A huge boost to stream quality is headed our way very soon thanks to AV1 on YouTube via OBS

pcgamer.com:

AV1 promises to dramatically improve video quality when we stream while sucking up less of our internet bandwidth. The issue is you can't just switch everything over to AV1 in an instant. It takes time, dedicated hardware, and streaming protocols. Thankfully, that's all finally coming together with OBS Studio support for AV1 being galvanised alongside beta support on YouTube for the new codec.

OBS Studio version 29.1.0 will add support for AV1 and HEVC streaming(opens in new tab) using an enhanced version of the RTMP streaming protocol, or Real-Time Messaging Protocol. RTMP has been a pivotal protocol for streaming over the web, but it's also been left without support for modern codecs for quite some time. Thankfully, the Veovera Software Organization has since gotten hold of it and has released an enhanced version(opens in new tab) with AV1 and HEVC support.

That's a big chunk of the AV1 puzzle all figured out, but the next piece is support across popular streaming platforms. While there's still no word from Twitch as to whether it'll support AV1 anytime soon, YouTube support is currently in beta.

Then you need the hardware, but thankfully we've that bit completely sorted. Nvidia, AMD, and Intel all offer AV1 hardware acceleration in their latest generations of GPU, and Intel's Arc A380 GPU has been earmarked as a cheap way to grab AV1 streaming support if you don't want to reinvest in a more expensive graphics card anytime soon. You can pick an A380 up for as little as $120(opens in new tab), and you don't have to actually game on it to use it for the AV1 encoding. Phew.

That's still a large price to pay for AV1 support, but if you're a streamer hoping to improve the quality of your streams for your viewers, this is a