AV1 device compatibility list and information

av1_compatibility_list.txt

---------------------------------------------English---------------------------------------------

As of february of 2022, only some devices have hardware AV1 decoding.
- On mobile devices : the Mediatek Dimensity 900 and above, the Exynos 2100 and above, the Google Tensor, and some other devices
like the Amazon Fire TV 4K Max and other Android TV boxes.
- On PCs : any 10th gen or higher laptop Intel CPUs, any 11th gen or higher (except the F skus) desktop Intel CPUs. AMD  laptop
CPUs from the 6000 series. Any nVidia RTX 3000 series, any AMD GPU from the RX 6600 and above.

I will list below many chips capable of 720p AV1 software decoding in MPV : 

1) MOBILE PROCESSORS : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----> In a nutshell, if your phone processor isn't in the list below, you'll have to test for yourself, but essentially any
smartphone 8 cores processors manufactured after 2016/2017 should work perfectly fine.

Even a snapdragon 430 based device can play my 720p AV1 releases. It won't be ideal, it will heat and suck lots of power from
the device, but that's to be expected in the lowest-end of devices. 
Anything faster or newer than this (which are most phones sold today to be honest) won't struggle in the slightest playing my
releases. That includes almost any 8 cores mobile CPUs with at least A53 cores running over 1,4GHz. Every mobile CPUs having at
least A55 cores will play those files flawlessly, with approximatively the same power consumption than when decoding H.265
videos.
Someone made a test for me on an Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet from 2020 with 4 Cortex-A53 cores at 2GHz, and it could even playback 1080p AV1 files flawlessly in VLC.

########################################## For Qualcomm processors : ##########################################
- anything in the 4xx series higher than the 430 ; 
- anything in the 6xx series higher than the 615 ; 
- any processors in the 7xx series and probably the same for all 8xx series (not exactly sure about the 8xx processors older
than the 835, please tell me if you can).
#########################################################################################################

########################################## For Mediatek processors : ##########################################
- anything in the Dimensity series or newer ;
- anything over the Helio G70 should be safe (not sure about G35 and lower) ;
- any Helio X series processor ;
- any Helio P series over the P25 should be safe (not sure under).
#########################################################################################################

########################################## For Exynos processors : ##########################################
- Any 8xx, 9xx, 1xxx, 2xxx processors or newer ;
- Exynos 5433, 7420, 7880, 7885, 9609, 9610, 9611, 8890, 8895, 9810, 9820, 9825
#########################################################################################################

The nVidia shield should be able to decode AV1 without issues.

If  any chipset mentionned here doesn't play my AV1 releases fine in the MPV player, please tell me.
Same if a chipset not mentionned here actually can.


2) PC PROCESSORS : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Any Intel Skylake based (6th gen) 4 cores or better shouldn't have any issues playing 720p AV1 in MPV.
| Same story for any AMD Zen based 4 cores or newer.
| I have heard of even 4 cores 3th gen Intel CPUs (like the i5 3470) being able to decode AV1 flawlessly in MPV.
| Which I can now confirm because someone with an i5 3450 made the test and had 200 fps decoding performance using ffmpeg

Personally I have a Pentium N5000 based fanless laptop, a 4 cores at a maximum of 2.7GHz (usually runs more around 2GHZ), 
and I tried some scenarios :

- playing one of my 720p AV1 releases on a fresh MPV install is around 40-60% average utilization (GPU however never exceeds
20%, package energy consumption ~9W), never stutters
- the same but encoded in 720p 10 bit HEVC still on a fresh MPV install is also around 40-60% CPU utilization (GPU never
exceeding 25%, package energy consumption ~9.5W), never stutters. The difference of CPU/GPU usage and energy consumption is
negligible.
- even in a worst case scenario, using the debanding filter (1 pass) and the Spline36 scaler in MPV, using the same AV1 file as
previously, the CPU is "only" at around 50-65% average utilization (GPU however fluctuates between 50-70% because of the
filters, package energy consumption 12.5W), no stutters.
-> What does that mean ? At 720p, 10 bit AV1 and 10 bit HEVC at around the same bitrate uses the same power consumption on this
device. Neither stutters. However, the AV1 video stream was arguably of higher quality. 
And no, I didn't try to use terrible settings in x265 to make the AV1 file better. It would serve nothing, help nobody, and be
pretty silly. I don't have time to waste trying to make one codec look worse than the other on purpose, that's childish.



I will continue to edit this post as I receive feedback on performance, and do more testing on my side.

---------------------------------------------Français---------------------------------------------

A venir...

En résumé, aucun problème de lecture avec le lecteur MPV :
- sur mobile avec n'importe quel 8 coeurs sorti après 2016/2017
- sur PC : processeur 4 coeurs de 6ème génération ou plus récent d'Intel, processeur 4 coeurs Zen d'AMD, possible que des
processeurs un peu plus vieux marchent aussi, comme un i5 3470.

Thank you, I created a FORK containing some formatting improvements