Same source. AV1 wins quality per bit; H.264 wins compatibility.

What you're seeing

At equal bitrate, AV1 produces ~30% smaller files than H.265, ~50% smaller than H.264. But AV1 encode is 5-10× slower than H.264 (SVT-AV1 brings this to 2-3×). Decode is fast everywhere with hardware support since iPhone 15, Android 13, modern TVs.

2026 picture: H.264 for legacy/universal, H.265 fading, AV1 for new pipelines, VP9 for YouTube historical reasons.

★ KEY TAKEAWAY
AV1 wins ~30% quality per bitrate vs H.265, ~50% vs H.264. Encode cost is the catch (mostly solved by 2026 with SVT-AV1).
▶ WHAT TO TRY
  • Slide Bitrate across the range.
  • At 2 Mbps: H.264 is good, H.265 better, AV1 best.
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