Daala: Building A Next-Generation Video Codec From Unconventional Technology

TL;DR

Daala is a novel, royalty-free video codec employing unconventional technology to achieve competitive compression performance and contribute to the development of the AV1 standard.

Contribution

It introduces unique, patent-free techniques for video compression and demonstrates their potential to match traditional codecs' performance.

Findings

Daala approaches state-of-the-art compression performance.

Daala's technology can enhance the AV1 codec.

It offers a royalty-free alternative to proprietary codecs.

Abstract

Daala is a new royalty-free video codec that attempts to compete with state-of-the-art royalty-bearing codecs. To do so, it must achieve good compression while avoiding all of their patented techniques. We use technology that is as different as possible from traditional approaches to achieve this. This paper describes the technology behind Daala and discusses where it fits in the newly created AV1 codec from the Alliance for Open Media. We show that Daala is approaching the performance level of more mature, state-of-the art video codecs and can contribute to improving AV1.