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  • Introducing AV1 for Quest 3, Transitioning to h265 as Phasing out h264

It is apparent that current-generation headsets are h265 standard. And most VR cameras are now defaulting to h265 video exports. This is why we are making the decision to adopt h265 as our default codec, which means h264 will be gradually phased out.

Playing back resolutions exceeding 4K in h264 has presented challenges. The playback issues this can create have led us to explore other possibilities. As part of our aim to continually improve our services, we are moving towards removing h264 entirely from our in-app streaming capabilities. Nevertheless, we will still provide download files available in this format until the end of the year.

We keep 4K h264 streaming for flat viewing. Expect greatly improved flat browsing by September as we are expanding into flat with our haptics integration. Will be converting VR videos to 4K h264 flat with optimized mono.

Our next step towards an immersive VR experience is the incorporation of the AV1 codec. As Quest 3 and all modern GPUs now support AV1, we are actively testing this codec to ensure it provides a smooth and superior quality viewing experience. Also will perform VP9 vs h265 performance, quality and supported devices comparison.

I'm still thinking what would be the best handling of footage recorded by h264 cameras. Alternatively, we could maintain its original 4K h264 format. Also Windows isn't natively supporting h265 decoding unless the plugin installed. These users end up watching lower quality h264 videos instead.

Getting back 120FPS encodings as some devices might natively support 8K 120FPS.

Looking for software streaming engineer: https://forum.sexlikereal.com/d/2684-hiring-now-come-join-the-slr-team/134

doublevr changed the title to Introducing AV1 for Quest 3, Transitioning to h265 as Phasing out h264 .
9 days later
2 months later

Just tested the AV1 video samples from this topic https://www.sexlikereal.com/blog/462-new-and-improved-video-standards-at-slr-phasing-out-h264
"http://insights.sexlikereal.com/videos/AV1/30Mbps.mp4"

My video card is RTX 3060 and it support AV1 decoding . The video plays smooth with Potplayer in 2D . But when i try to play it trough the latest steam version of DeoVR 13.12.1.2 player it doesnt work - just get black screen and some error message .
So guess the player is not ready yet for AV1 vids but then wonder whats the point to ask us to test these AV1 video samples ?

    boboweb Tried those samples on Q2, with streaming over Wifi. Heresphere didn't work either, Skybox was able to play them but choppy.

        boboweb I know DeoVR guys are making it work 👌

        things are deployed in pieces. we released files just because we could

            boboweb I am afraid AV1 wont ever work on Quest 2 as it doesnt support AV1 decoding ... 😉

            I thought so too but with Skybox I could watch it. Playback was stop-and-go but no black screen and sufficient to get an idea of the difference between the two bitrates. I think Skybox has AV1 playback for quite a while but on Q2 no smooth playback is possible.

              boboweb Yup, the Quest 3 is supposed to the first headset to support hardware AV1 decoding with the next gen XR2 chip, but with the Q2, it's software decoding only which is just too slow...

                  5 months later

                  The sample works fine on Quest 3, natively. Any plans to introduce this soon?

                  6 days later

                  Surprised there hasn't been a bigger push about this. Smaller file sizes would reduce overhead costs on people streaming and allow people with worse connections to get better quality for those equipped to use this. SLR saves money, we get better quality... Win-win