Vulkan Video confirms that support for decoding / encoding of VP9 and AV1 formats will be added in 2023

CTOnews.com Vulkan Video API 1.0, a hardware video codec based on Vulkan API, has been released, but this version does not introduce support for VP9 and AV1 format codecs. The Khronos Group has made it clear that Vulkan Video will add support for VP9 and AV1 formats in 2023.

PhilipsCTOnews.com understands that Vulkan Video API 1.0 focuses primarily on H.264 and H.265 / HEVC. Vulkan WG members said they were working on a VP9/AV1 extension, but it didn't seem to be a priority.

AMD's Ahmed Abdelkhalek commented: "VP9 decode and AV1 decode/encode are already on our list for 2023. The core extensions are almost complete and support should be released much faster. Again, we apologize for the delay."

VP9 is a free, open source video coding format developed by Google to replace the older VP8 video coding format and compete with the high-efficiency video coding dominated by Motion Expert Group. VP9 is mainly used on YouTube, Google's famous video sharing website. VP9 is typically packaged in WebM format along with Opus audio encoding.

AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) is an open, patent-free video encoding format designed for streaming over networks. It was developed by the Open Media Alliance with the goal of replacing its predecessor VP9, which was formed in 2015 by semiconductor companies, video-on-demand vendors and web browser developers.