AV1 is a video compression format developed by the Alliance for Open Media. It is designed to be more efficient than older formats allowing higher quality video stored in smaller files. AV1 is suitable for streaming video over the internet as it can reduce bandwidth requirements and improve quality.
While AV1 compresses video, it is not itself a video file format. AV1 videos are commonly saved as MP4, MKV, and WEBM. You may rarely see AV1 videos saved with .av1 extension. As .av1 files are uncommon, most media players don’t support them.
You can open .av1 files using media players like VLC and MPC-HC with native AV1 support. If your player lacks support, install a codec pack with AV1. Also check the file extension is specified correctly as similar extensions exist. Misspelled or changed extensions can make files unrecognizable.
AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) encodes AV1 video in HEIF image container. As open source and royalty-free, AVIF has potential to become next big thing for web images. It offers top features and performance without licensing and patent royalties hampering alternatives.
VLC Media Player
Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox