All Video Codec FAQ in Discord

You are utilizing Video Codec whether you are broadcasting your favorite game to all of your friends on Discord or you are watching a friend play their favorite game. What exactly is meant by the term “Video codec,” and how is it used in practice? All fantastic questions, let’s go through those and more!

What Is A Video Codec?

In order for digital video to be sent over the internet, it must first be compressed and then decompressed using a video codec, which can either be software or hardware. When it comes to producing streams of excellent quality, video codecs are an essential component. This indicates that the quality of the video will improve in direct proportion to the codec’s level of sophistication.

What Is H.264?

The H.264 video codec has quickly become an industry standard that is used extensively. Almost every device on the market today uses a software or hardware codec that complies with the H.264 standard, including desktop computers and mobile devices. Since H.264 was established in the early 2000s, the encoding techniques have been mostly geared towards standard definition (480p) video compression. This is because 480p is the most used video format.

What Is AV1?

The AV1 video codec is one of the most cutting-edge technical standards currently available. It is being developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOM), which is funded by the majority of the leading players in the video communications industry, including Google, Apple, Netflix, and Meta. In order to improve the effectiveness of video compression, it employs the most complex algorithms currently available.

In contrast to H.264, AV1 is being developed to better enable high definition and ultra-high definition video communications, particularly 4k or even 8k video applications. Discord uses the AV1 codec, which has been shown to have up to 100% greater compression efficiency than its H.264 equivalent when it comes to 4K videos running at 60 frames per second. Activating AV1 can result in a noticeable improvement to the quality of the broadcast.

Where Can I Find These Video Codec Options?

To enter the User Settings of your Discord desktop client, click on the gear icon located in the bottom-left corner of the interface. From there, you may activate or disable the Video Codec options.

After arriving there, you will need to navigate to the Voice & Video section of the App Settings menu.

After that, you will scroll down until you reach the part of the page labelled “Video Codec.” While you are in this section, you have the ability to activate or deactivate the following settings.

OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc: When OpenH264 is off, hardware-accelerated video encoding, if it is available, will also be disabled along with it.

H.264 Hardware Acceleration: If you enable this, your graphics processing unit (GPU) will be used for video encoding and decoding for H.264, if it is available.

AV1 video codec: By enabling the AV1 video codec, you will be able to transfer videos in the AV1 format, provided that the hardware requirements are satisfied. To make use of this function, the AV1 codec needs to be enabled by all viewers participating in the same voice call. In addition to this, whenever an AV1 video is received, Discord will utilise your GPU in order to process the video.

The desktop version is the only one that gives you access to the choices for adjusting your video codec. At this time, sending AV1 video is only supported when done so using a Windows desktop computer equipped with an NVidia RTX 4080 or RTX 4090 GPU. Desktop users, on the other hand, can still watch AV1 streams even if they do not have an RTX40xx GPU.

Troubleshooting

Check out this section of the article on Voice and Video Troubleshooting if you are having problems with your video on Discord; it will provide you with some first measures to take.

In the event that you require any more assistance, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our Support team!

All images and contents credit goes to support.discord.com

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