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. Planned for a May 3, 2022 release, Firefox 100 will use hardware decoding when playing AV1 video streams on Windows, provided that the computer's hardware is compatible.
Microsoft published the requirements back in October 2020 on its Tech Community website. According to that post, hardware accelerated AV1 is supported on Windows devices with the following components:
- An 11th generation Intel Core processor with Intel Iris X Graphics, or an Nvidia GeForce RTC 30 Series GPU, or an AMD Radeon RX 600 Series graphics.
- Windows 10 version 1909 or later.
- The AV1 video extension, available on the Microsoft Store.
- A web browser that supports hardware acceleration support for AV1, or another application that supports it.
Newer hardware by Intel, AMD and Nvidia may support AV1 hardware decoding as well. AV1 promises better compression than H.264 and Google's VP9. According to the Alliance for Open Media, it may offer 50% better compression than H.264 and 20% better compression than VP9.
With hardware decoding enabled, AV1 media decode work is moved to the graphics processor, which should reduce power consumption and improve battery life on mobile devices.
Firefox and Chrome support AV1 media streams since 2018, when support was first added to both browsers. Windows 10 users could add AV1 support to their devices since 2018.
The Chromium project introduced support for Av1 hardware decoding on Windows back 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 supports AV1 is YouTube. AV1 may be selected by YouTube automatically, but users may make AV1 the preferred media codec on YouTube by switching to "Always prefer AV1" on this page.
A right-click on a video and the selection of "stats for nerds" shows whether AV1 or VP9 is used then under Codecs in the overlay that opens.
Users interested in the implementation may check out 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?
Playing the AV1 version of the Germany 4K video above on Firefox results in taskmanager showing it using GPU – 3D, whereas doing the same in Chrome results in it showing GPU – Video Decode. Therefore, it does appear Firefox requires “Installing the AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store”. However, Chrome can obviously do it without that being installed. Baffled with Firefox cannot. Score one for Chrome!
Per release notes: “Installing the AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store ***may*** also be required.” My emphasis on the vagueness. So, I’ve found the Germany 4K video shown above on Youtube and changed my setting so it plays using AV1. I have the required hardware. So, how can someone check if Firefox is actually using hardware accelerated AV1 video decoding? TIA
Per release notes: “Installing the AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store ***may*** also be required.” My emphasis on the vagueness. So, I’ve found the Germany 4K video shown above on Youtube and changed my setting so it plays using AV1. I have the required hardware. So, how can someone check if Firefox is actually using hardware accelerated AV1 video decoding? TIA
Well, firefox won’t decode VP9 either: https://i.imgur.com/Lci9yWk.png
You should probbaly attempt to put a couple of braincells at work before making such remarks.
Yeah, not working. At all:
chromium 99: https://i.imgur.com/bNvOomK.png
firefox 100: https://i.imgur.com/wqQLs8f.png
Now you might be thinking – hmm, the iGPU is just plain dumb, and Intel doesn’t know how to make a GPU. To which I fully agree. Let’s give NVIDIA a try: https://i.imgur.com/rvRV8sU.png
I’ll spoil it for you, it’s also doing soft decoding.
Windows 10.0.19044.1586
Intel 30.0.101.1404
NVIDIA 30.0.15.1179 (GeForce 511.79)
Chromium 99.0.4844.74
Firefox 100.0.0.8116
Don’t “update your software” @ me
It not implemented yet smartass.
@Tom Hawack
said on March 17, 2022 at 5:45 pm
// RESET IDs AT START
clearPref(“toolkit.telemetry.cachedClientID”);
clearPref(“browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.impressionId”);
https://www.ghacks.net/2022/03/17/each-firefox-download-has-a-unique-identifier/#comment-4517472
Where is “clearPref” values, in user.js file or is it in some other file? Is Firefox Autoconfig an extension?
I am sorry for a double post. Ghacks is an excellent news site but forum or comment section needs improvement.
https://www.ghacks.net/2022/03/17/each-firefox-download-has-a-unique-identifier/#comment-4517810
Firefox + AMD Radeon = disaster. Anyway, good luck! Thanks for the article. :]
I have a Radeon and I never had problem with Firefox. It’s just you.
@JLM if you use Firefox on AMD, soon or later you will have issues, for sure. :[
You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve been using Firefox on AMD for years and never had issues.
@matthiew you can read whenever the web to search the problems of hardware acceleration and related issues with AMD and Firefox.
You are wrong.
No I will not. Your opinion is not the only truth in the universe.
@JLM it’s not an opinion, it’s just a fact. None yours, by the the way.
Unless you have a really high-end PC you absolutely need hardware accelerated AV1 support or else it bogs down your CPU, even at 1080p. And Firefox very annoyingly has software AV1 enabled by default, which I recently realized was the cause of my YouTube woes. As soon as I turned it off in favor of VP9 it made a world of difference.
