With growing audiences for livestream gaming and the rising popularity of 4K and 8K ultrahigh-definition video streaming, effectively moving large volumes of video content comes down to compression efficiency. In fact, watching via streaming increased 134 percent in the first few months of 2022.1
Intel® Arc™ graphics solutions offer native AV1, hardware-accelerated support for both encoding and decoding. This means content creators can experience a boost in video quality at lower bitrates and with XSplit—one of the most widely used applications for live internet broadcasting—obtain a visually superior experience.
XSplit allows users to record or livestream the broadest set of media. And for gamers, having high-performance gaming with great video quality is a must. Intel and XSplit joined to produce a technology demonstration with the capabilities of the AV1 encoder/decoder, which are embedded in new Intel Arc graphics products.
The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) formed in 2015 with founding members from Intel, Amazon, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Netflix. Wanting to deliver a high-quality video codec initially aimed at streaming web video, AOMedia released the open source, royalty-free software, AV1, in 2018. Their primary objective was to build a video codec that could accommodate next-generation video technologies, taking advantage of the benefits of a collaborative, open source development approach.
AOMedia’s efforts have resulted in an open, royalty-free video format with compression performance that inspires new and innovative applications. With the efficient encoding of the AV1 codec, content creators can minimize video file storage requirements by 50 percent, reduce bandwidth, and even lower costs. The AV1 codec also promises higher quality for less, with 46.2 percent better compression vs. traditional implementations.2
XSplit has directly implemented AV1 encoder support for the first product in the Intel Arc portfolio by means of Intel® Quick Sync Video, which allows for both streaming and recording. With the first gen of Intel Arc graphics products, users can experience hardware-based ray tracing, full support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, and AI-driven Xe Super Sampling—all alongside this industry’s first AV1 encoding.
Demonstrating the superiority of its support, Andreas Hoye, CPO of XSplit, says they “are very excited about AV1 encoding support being a part of Intel Arc graphics software, as the superior compression of AV1 will lower the barrier even further for content creators everywhere to create high-quality gaming videos with much lower bandwidth requirements. We hope that our efforts will serve to accelerate the process of AV1 adoption.”
Intel Arc graphics with AV1 encoding and decoding are revolutionizing the way people game, create, and stream. If you participate in any of these communities, Intel Arc graphics solutions—hardware, software, and solutions—can help bring your visuals to life. You can also check out our solution brief that dives into the evolution of live content creation and how Intel and XSplit collaborated to boost encoder/decoder efficiency for all content creators.
Notes and disclaimers
1. Yiğithan Demirçin, “Video Game Trends: Live Streaming Report – Q1 2022,” Mobidictum, April 28, 2022. https://mobidictum.biz/video-game-trends-live-streaming-report-q1-2022/.
2. Liu, Yu. AV1 beats x264 and libvpx-vp9 in practical use case. Facebook Engineering. April 2018. https://engineering.fb.com/2018/04/10/video-engineering/av1-beats-x264-and-libvpx-vp9-in-practical-use-case/
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David is an Intel alum and recently re-joined the company as the Marketing Manager for the Intel Create program. Prior to his current position, David managed Intel’s Internet of Things (IoT) digital marketing and social media outreach. He has roots grounded in the Digital Content Creation (DCC) segment where he synthesized technology trends and insights across end-users and defined product strategies that helped establish Intel leadership in Mobile Client Platforms.
At home, David is happily married, is passionate about creativity media and as a struggling guitarist loves all music. In his spare time, he volunteers at Medical Teams International and has three grandkids under the age of six-years that keep him busy.