Mozilla Foundation is set to incorporate support for the AV1 video codec to its upcoming Firefox 100 release. Android Police reports a recent Bugzilla update revealed that it will be available starting May 3, 2022.
Currently, users can run the AV1 video codec on updated versions of Chrome or Edge browsers on a Windows 10 system that supports high-quality graphics. Google and Microsoft officially started supporting hardware acceleration on their flagship browsers in 2020.
However, the Mozilla Foundation didn’t prioritise including AV1 video support in Firefox as it needs powerful hardware along with the current version of the software. As per Mozilla, users of such hardware amounted to a small percentage of PC users.
This was the reason that made Mozilla’s developers put off the update. Nevertheless, for users, this update seems long overdue.
Importance of AV1 video codec
Unlike MPEG-2 or HEVC, the AV1 video codec is more cost-efficient as it is open-source and can be used royalty-free. It also offers 30 percent better compression than its nearest rival and has a negligible effect on the image quality.
Moreover, AV1 processes video by transferring the burden from software to your system’s hardware. This method has turned out to be quite energy-efficient which also helps in extending your tablet or PC’s battery life.
Adopting the AV1 video codec can also be helpful for Netflix users, apart from the reasons mentioned above. Firefox 100 with built-in AV1 can be expected to provide a better streaming experience to users binging content on the browser.
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