Av1an

Av1an is a video encoding framework. It can increase your encoding speed and improve CPU utilization by running multiple encoder processes in parallel. Target quality, VMAF plotting, and more, available to take advantage for video encoding.

Prerequisites

Since Av1an is just a tool that helps with parallelization, you’ll need to have the following installed for the entire thing to work:

• Rust
• Python (Required for Vapoursynth, currently needs 3.11, this may change in the future so consult from their website)
• FFmpeg
• MKVToolNix (mkvmerge)
• Vapoursynth
• L-SMASH (Vapoursynth plugin)
• FFMS2 (Vapoursynth plugin, optional)
• VMAF (For target VMAF, optional)
• Any of the supported encoders (aomenc, rav1e, SVT-AV1, vpxenc, x264, x265)

Installation

Microsoft Windows

GUI:

1. Install Nmkoder which is a GUI front-end to av1an with all dependencies installed
2. You’re done!

Outdated Software

Since Nmkoder already ships everything by default and it’s last release was 29th March 2022. You need to manually update EVERYTHING (av1an.exe, aomenc.exe, etc) to get performance optimizations, better speeds, and more settings. Missing out on updates will result in your encodes being sub-optimal.

Pre-built binary, bleeding edge [Recommended]:

• Download Av1an from here, select “Latest” and click the “Assets” dropdown. Put it in PATH

MacOS

To be filled.

Linux

The Easy Way:

Install rAV1ator, a GUI frontend for Av1an & the rust-based rav1e encoder.

Note

Keep in mind Aviator only ships with SVT-AV1 and rAV1ator with rav1e instead of Aomenc/AOM-AV1.

The compiling route:

Prerequisites:

• Vapoursynth
• FFmpeg
• MKVToolNix (mkvmerge)
• Git
• Perl
• Nasm
• Rust (Use rustup on Debian/Ubuntu, as the package manager version is horribly outdated)
• Highway (libhwy)

git clone https://github.com/master-of-zen/Av1an.git
cd Av1an
RUSTFLAGS="-C target-cpu=native" cargo build --release

after done, the binary will be located in target/release, copy it to somewhere like /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin

Docker

The following examples assume the file you want to encode is in your current working directory.

Windows

docker run --privileged -v "$(pwd):/videos" --user $(id -u):$(id -g) -it --rm masterofzen/av1an:latest -i S01E01.mkv {options}

Linux

docker run --privileged -v "${PWD}:/videos" -it --rm masterofzen/av1an:latest -i S01E01.mkv {options}

Manual Build

docker build -t "av1an" .

Run in the root directory of the repository. The dependencies will automatically be installed into the image, no manual installations necessary.

Note

To specify a different directory to use you would replace $(pwd) with the directory

docker run --privileged -v "/c/Users/masterofzen/Videos":/videos --user $(id -u):$(id -g) -it --rm masterofzen/av1an:latest -i S01E01.mkv {options}

The --user flag is required on Linux to avoid permission issues with the docker container not being able to write to the location, if you get permission issues ensure your user has access to the folder that you are using to encode.

Troubleshooting

1. mkvmerge “Open file error” on Linux - Run ulimit -n 20000
2. Gray screen flashing for a single frame in output - Create a lossless intermediary with x264 -qp 0