OBS Studio 28.1 is out!

OBS Studio 28.1 is out! This minor update is centered primarily on NVENC, and features their new AV1 encoder as well as a general NVENC update to support the newer presets and features.

It's been no secret I've been pushing AV1. A few updates ago, I implemented the AOM and SVT software AV1 encoders as a proof of concept to ensure that OBS is future-proof for AV1. Realistically however, the AV1 software encoders require a large number of CPU cores to be able to use them in real time, so although they're nice to have, not many people can really make use of them very easily. For newer codecs like AV1, it's kind of essential that both hardware encoding and hardware decoding be readily available for it to be usable by most people, and because of that, streaming services haven't really had that much of a reason to take AV1 seriously.

However, now that Intel and NVIDIA have implemented AV1 encoders in their hardware, the live streaming industry will no longer be able to take AV1 lightly. Streaming services cannot ignore AV1 if they want to reduce costs and improve quality. This is a situation that simply benefits everybody, hands down. I've been vocal to all my industry contacts about my support of AV1 ever since I learned about it, and although I'm just one small person in this industry, it really feels like I've managed to get through to people. Today, the chicken and egg problem is over: hardware AV1 encoding is here, and over the coming years it will likely take over as the dominant codec.

I'm really happy that today, we've been able to make a our first release with a hardware AV1 encoder. This encoder includes all the bells and whistles, and also features full HDR support.

We probably won't see it implemented for live streaming overnight, as currently there aren't any streaming services that support AV1 yet, and we still need to figure out how to update network protocols to support it, but I'm guessing that it'll be sooner rather than later. This is the big first step everyone needed, so fingers crossed that we'll see it usable for streaming soon!

We also made a general update to NVENC regardless of which codec you use; our implementation of NVENC now supports the updated presets and settings, allowing even higher quality or performance depending on the preset you choose. In addition to that, this update also contains a number of general bug fixes as well.

Coincidentally, as I'm writing this all out, today, we just received a pull request for the Intel ARC AV1 encoder as well! It seems that everyone's taking it seriously. I can't wait to get my hands on it, and I can't wait to get it out to all of you as well once it's ready.

Overall, although this may be a relatively minor update, make no mistake, this is definitely a historically significant update. This update marks a big first step towards newer codecs, and I'm really happy to bring it to everyone. Eventually, AV1 will be accessible to everyone, and I'm really happy to say that it seems OBS will be there leading the way.

I'm very grateful for all the support, and I'm very happy that you find our software useful. See you all in the future as more updates come out!

I hope you all enjoy it.