JuiceCrewAllStar
Whole Milk Drinker
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2014
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I think Roku may have the upper hand here as it seems easier to pivot from YTTV to, say, Hulu than Roku to, say, AppleTV
I think Roku may have the upper hand here as it seems easier to pivot from YTTV to, say, Hulu than Roku to, say, AppleTV
AV1 is the successor to Google's VP8 and VP9 video codecs, and development has moved from being an in-house Google project to an industry-backed "Alliance for Open Media." AV1's bandwidth-saving potential and royalty-free license have earned it backing from nearly every big video and hardware company, including Google, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, Samsung, Intel, Facebook, Arm, Hulu, and a ton of other companies. Like all advanced video codecs, AV1 requires hardware decode support for playback on slower devices like streaming sticks, set-top boxes, and phones, hence all the allusions to "hardware" and "technical" requirements. Google has been pushing manufacturers to pack in these brand-new, more expensive SoCs so that it can roll out AV1 support to a wide audience.
Google is very enthusiastic about AV1. Bandwidth is a major cost of running YouTube, and anything that results in Google sending less data to play a video can save the company tons of cash. Google is so aggressive about switching to AV1 that it created its own video transcoding chip to make the work of re-encoding YouTube's massive video collection over to AV1 easier.
Despite Google's internal zeal for AV1, when it comes to streaming hardware, Roku is actually doing a better job supporting AV1 than Google. The official scoreboard shows that Roku has one AV1-compatible device, the $100 Roku Ultra, while Google sells zero AV1 streaming devices. Google's newest, most expensive dongle, the $50 Chromecast with Google TV, does not have a chip that supports AV1. Google has made AV1 support mandatory for Android TV devices, but again, those are other companies' devices. Google should be leading by example here, but it isn't.
No one has been able to get AV1 working on an inexpensive streaming box, and Roku's $100 Ultra is about the cheapest AV1 streaming box on the market. Roku goes way more down-market than that, though, and it does not seem like the company could offer the Roku Express at the current $29.99 MSRP if it had AV1 support.
Too too many
- Sling
- Netflix
- Disney+
- Paramount
- HBO Max (free through att)
- Peacock (free through AMEX)
- Starz (through Amazon Prime) - its $2 a month, but I cant figure out how to cancel it
- Spotify
I just recently cancelled the Hulu, ESPN, Disney+ bundle and just use Disney+. I dont use any of them enough to justify it, but I convince myself if I use it at least 1x per month, its worth it. Debating about cancelling Sling, its the highest price and I maybe watch real TV a couple of times a month.