Scalable Video Technology for AV1 (SVT-AV1 Encoder and Decoder)

The Scalable Video Technology for AV1 (SVT-AV1 Encoder and Decoder) is an AV1-compliant encoder/decoder library core. The SVT-AV1 encoder development is a work-in-progress targeting performance levels applicable to both VOD and Live encoding / transcoding video applications. The SVT-AV1 decoder implementation is targeting future codec research activities.

License

SVT-AV1 is licensed under the Alliance for Open Media license and Patent License. See LICENSE and PATENTS for details. Please refer to the license Q&A if you have any questions about the licensing history of SVT-AV1.

Documentation

More details about the SVT-AV1 usage and implementation can be found under:

• svt-av1-encoder-user-guide
• svt-av1-decoder-user-guide
• svt-av1-documentation-page

System Requirements

Operating System

SVT-AV1 Encoder may run on any Windows* or Linux* 64 bit operating systems. The list below represents the operating systems that the encoder application and library were tested and validated on:

• Windows* Operating Systems (64-bit):
  • Windows* Server 2016
• Linux* Operating Systems (64-bit):
  • Ubuntu* 16.04 Server LTS
  • Ubuntu* 18.04 Server LTS
• Unix* Operating Systems (64-bit):
  • MacOS

Hardware

The SVT-AV1 Encoder library supports the x86 architecture

• CPU Requirements

  In order to achieve the performance targeted by the SVT-AV1 Encoder, the specific CPU model listed above would need to be used when running the encoder. Otherwise, the encoder runs on any 5th Generation Intel® Core™ processor, (Intel® Xeon® CPUs, E5-v4 or newer).

• RAM Requirements

  The SVT-AV1 Encoder adapts to the system that is being ran on. The memory requirements depend on the number of cores the system contains, the input frame rate of the input sequence (-fps) and the look ahead distance passed to the encoder (-lad). The SVT-AV1 Encoder application will display an error if the system does not have enough RAM to support the encode prior to the start of the encode. The following table shows the minimum amount of RAM required for some standard resolutions of 10bit video per stream:

Resolution	8-vCPU Commit Size (GB)	40-vCPU Commit Size (GB)
4k	14	24
1080p	6	10
720p	4	7
480p	3	5

Build and Install

Windows* Operating Systems (64-bit)

• Build Requirements

  • Visual Studio* 2017 (download here) or 2019 (download here)
  • CMake 3.5 or later (download here)
  • YASM Assembler version 1.2.0 or later
    • Download the yasm exe from the following link
    • Rename yasm-*-win64.exe to yasm.exe
    • Copy yasm.exe into a location that is in the PATH environment variable

• Build Instructions

  • Build the project by following the steps below
    • cd into Build\windows
    • run build.bat <2019|2017|2015> [This will generate the .sln files and build the project]

• Binaries Location

  • Binaries can be found under <repo dir>/Bin/Release or <repo dir>/Bin/Debug, depending on whether Debug or Release were selected in the build mode.

• Installation

  For the binaries to operate properly on your system, the following conditions have to be met:

  • On any of the Windows* Operating Systems listed in the OS requirements section, install Visual Studio* 2015/2017/2019
  • Once the installation is complete, copy the binaries to a location making sure that both the sample application SvtAv1EncApp.exe and library SvtAv1Enc.dll are in the same folder.
  • Open the command prompt window at the chosen location and run the sample application to encode: SvtAV1EncApp.exe -i [in.yuv] -w [width] -h [height] -b [out.ivf]
  • Sample application supports reading from pipe. E.g. ffmpeg -i [input.mp4] -nostdin -f rawvideo -pix_fmt yuv420p - | SvtAv1EncApp.exe -i stdin -n [number_of_frames_to_encode] -w [width] -h [height]

Linux* Operating Systems (64-bit)

• Build Requirements

  • GCC 5.4.0 or later
  • CMake 3.5.1 or later
  • YASM Assembler version 1.2.0 or later

• Build Instructions

  • cd Build/linux
  • ./build.sh <release | debug>

• Sample Binaries location

  • Binaries can be found under Bin/Release and/or Bin/Debug

• Installation

  For the binaries to operate properly on your system, the following conditions have to be met:

  • On any of the Linux* Operating Systems listed above, copy the binaries under a location of your choice.
  • Change the permissions on the sample application SvtAV1EncApp executable by running the command: chmod +x SvtAv1EncApp
  • cd into your chosen location
  • Run the sample application to encode: ./SvtAv1EncApp -i [in.yuv] -w [width] -h [height] -b [out.ivf]
  • Sample application supports reading from pipe. E.g. ffmpeg -i [input.mp4] -nostdin -f rawvideo -pix_fmt yuv420p - | ./SvtAv1EncApp -i stdin -n [number_of_frames_to_encode] -w [width] -h [height]

SVT-AV1 ffmpeg plugin installation

1. Build and install SVT-AV1

   git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/AOMediaCodec/SVT-AV1
   cd SVT-AV1
   cd Build
   cmake .. -G"Unix Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
   make -j $(nproc)
   sudo make install

2. Enable libsvtav1 in FFmpeg

NOTE: If you wish to use an FFmpeg tag or release before 4.4, please go here and consult that page to properly patch ffmpeg for use with SVT-AV1.

   git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg ffmpeg
   cd ffmpeg
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH+=":/usr/local/lib"
   export PKG_CONFIG_PATH+=":/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"
   ./configure --enable-libsvtav1
   make -j $(nproc)

3. Verify that ffmpeg is working

./ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libsvtav1 -y test.mp4

How to evaluate by ready-to-run executables with docker

Refer to the guide here.

Demo features and limitations

• Multi-instance support: The multi-instance functionality is a demo feature implemented in the SVT-AV1 Encoder sample application as an example of one sample application using multiple encoding libraries. Encoding using the multi-instance support is limited to only 6 simultaneous streams. For example two channels encoding on Windows: SvtAV1EncApp.exe -nch 2 -c firstchannel.cfg secondchannel.cfg
• Features enabled: The library will display an error message any feature combination that is not currently supported.

How to Contribute

We welcome community contributions to the SVT-AV1 Encoder and Decoder. Thank you for your time! By contributing to the project, you agree to the license, patent and copyright terms in the AOM License and Patent License and to the release of your contribution under these terms. See LICENSE and PATENTS for details.

Contributor agreement

You will be required to execute the appropriate contributor agreement to ensure that the AOMedia Project has the right to distribute your changes.

Contribution process

• Follow the coding guidelines and the contributing guidelines

• Validate that your changes do not break a build

• Perform smoke tests and ensure they pass

• Submit a pull request for review to the maintainer

How to Report Bugs and Provide Feedback

Use the Issues tab on Github. To avoid duplicate issues, please make sure you go through the existing issues before logging a new one.

IRC

#svt on Freenode. Join via Freenode Webchat or use your favorite IRC client. A public log is available.

Performance tracker

Performance and raw data files available at http://videocodectracker.dev