AV2 Is Final. Here's Why It Changes Nothing About How You Export (Yet)

AV2, the open codec meant to replace AV1, was released in June and has been demonstrated at IBC with a claimed 30% efficiency gain. It changes nothing about what you should hand a platform. You deliver a mezzanine file and the platform makes the distribution encodes, and AV2 sits entirely on the platform's side of that line.

What actually shipped

The facts so far, with the marketing taken out:

• Release. The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) announced the AV2 release on 9 June 2026, as Linuxiac and Gigazine reported. Linuxiac also notes that the release makes the spec available for implementation, and "does not mean AV2 is immediately ready for broad use."
• Features. AV2 supports scalable bitstreams, multi-view and stereoscopic video, and several camera angles or composite pictures in a single bitstream. It supports 4:0:0 to 4:4:4 at 8 or 10 bits. A 12-bit professional profile for cinema and HDR is still in development.
• Efficiency. At IBC on 10 September, AOMedia claimed "approximately 30% greater compression efficiency than AV1 based on objective quality metrics" (AOMedia release, republished by 01net). That figure comes from the members. FlatpanelsHD points out that no comparison against HEVC or VVC has been published.
• Who is on board. Intel showed SVT-AV2, an open-source encoder. Netflix's Anne Aaron said AV1 "now powers over a third of our global VOD streaming." Prime Video called AV2 "a major advancement", but its statement includes no adoption date. Read that as support, not a rollout plan.

Why your export settings don't change

There are two families of codec, and they do different jobs.

Production and mezzanine codecs include ProRes, DNxHR and JPEG 2000 inside an IMF package. They are mostly intra-frame and high-bitrate, and they are built to survive another round of encoding. Distribution codecs are AVC, HEVC, AV1 and now AV2. They use long GOPs and exist to make the smallest possible stream that still looks acceptable on a viewer's screen.

Every serious platform re-encodes your upload into its own ladder of resolutions and bitrates. What you upload is the source for those encodes, not what anyone watches. If you upload a tightly compressed distribution file, even in the newest codec, the platform's encoder starts from an image that has already lost detail and adds a second generation of lossy compression on top. The 30% gain helps the platform's delivery bill. It does nothing for your master.

So the rule is simple: give the platform the best source it will accept, and let its encoders handle AV1 and AV2. We have already covered what happens to grain on the way down the pipe in our piece on Netflix's AV1 film grain synthesis. AV2 adds another, newer encoder to the same chain.

Decoders, not encoders, set the pace

A codec reaches viewers only when the devices they own can decode it in hardware. In September 2025, a year before IBC, Jan Ozer at Streaming Media forecast TV support around 2027–28, if Netflix and YouTube push for it, and mobile hardware decoding unlikely before 2030. He points out that Apple, a founding AOMedia member, did not enable AV1 hardware decoding until late 2023, five years after AV1 launched.

That forecast is a year old. Since then, Allegro DVT, Chips&Media and VeriSilicon have announced AV2 decoder IP cores. A licensable design is the first step towards silicon in a television, not the same thing. AV1 tells you how long the rest takes: finalised in 2018, at 30% of Netflix streaming by December 2025, and over a third by September 2026.

What to export in 2026

None of this needs AV2, and none of it will for years.

• YouTube. YouTube's recommended upload settings are MP4, H.264 and AAC-LC, at 8 Mbps for 1080p SDR at 24–30 fps, 35–45 Mbps for 4K SDR and 44–56 Mbps for 4K HDR. We treat those numbers as a minimum. When bandwidth allows, we upload at a much higher bitrate. That is our own practice, not YouTube's guidance.
• Vimeo. Vimeo's compression guidelines accept H.264, ProRes 422 HQ or HEVC, with 10–20 Mbps for 1080p and 30–60 Mbps for 4K, AAC-LC audio at 320 kb/s and 48 kHz, and a constant frame rate. HDR must be PQ or HLG. If your connection can handle it, send ProRes 422 HQ.
• Netflix and premium streamers. Netflix is one of the platforms that specify IMF, and Application 2E, the most common IMF application, uses JPEG 2000. Aggregators that deliver licensed titles, such as ODMedia, ask for ProRes 422 HQ or 4444 with embedded audio and timecode. When we checked, Netflix's public partner-help pages redirected to its login-only studio portal, so confirm the current spec with whoever is handling your delivery.
• Social. Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn all re-encode heavily. Upload H.264 or HEVC at the native frame rate and a generous bitrate. Never pre-compress to the bitrate you expect them to stream at.
• Archive. Keep a ProRes 422 HQ or 4444, or DNxHR HQX, master alongside the project. Any future redelivery, AV2-era platforms included, will start from that file and not from a streaming encode.

When AV2 will actually matter to you

Here is our decision rule. Start paying attention to AV2 when one of these is true:

1. You pay for the bandwidth yourself. If you run your own OTT service, a self-hosted player or a corporate video platform, 30% fewer bits is real money once your players can decode them. Run a test then, not now.
2. You deliver multi-view or stereoscopic work. AV2's multi-view and stereoscopic bitstreams are the first feature that touches how content is structured, not just how hard it is squeezed. Immersive and multi-angle producers should follow the profile work, including the 12-bit professional profile.
3. A platform lists AV2 as an accepted upload format and tells you why. Even then, ask whether it improves on a mezzanine before you switch.

Until then, leave your export presets as they are. The codec that matters most in your workflow is still the one you master in.