ffmpeg - Conversions - Convert H264 to AV1

ffmpeg - Conversions - Convert H264 to AV1

While AV1 is used to create video files, it is not a file format.

Rather, it is a compression format that any program that saves video files can use to compress videos.
AV1 videos are most commonly saved using one of several more common video container formats, such as MP4, MKV, and WEBM.
- However, in rare circumstances, you may encounter an AV1 video saved with the .av1 extension.

There are various methods to convert to AV1.

AV1 is implemented in libaom and svt-av1.

ffmpeg -y -i a.mp4 -c:v libaom-av1 -strict -2 -b:v 3000K -maxrate 6000K -cpu-used 8 -pass 2 out.mp4
 
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v av1 output.av1

ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -c:v libaom-av1 -strict -2 -b:v 3000K -maxrate 6000K -cpu-used 8 -pass 1 -f matroska NUL & \
 
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libaom-av1 -strict -2 -b:v 3000K -maxrate 6000K -cpu-used 0 -pass 2 output_AV1.mkv

NOTE: This is extremely slow!

This uses the libaom-av1 encoder.

NOTE: AV1 is implemented in libaom and svt-av1.

Libaom is the reference codec, it produces smaller files than svt-av1 but it is slow.
The svt-av1 encoder is optimized for speed and produces bigger files than libaom.

Simple method, with Quality/Speed ratio modifier

ffmpeg -y -i a.mp4 -c:v libaom-av1 -cpu-used 8 -f mp4 out.mp4

NOTE: The -cpu-used 8 option sets the quality to the higher.

Simple usage

ffmpeg -y -i a.mp4 -c:v libaom-av1 -f mp4 out.mp4

NOTE: It is extremely slow.

References

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AV1

Table of Contents

ffmpeg - Conversions - Convert H264 to AV1

Simple method, with Quality/Speed ratio modifier

Simple usage

References