Firefox 100 is getting AV1 hardware decoding support on Windows

The first three-digit version of the Firefox web browser introduces support for AV1 hardware decoding on the Windows operating system. The release of Firefox 100, planned for May 3, 2022, will use hardware decoding when playing AV1 video streams on Windows, as long as the computer hardware is compatible.

Microsoft published the requirements in October 2020 on its Tech Community website. According to that publication, hardware accelerated AV1 is supported on Windows devices with the following components:

An 11th Gen Intel Core processor with Intel Iris X graphics, or an Nvidia GeForce RTC 30 Series GPU, or an AMD Radeon RX 600 Series graphics card.
Windows 10 version 1909 or later.
The AV1 Video Extension, available in the Microsoft Store.
A web browser that supports hardware acceleration for AV1 or another application that supports it.

Newer hardware from Intel, AMD, and Nvidia may also support AV1 hardware decoding. AV1 promises better compression than Google’s H.264 and VP9. According to the Alliance for Open Media, it can offer 50% better compression than H.264 and 20% better compression than VP9.

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With hardware decoding enabled, AV1 media decoding work is moved to the graphics processor, which should reduce power consumption and improve battery life on mobile devices.

Firefox and Chrome have supported AV1 media streams since 2018, when support was first added to both browsers. Windows 10 users could add AV1 support to their devices as early as 2018.

The Chromium project introduced Av1 hardware decoding support on Windows in 2020. Firefox 100 reaches feature parity with Chomium-based browsers. While Mozilla is late to the party, the organization noted a few months ago that only 2% of all devices supported the requirements.

The most prominent website that AV1 supports is YouTube. YouTube can select AV1 automatically, but users can make AV1 the preferred media codec on YouTube by switching to “Always Prefer AV1”. in this page.

A right click on a video and selecting “stats for nerds” shows whether AV1 or VP9 is used and then Codecs in the overlay that opens.

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Users interested in the implementation can refer to the entry on Mozilla’s bug tracking website, Bugzilla, for additional information.

Now you: Does your system support Av1 hardware decoding? Have you played AV1 videos recently?

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