AV1 is simply the first video codec with mandatory film grain synthesis technology. This makes a huge difference in terms of bitrate savings and picture quality, while the efficiency gain of new codecs is nowhere near 50%. Instead of measuring blur and compression artefacts, we can use Film Grain Synthesis to reduce distribution bitrates because video denoising/de-graining leads to lower bitrate requirements. We at Wavelet Beam can confirm the 30% bitrate reduction we heard from Netflix a few months ago. We just need to be aware that the inbuilt AV1 denoising is not good enough to prevent loss of video resolution. 2d Wiener filters are used for AV1. We will see what VVC and HEVC will use as an integrated solution, but Video Noise Management is not just a filter. We at Wavelet Beam have a fully automated HPC solution that contains thousands of lines of highly optimised NVIDIA CUDA code for proper video noise handling. For UGC, the integrated solutions are may be good enough, but for premium content, solutions like Wavelet Beam's IRIS in combination with IRIS.ANALYST will make the difference. The beauty of the film look can now be distributed to all second screen devices without a standard denoising step on your TV. Today's second screen devices have high resolution displays and viewing distances of less than 1m. This directly results in a higher perceived video resolution compared to the broadcast scenario.
Interested content owners can email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information and sample footage. We rendered and encoded the Netflix test footage "MERIDIAN" using AV1 (Film Grain Synthesis) at less than 6 Mbit/s. This 12- minute UHD take takes up only 536MB of space. We are also interested in receiving short 2-minute 16mm and 35mm test footage for our lab tests.
The codec war is over. Film Grain Synthesis also can be used for older and upcoming video codecs. Also a good reason only to process the video noise management once in your workflow and not only in the new upcoming video codecs. Now video and film experts can focus again on picture quality instead measuring video bitrates, with tools that don’t state the error tolerance and video resolution (video resolution !=not pixel count).
#FilmGrainSynthesis #IRIS #IrisAnalyst #wavletbeam #FGS #grain #streaming
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16mm 1728x1248 -10bpc (Full HD pixel count) - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it./s and Film Grain Synthesis - AV1 encoder test Feb. 2024
Block-based encoder technology at low bitrates is not able to carry the grain structure. The frequencies of the grain are transferred into lower frequencies. This low frequency distortion is a modulation in the time domain and cannot be measured with tools like PSNR or VMAF. H264 let the video flicker and complete areas in the video are moving against the video signal itself. Block based encoders are not able to proper carry grain information.
In the decoder motion vectors are used to reconstruct the image. E.g. a 8x8 pixel block of the previous frame will be used to reconstruct the current frame at another part of the image.
In the quantization process the grain amplitudes are changed. This is the reason why a grain structure is changed and moved into the time domain. This leads to a loss of resolution and blocking artefacts. These artefacts will be noticeable as a kind of noise but the frequencies of the grain shifted, the amplitudes are higher and the characteristic of grain has gone.
AV1 & Film Grain Synthesis will be the future for low-bitrate and high-quality video delivery.
16mm 1728x1248 -10bpc (Full HD pixel count) - AV1@2Mbit/s and Film Grain Synthesis - AV1 encoder test Feb. 2024