / HD. Software encode is a different beast! With the different presets AV1 comes with, the results are from "OK" on my AMD Ryzen 9 5900X & Intel i5 13600K up to full locked 100% CPU load and stuttery video!

    So be patient which preset you are selecting are your system maybe locks or slows done to a point you are almost unable to recover!


    as comparison I attach 2 pictures from a 500kbps test. h.265 and AV1 at "preset 8" - i had to compress them as maximum quality JPG, or the filesize would be too big for the upload rules here in the forum.

    But You can still easily see which one is which. The pictures are made at high speed head shaking. Is it not hard to see the h.265 "blocks" compared to the much more smoothing character of the AV1. both are at 500kbps, including 64kb audio! a real cenario for the #qo100 #datv transponder. What you can´t see on the pictures is the fact that after movement, AV1 does much faster "recover" to a great blocky free picture. Not sure I should descibe it. You must see it. the difference is really huge.

    Many OMs asked me for an easy setup but while I´m no coder, I can not help with a ´one-click-solution´. It is not hard to setup, but i think the most OMs now using tools like FreeStreamEncoder or DATV Easy and do not know how to configure a UDP stream as we used it almost 3 years before the "fancy" gadgets were available. Don´t missunderstand me, but reading 100 words should NOT be too much to understand what you do, if you are broadcasting on a satellite. As I heard, after my results were published, there are coder(s) in the work to implement AV1 in an update of the tools, the most are using. I hope that I heard right!


    Maybe in few days/ weeks everybody can do it super easy by just clicking AV1 in a GUI, that would be great. But without official messages from the "coders" maybe YOU, if you can do it, wanna do the job and give something to the community. many OMs are waiting for it, after they have seen my results.

    If you wanna play with AV1 like I do, you can download the codec from the official microsoft store if you are using windows, for free. As I said before, it is open source. there is also a linux one, i downloaded it but have not seen any benefit so I rebooted back into windows. Apple/MAC i don´t know, but I´m sure there is also one available, cause this is the future.

    I publish this while I´m sure that a lot OM´s have not heard about AV1 now and the benefits for us. Maybe there is a coder reading this and decides to write a GUI, as I said before, I´m no coder and can´t help at this front and there is no official message from on eof the "tools" programmer yet , as I know.

    Our hobby is such a great and amazing playing field and AV1 helps us. so please look into it and if you can, help the OM´s like me who can´t write fancy code, even mine is running. there is no "I" in HAM or DATV, so all should benefit from this amazing AV1 codec, not only me. I am watching DATV a lot the last months and weeks and never have seen ONE single OM testing AV1, yet. I asked if someone wanna do tests together but they only asked for a GUI like DATV easy and were not able to tx :( This has to change! :)


    As always I hope that my hours of testing and figuring out how it works without helpers bumped our hobby into i good direction. Doing this as group would be so much more fun. Come on guys! YOU CAN DO IT.


    AV1 is not that new, I still don´t know why nobody of the DATV gurus have looked into the AV1 before and why I have to push this so hard? Me not that often on DATV QRV but the moment I have seen the first article and the low bitrate cpabilities of AV1, I understood the benefit for our hobby and started to think how we can use it and it really is a hugh step forward. I have to bump this.

    AV1 is the future. it is open source - so there are no fees for the industry! it is better in quality / compression at same bitrate, results in smaller filesize at same quality etc. Twitch, youtube, amazon, all are onboard! They safe bandwidth at streaming / storage without loosing quality. no one wanna look 720p again :)


    ok, enough. I hope this inspired a coder to write a GUI for all OM´s interested. OR an OM who knows a coder to annoy her/him to do something for the masses.

    vy73
    Sandor
    DM4DS

  • Hello Sandor


    Don't think that OM is not interested in this AV1 codec as well as H266!

    It is not yet well implemented by the manufacturers but we are testing it.

    Currently the mpeg-ts container is not compatible with this codec for DVB broadcasting.

    The future will undoubtedly be the DVB-GSE container, the first tests of which have begun.


    73 Dominique F1EJP

  • Hello Sandor,

    I am following the subject since a long time.

    As Dominique says, the muxer/demuxer "mpeg-ts" we all use for DATV is not ready to carry AV1 streams. I have seen that the specs for it have been finalized, so waiting for the developpers to do the job and have it available (in ffmpeg and in VLC).

    I made some tests to evaluate the AV1 codec. For example the well known "Bunny" cartoon under H264 codec, size 270MB is now 76MB under AV1 codec.

    Interesting subject to minimize the print of our transmissions on limited bandwith systems...

    73 - Christian
    F1FAQ

  • Hello F1EJP and F1FAQ,


    for recording I analyzed the videos with VMAF (netflix) - and the difference in filesize at same quality is brutal! A video I made for Youtube, 4k h.265 with 2.7G is only 760M in AV1 , same VMAX analized quality!


    This should 1by1 the same for streaming with AV1! I say should while I have not yet counted the traffic in the LAN.

    I use ffmpeg udp streaming - maybe you can implement this in the tool until the mpeg-ts things are sorted? Or is it the different? As I said, I´m no programmer/coder. So maybe i stupid question.


    while I no longer have the Intel GPU, i tested with CPU encode and must run lower presets now or realtime is impossible. much lower presets even on my Ryzen9 5900X which isn´t a bad CPU - without multithread ffmpeg it would be impossible. Also my i5 13600k is strungling on higher presets :( but is is still better than h.264

    I hope you can implement it soon. It will have a massive impact in DATV for sure!
    They way it "compress" at non blocky images is always hard to believe, still after all my testings.


    vy73
    Sandor
    DM4DS