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If you are one of those who watches your favorite series and movies directly on your mobile, or through an Android tablet, surely you are worried about data consumption. The Netflix service has the great virtue of downloading your favorite content and having them on trips, for example, without having to spend even one megabyte of your Internet rate. But what if you forget to download something or want to start a movie playing before you get home? Well They have also thought about it
This is why Netflix has started using the AV1 codec A codec is a way to compress content that is streamed from Netflix servers. That is, make the files that are sent through the Internet connection (streaming) less heavy. This will mean that you consume less Internet data, that you do not require stops to load content or that you do not depend on a large Internet infrastructure (stable and quality connections).
The curious thing about this system is that it further improves the compression of the codec that had already been used up to now, the VP9. Specifically up to 20% more compression All this, of course, without this being too noticeable in visual quality. That is, that the resolution is maintained and not all pixelated is appreciated.An engineering work designed to lighten the transmission of content through an Internet that cannot be of great quality.
This codec has been developed by AOMedia (Alliance for Open Media), a conglomerate where companies such as Netflix, Google, Intel, Cisco , Amazon, Mozilla, and Microsoft were founding members. This technology is reaching more services, such as YouTube, but at the moment it is in full development since, even though it is more efficient in file management, it requires more computer work. So little by little it is opening a gap thanks to the support of these companies.
How to activate the AV1 codec on Netflix
The way to save data on Netflix is easy, and the AV1 codec is being integrated organically. That is why you only have to access the Netflix application, display the More tab menu and click on the Application Settings section.Here we find, first of all, the section Use of mobile data A drop-down that was already present before and that allows us to activate or deactivate the use of mobile data to consume Netflix content. Or what is the same, control that we see our series through WiFi or data.
Well, in this submenu we must choose the option Save data Netflix does not allow us to specify the codec we want to use to save data. And it is that, for the moment, it seems to be the only option, the most efficient to date in terms of saving data consumption. With this we will be able to load content more quickly and without depleting our data rate if we are not sufficiently far-sighted when it comes to previously downloading what interests us the most. All this without losing too much image quality.
First in the mobile market
Another interesting point is that Netflix has launched this change on the Android platform Something logical since it is the most widespread platform in countries in development. Places where network infrastructures do not always offer the best Internet connection. A place, then, where it makes more sense to use a more efficient codec when transmitting content via streaming.
Of course, Netflix has assured that it will expand this codec to the rest of the platforms So it's a matter of time before users all over the world The world can benefit from significant data savings when you are not too farsighted. At the moment not all content is broadcast compressed with this codec, but the idea is to extend it little by little.
