AV1 (surely) is also coming to Safari

[Schweinepriester]

Per https://www.apple.com/apple-events/ and https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/ the newest devices will have

AV1 decode

capabilities.

Therefore I'm strongly assuming Safari will have AV1 support.
I selected 17.2 as starting point, assuming the new Macs will ship with that given the time frame.

Also adjusted the note a bit.

Naturally I have not tested it, so technically we could wait until somebody can test or confirm for us 0:-)

Confirmed below, afaik ready to go.

Fixes #6884.

[Schweinepriester]

@jensimmons Would you be able to confirm AV1 support for Safari on macOS running on M3 family hardware?
Perhaps even with which version of Safari support is starting?

[jensimmons]

Yes, AV1 support is coming to the new Macs. Support is in Safari 17.0+. The new MacBook Pros and iMacs are shipping in November.

[Elycin]

Yes, AV1 support is coming to the new Macs. Support is in Safari 17.0+. The new MacBook Pros and iMacs are shipping in November.

@jensimmons,

Forgive me, this may not be the exact place to ask but I figured it was worth a shot.

I just wanted to confirm - are there any plans for software decoding support via a future release in Safari/WebKit? I understand AV1 being computationally intensive may have negative impacts on battery life, given the push for hardware accelerated decoding, but is there a plan for backwards compatible support for older devices? (eg: iPhone 14 Pro Max, M1 Max)

From a business standpoint, there is a user base out there that uses the stock browser on their lovely Apple devices, and companies going forward may be more inclined to use AV1 given the royalty-free option - which may unfortunately leave them in the dark. I worry about companies not being able to cater to these specific customers, outside of my own personal use case.

Thanks.

[Fyrd]

Thanks!