The Future of Video Compression: H.266/VVC and AV1 Explained

The video codec landscape is shifting dramatically. While HEVC (H.265) has become the standard for modern video compression, two next-generation codecs are emerging that promise to revolutionize how we store and stream video content: H.266/VVC (Versatile Video Coding) and AV1.

These codecs aren't just incremental improvements—they represent fundamental breakthroughs in compression technology that will enable everything from 8K streaming on mobile networks to immersive VR experiences without massive bandwidth requirements. Understanding these technologies now will help you make informed decisions about video workflows, storage strategies, and future-proofing your content.

Why Next-Generation Codecs Matter

Before diving into the technical details, let's understand why these codecs exist and what problems they solve. The video content explosion is real: we're creating more video than ever before, streaming higher resolutions, and demanding better quality across all devices.

The Storage Crisis: A single hour of 4K video at 60fps can consume 50-100GB of storage. For content creators, this means expensive cloud storage bills. For streaming platforms, it means massive bandwidth costs. For consumers, it means constantly running out of phone storage.

The Bandwidth Challenge: Streaming 4K content requires 25-50 Mbps of bandwidth. Most people don't have that kind of connection, which means either buffering, lower quality, or exclusion from high-quality content entirely.

The Future Demands: 8K displays are becoming affordable. VR headsets need 360-degree video. Live streaming is exploding. All of these require dramatically better compression than what HEVC offers.

Next-generation codecs like H.266/VVC and AV1 address these challenges by providing 30-50% better compression efficiency than HEVC. This means the same quality video in a file that's 30-50% smaller, or higher quality video at the same file size.

H.266/VVC: The Evolution of HEVC

H.266, officially called Versatile Video Coding (VVC), represents the natural evolution of the H.264 → HEVC progression. Developed by the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET), the same organization behind HEVC, VVC builds upon proven technologies while introducing revolutionary new compression techniques.

The Development Story

VVC's development began in 2017, just as HEVC was gaining widespread adoption. The goal was ambitious: create a codec that could handle everything from mobile video to 8K broadcast, from low-latency gaming streams to high-quality archival content.

The standardization process completed in July 2020, but that was just the beginning. Hardware implementation typically lags standards by 2-4 years, which is why we're only now seeing VVC support in consumer devices.

Technical Innovations in VVC

VVC introduces dozens of technical improvements over HEVC, but several stand out as game-changers:

Advanced Block Partitioning: VVC uses a sophisticated quadtree with nested multi-type tree (QTMT) structure that allows blocks up to 128×128 pixels. This is four times larger than HEVC's maximum block size, enabling better compression of large uniform areas (like skies or walls).

The partitioning scheme is also more flexible, supporting asymmetric splits that can better adapt to object boundaries. If you're compressing a video with a person standing against a wall, VVC can use large blocks for the wall and smaller blocks around the person's edges.

Enhanced Intra Prediction: VVC includes 67 angular intra prediction modes compared to HEVC's 35. This might sound like a minor improvement, but it dramatically improves compression of textures, patterns, and directional content.

More importantly, VVC introduces Matrix-based Intra Prediction (MIP), which uses learned prediction functions. These aren't AI-generated—they're mathematical functions optimized through extensive testing—but they can represent complex spatial patterns more efficiently than traditional angular prediction.

Sophisticated Motion Compensation: VVC's motion compensation goes far beyond simple translation. Affine motion prediction handles rotation and scaling, which is crucial for drone footage, camera pans, and zoom effects.

Bi-directional optical flow (BDOF) and decoder-side motion vector refinement (DMVR) enhance motion prediction accuracy without transmitting additional data. The decoder does extra work to refine motion vectors, trading computational complexity for better compression.

Adaptive Loop Filtering: VVC includes multiple filtering stages that adapt to content characteristics. The Adaptive Loop Filter (ALF) can be customized per region, preserving detail in important areas while smoothing noise in others.

VVC Performance Characteristics

In real-world testing, VVC typically achieves 30-50% bitrate reduction compared to HEVC at equivalent quality. The exact improvement varies by content type:

• Natural video content: 35-45% improvement
• Screen content: 25-35% improvement
• Animation: 20-30% improvement
• Low-motion content: 40-50% improvement

The trade-off is encoding complexity: VVC encoding is 10-20 times more computationally intensive than HEVC. This means encoding takes longer and requires more powerful hardware, but decoding complexity increases more modestly (typically 2-3x).

AV1: The Open Source Revolution

While VVC represents the evolution of traditional video codec development, AV1 represents a different approach entirely. Developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), AV1 is royalty-free, open-source, and designed from the ground up for internet-scale deployment.

The Open Source Advantage

AV1's royalty-free licensing is its killer feature. Unlike H.264, HEVC, and VVC—which require licensing fees for commercial use—AV1 can be used by anyone, anywhere, for any purpose, without paying royalties.

This has massive implications:

• Streaming platforms save millions in licensing fees
• Open source projects can integrate AV1 without legal concerns
• Developers can experiment freely
• Consumers benefit from lower costs

The Alliance for Open Media includes tech giants like Google, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, and Facebook. These companies have a vested interest in reducing video delivery costs, and AV1 is their answer.

