December 4, 2025
Lights, camera, codec chaos!
AV1 – Now Powering 30% of Netflix Streaming
Open video wins as Netflix leans in; fans cheer, skeptics nitpick, HDR chaos erupts
TLDR: Netflix says its newer, open video format now handles 30% of streams, promising better quality with less data. Commenters cheer the open approach, question the “one‑third less bandwidth” claim, and veer into a hilarious side‑brawl about blinding HDR videos and mysterious ranking quirks — because nothing is simple online.
Netflix says its open, next‑gen video format AV1 now powers about 30% of all streams — a big flex for tech that squeezes better picture out of less data. Translation for humans: a “codec” is a way to shrink video so it looks good without chewing your data. Netflix piloted AV1 on Android, then rolled it to smart TVs and browsers, and even the newest Apple devices — with an AV2 “sequel” teased on the horizon via the Netflix Tech Blog.
The comments? A full‑blown fan parade meets nerd courtroom. The loudest cheer: open beats locked‑down. One user practically waved a flag, thrilled that “proprietary” (paywalled) formats aren’t the default anymore. But skeptics pounced on Netflix’s boast that AV1 uses “one‑third less bandwidth” than older formats, asking if someone quietly turned down the quality on rivals. Meanwhile, a totally separate drama broke out: an HDR war on social apps, where some videos are so blindingly bright they look like they’re filmed with a flashlight — and folks want apps to crack down. And because it’s the internet, there’s meta‑drama too: users gawking that this post shot to the top with barely any comments. Cue the popcorn: codec wars, brightness battles, and algorithm conspiracies — all in one feed.
Key Points
- •AV1 now accounts for about 30% of all Netflix streaming and is the company’s second most-used codec.
- •Netflix co-founded the Alliance for Open Media in 2015; AV1 was released in 2018 to deliver better compression and new features.
- •AV1 rollout began on Android in 2020 using the dav1d software decoder optimized for ARM-based devices.
- •Hardware support enabled AV1 on TVs in late 2021, on web browsers in 2022, and on Apple devices with M3 and A17 Pro chips in 2023.
- •Netflix is expanding AV1 across its catalog and devices, expecting AV1 usage to overtake other codecs, with AV2 in view.