AV1 promises to dramatically improve video quality when streaming while consuming less Internet bandwidth. The problem is that you can't switch everything to AV1 in an instant. It takes time, dedicated hardware, and a streaming protocol. Thankfully, OBS Studio's AV1 support is finally coming together, along with beta support for the new codec on YouTube.

OBS Studio version 29.1.0 will add support for AV1 and HEVC streaming (opens in new tab) using an enhanced version of the Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) streaming protocol. RTMP is been an extremely important protocol for streaming on the web, but it has long been neglected without support for the latest codecs. Thankfully, Veovera Software Organization has acquired RTMP and released an enhanced version (opens in new tab) with AV1 and HEVC support.

Now that all the big chunks of the AV1 puzzle have been figured out, the next piece is support across popular streaming platforms; no word yet on whether Twitch will soon support AV1, but YouTube's support is currently in beta

Then there is hardware support.

Then you need hardware, but thankfully this part is completely resolved: Nvidia, AMD, and Intel all offer AV1 hardware acceleration on their latest generation GPUs, and Intel's Arc A380 GPU is a great example of a more expensive It is being touted as an inexpensive way to get AV1 streaming support if you don't want to reinvest in a graphics card right away; the A380 can be purchased for as little as $120 (opens in new tab) and you don't have to actually play the game to get AV1 encoding. Phew.

Still, it's a steep price to pay for AV1 support, but if you're a streamer hoping to improve streaming quality for your audience, this is a great way to go.

This is because AV1 has been shown to significantly upgrade streaming quality with the same or much lower bandwidth requirements as previous codecs. a video of the new version of OBS that YouTuber EposVox tested prior to its release (opens in new tab ), the AV1 streaming bitrate was recommended as follows:

Compared to Twitch's recommended 1080p60 bitrate of 6mbps for non-AV1 encoding, there is already a significant improvement. At higher resolutions, AV1 may only need about half the bitrate required for older codecs, which makes sense since AV1 tests have shown bitrate increases of about 40% or more at similar quality to H.264 (open in new tab).

This video is also a good way to get a glimpse of what AV1 looks like in quality with a valid stream. It looks sharp.

Keep in mind, however, that YouTube is not delivering pure AV1 to its viewers, but is actually transcoding and delivering a live stream; the benefits of streaming to YouTube in AV1 are still great, but the end result is still pure AV1 is not. However, it still looks good.

AV1 also lowers the bitrate requirement, which may decrease the overall video file size relative to the overall quality. In other words, if you don't increase the settings too much, you should be able to save upload time and storage space for both streams and recordings using AV1.

If you want to try it out yourself, and if you already have the hardware, just wait for the next OBS update to come and try it out; keep an eye on the OBS Studio github page (opens in a new tab), where you'll see a list of all the new features and features that are available.