AV1 is the latest video codec gaining rapid adoption by both streaming services and streaming devices. Its biggest advantage is not needing a licensing fee, unlike the HEVC video codec, which is its biggest competitor. It’s probably safe to assume that all Fire TV models released in the future, especially those with support for 4K, will support decoding AV1 video through dedicated hardware. As for existing Fire TV and Fire TV Smart TV models that already support AV1 video decoding, here’s the full list.
Fire TVs, Fire TV Sticks, & Fire TV Cubes
The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is currently the only stand-alone Fire TV model that supports AV1 hardware video decoding. That’s thanks to its modern system-on-a-chip (SoC), the Mediatek MT8696, which has the capability built in. The 2nd-gen Fire TV Cube, 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick, and Fire TV Stick Lite, which are the other most recent Fire TV models, do not have AV1 support. Neither does the Fire TV Stick 4K or any older Fire TV model. With Netflix, the largest streaming video company, just barely starting to stream AV1 video this week, adding support for the newer codec simply wasn’t necessary for older Fire TVs. Lastly, it’s not possible to add AV1 support through a software update, since the Fire TV hardware itself needs to be capable of decoding it form the begining.
Fire TV Smart TVs
Since numerous new Fire TV Smart TV models are released globaly every year, there have been far more opportunities for them to gain AV1 hardware video decoding. The list of Fire TV Smart TV models that support AV1 video is as follows:
- 2021 Amazon Fire TV Omni Seris 4K
- 2021 Amazon Fire TV 4-Series 4K
- 2021 Pioneer Fire TV 4K
- 2021 Toshiba Fire TV M550 Series 4K
- 2021 Toshiba Fire TV C350 Series 4K
- 2021 Toshiba Fire TV V35 Series Non-4K
- 2021 Insignia Fire TV F50 Series 4K
- 2021 Insignia Fire TV F30 Series 4K
- 2020 Toshiba Fire TV 4K
- 2020 Insignia Fire TV 4K
- 2020 AmazonBasics Fire TV 4K (India)
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Any idea if this: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0872G6NP8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 is the same 2020 Toshiba Fire TV 4K model as the 43″ you listed? Pretty sure it used to be the same listing (as I bought both the 43″ and 55″)
I don’t know for sure, but I believe it does support AV1. Amazon says (here: https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-tv/device-specifications-fire-tv-edition-smart-tv.html?v=ftveditiontoshiba4k_2020) that 2020 Toshiba 4K does support AV1, but the problem is that the early 2020 models didn’t have Dolby Vision but the later models did, so I don’t know if Dolby vision was the only thing that changed. It could be that only the late 2020 models with Dolby Vision have AV1 support.
Another to keep customers buying new devices while the CEO gets fatter and richer. Ridiculous, how much is to Much? Time for American companies to suck it up and stop passing the costs to the comsumer.
Wow! I have the 4k Max! What Netflix programs are in AV1?
I’m not sure you understand what AV1 is. You’re not going to notice anything different.
It doesn’t matter what codec they use if they use rap3y compression levels and low bitrates.