The sooner Firefox gets hardware AV1 the better. And yes, I have the hardware to support it (30-series RTX).
A $600 laptop on an i5-1135G7 with Iris Xe iGPU is a lot of money?
“The Chromium project introduced support for Av1 hardware decoding on Windows back in 2020. Firefox 100 reaches feature parity with Chomium-based browsers.”
Only 2 years late… They have 3% market share for a reason.
Lol and Youtube still hasn’t even enabled AV1 by default. What’s your point?
Yeah, I’m sure billion moved to Brave for the av1 hardware decoding reason. Billion.
@Iron s
Billions already use Chromium on which Brave is built, and the change rolled out to all Chromium-based browsers in 2020.
Also, shitting on the fastest growing browser relative to market… Jeez, lol. We’ll speak about Brave in 5 years and we shall see what you have to say then.
>We’ll speak about Brave in 5 years and we shall see what you have to say then.
It’ll be at 0.X % user share like today. Like Linux, 20 years of not-grow.
Or it will disappear if (when?) cryptos will be abolished.
@JLM
> It’ll be at 0.X % user share like today. Like Linux, 20 years of not-grow.
Honestly, I don’t think so. Windows has an effective monopoly on desktop and therefore it has tons of applications on it that don’t support any other operating system, making a switch to Linux hard. Installing Linux also takes some basic computer skills which sometimes even the younger generation do not have (smartphones do dumb down tech skills… yes, really) or simply see no incentive to switch because Windows just works(TM).
Switching to Brave is easy, it has the same basic interface as Chrome or Edge and there is an internal importer for settings, bookmarks etc. pp. Extensions are also the same. There are two reasons why Brave will succeed (in my opinion, don’t take that as gospel):
1) The obvious one: The pay to use it angle… I mean yes, obviously you can laugh off the $5 per month for enabling Brave Rewards, but $5 (Brave) > $0 (all other browsers) in the end.
2) Adblocking on mobile (also desktop?): Chrome does not have an adblocker on mobile because it does not allow extensions. Brave solves this issue by having an internal adblocker. Chrome on desktop is harder to beat since it allows extension, but them dumbing down adblockers with Manifest V3 might help Brave, though that will not make it grow that much. Main hope is on mobile for them.
There are two things that could heavily hurt Brave at this stage:
1) Google making Chromium partially or fully closed source. Chromium is what Brave builds on, and they don’t currently have the engineering capacity for a hard fork (that would cause problems in its own right as it deviates from Google over time, but that’s another story). But there are reasons why Google won’t or can’t do that… For one, the licensing of Chromium does not permit it going closed source. That’s a legal issue. Further, Google profits from outside contributions, they would lose that if they closed sourced Chromium. They would also piss of Microsoft, Opera, Amazon (their Silk browser uses Chromium), Brave, and Vivaldi. These companies would come together in search of a solution based on the last open source code of Chromium even if a legal dispute should fail.
2) Google coming up with their own cryptocurrency while still having a significant market share lead over Brave. That would hurt Brave badly, but that is not how Google currently operates as a business. If they change dramatically, at least everyone would see it coming from a mile away.
Here are some stats for you re. Brave growth: https://brave.com/2021-recap/ Already looks like a failed project, eh? LOL.
> Or it will disappear if (when?) cryptos will be abolished.
Seems like countries adopt it rather, but OK. Everyone has an opinion and the future is still opaque enough that you could be right, I deem it unlikely though.
“He wrapped himself in quotations – as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.”
? Rudyard Kipling, Many Inventions
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform, pause or reflect”.
– Mark Twain. ;)
I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened. – Mark Twain
One man’s failure is another man’s lol. – Mahatma Gandhi
@Neutrino
I know that you put this quote here because it sounds very smart to your ears, is superficially applicable here, and is intended to make any retort look stupid, but: This is not really how it works. The majority adopted cars over coaches, the majority also doesn’t want to live a hermit’s life. Is the majortiy stupid for that? Nope. The Mark Twain quote is geared towards negative societal changes and is not applicable everywhere.
Firefox is behind in terms of engineering on a consistent basis, hence the numbers of users by now. Accept that, move on. I am merely pointing out the obvious here.
This is the fist time I discover a planned Firefox feature’s requirements my OS+hardware is unable to fill at this time : Win7 and no 11th generation Intel Core processor with Intel Iris X Graphics, nor an Nvidia GeForce RTC 30 Series GPU, nor an AMD Radeon RX 600 Series graphics.
As Churchill stated it during WWII, this is maybe not the beginning of the end (OS & hardware in tis case) but perhaps the end of the beginning. I’ll remember obsolescence in perspective started in Spring 2022 for my concern.
As Sir Tom Jones sings it, maybe time I get up and dance :=)
Your “AMD Radeon RX 600 Series graphics” is missing a zero there – it should be “RX 6000″…