AV1 Technical Architecture

AV1 incorporates cutting-edge compression techniques, many of which were developed specifically for AV1:

Superblock Structure: AV1 uses superblocks up to 128×128 pixels with recursive partitioning. The partitioning scheme supports 10 different block shapes, enabling precise adaptation to content structure.

Advanced Prediction Modes: AV1 includes compound prediction modes that combine multiple reference frames intelligently. This is particularly effective for complex motion and scene transitions.

Sophisticated Filtering: AV1's loop restoration filters use Wiener filters and self-guided restoration to remove compression artifacts more effectively than traditional deblocking filters. The Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter (CDEF) addresses ringing artifacts while preserving edge sharpness.

Film Grain Synthesis: One of AV1's most innovative features is film grain synthesis. Instead of encoding film grain (which is essentially noise), AV1 can synthesize it at decode time. This saves significant bitrate while maintaining the authentic film look.

AV1 Performance and Adoption

AV1 achieves similar compression efficiency to VVC—typically 30-50% better than HEVC—but with different strengths:

• Screen content: AV1 excels at compressing screen recordings, presentations, and computer-generated content
• Animation: AV1's prediction modes work particularly well for animated content
• Low bitrate streaming: AV1's filtering helps maintain quality at very low bitrates

AV1 adoption has been rapid, particularly in streaming:

• YouTube serves AV1 to capable devices
• Netflix uses AV1 for mobile streaming
• Facebook and Instagram support AV1 uploads
• Chrome and Firefox have native AV1 support

Hardware support is growing: Apple's M-series chips include AV1 decoding, Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon processors support AV1, and Intel's Arc GPUs include AV1 encoding.

Comparing VVC and AV1

Both codecs offer similar compression improvements, but they differ in important ways:

Licensing: This is the biggest differentiator. VVC requires licensing fees (though terms are still being finalized), while AV1 is completely free.

Performance: Both achieve similar compression efficiency, but VVC tends to perform slightly better on natural video content, while AV1 excels at screen content and animation.

Adoption: AV1 has seen faster consumer adoption due to web platform support, while VVC is gaining traction in broadcast and professional markets.

Hardware Support: Both are gaining hardware acceleration, but AV1 has a slight lead in consumer devices due to earlier standardization and web platform pressure.

When Will These Codecs Matter for You?

The timeline for next-generation codec adoption depends on your use case:

Content Creators (2024-2025): Software encoding is available now, but it's slow. Hardware acceleration is appearing in high-end devices. For most creators, HEVC remains the practical choice.

Streaming Platforms (Now): Major platforms are already deploying AV1 and VVC for specific use cases. YouTube serves AV1 to capable devices, and Netflix uses AV1 for mobile streaming.

Consumers (2025-2026): Hardware decoding is becoming common, but encoding support is still limited. Most consumers won't need to think about these codecs for another year or two.

Professional Broadcast (2026+): Broadcast workflows move slowly. VVC adoption in professional markets will take several more years.

Practical Implications

What does this mean for your video workflow today?

For Personal Videos: Continue using HEVC. The compression is excellent, hardware support is universal, and file sizes are already 70% smaller than H.264. Next-generation codecs will matter more when you're dealing with 8K content or massive video libraries.

For Content Creators: Monitor AV1 and VVC support in your editing software and delivery platforms. When hardware acceleration becomes common (likely 2025-2026), consider migrating for storage and bandwidth savings.

For Streaming: If you're building a streaming platform, AV1 is worth investigating now. The royalty-free licensing and web platform support make it attractive for internet-scale deployment.

For Archival: VVC might be the better long-term choice for archival content due to its standardization and professional market support. However, both codecs are so new that long-term compatibility is still uncertain.

The Future Beyond VVC and AV1

Codec development never stops. Research is already underway on:

AI-Enhanced Compression: Machine learning is being integrated into traditional codecs to improve compression efficiency. These aren't separate codecs but enhancements to existing standards.

Neural Codecs: Fully AI-based codecs are in research, but they're years away from practical deployment. These could offer even better compression but require significant computational resources.

Semantic Compression: Instead of compressing pixels, future codecs might compress semantic information—understanding what objects are in a scene and reconstructing them. This is still theoretical but represents a potential paradigm shift.

Conclusion: Preparing for the Future

H.266/VVC and AV1 represent the next generation of video compression, offering 30-50% better efficiency than HEVC. While they're not yet practical for most users, understanding these technologies helps you make informed decisions about video workflows and future-proofing.

The key takeaways:

For now, HEVC remains the sweet spot: excellent compression, universal hardware support, and proven reliability. But keep an eye on VVC and AV1—they represent the future of video compression, and that future is closer than you might think.

The video compression landscape is evolving rapidly. By understanding these next-generation codecs now, you'll be prepared to take advantage of them when they become practical for your workflow. Whether you're a content creator, a streaming platform operator, or just someone who wants to store more videos on their phone, these technologies will eventually impact how you work with video.