AV2

Last updated
AOMedia Video 2
Developed by Alliance for Open Media
Type of format Video coding format
Extended from AV1 [1]
Open format?Yes

AV2 is an open, royalty-free video coding format being developed by the Alliance for Open Media, a non-profit technology development consortium. It is the successor to their existing and widely deployed AV1 encoding format, and is designed to deliver better compression performance, enhanced support for AR, VR and split-screen usage and support for a wider visual quality range. [1] [2]

AV2 development work started in 2020, two years after the release of AV1. [3]

AV2 uses an overall encoding framework that is similar to that of AV1, but with significant innovations in every part of that framework. [4] These include extended recursive partitioning, changes to transform block partitioning, semi-decoupled partitioning of luma and chroma, improvements to intra-frame prediction including chroma from luma, and new modes for inter-frame prediction. [4]

The Alliance for Open Media has stated that AV2 will formally be released at the end of 2025, with hardware implementations expected in 2026. [1] At CES 2026, VLC 4.0 was demonstrated playing AV2 on a MacBook Pro. [5]

AV2 will compete with the royalty-based format VVC for adoption in the market, in a way similar to the competition between the earlier generation HEVC and AV1 formats. [6] As of 2025, prototype AV2 implementations show considerable bitrate improvements over AV1, and AV2 is expected to offer similar performance to VVC overall. [2] [3]

Patent claims

Even though it had not yet been released as of 14 January 2026, the Luxembourg-based patent trolling company Sisvel had already announced plans to establish a patent pool. [7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "AOMedia Announces Year-End Launch of Next Generation Video Codec AV2 on 10th Anniversary". Alliance for Open Media. 2025-09-15. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
  2. 1 2 "AV2 video codec delivers 30% lower bitrate than AV1, final spec due in late 2025". VideoCardz.com. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
  3. 1 2 Ozer, Jan. "Inside AV2: Architecture, Performance, and Adoption Outlook". Streaming Learning Center. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
  4. 1 2 Norkin, Andrey (2025). "AV2 Video Codec Architecture" (PDF).
  5. ↑ Campbell, Mark (2026-01-09). "VideoLAN showcases AV2 playback on a "normal" laptop with VLC". OC3D. Retrieved 2026-01-10.
  6. ↑ Hunter, Philip (2025-03-17). "Mobile Codecs: The Battle Of The Codecs Continues But AI May Disrupt The Field". www.thebroadcastbridge.com. Retrieved 2025-12-06.
  7. ↑ "Sisvel | AV2 is coming, Sisvel is prepared". www.sisvel.com. Retrieved 2025-12-28.


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