AWCY - A powerful tool for video codec comparison

AWCY (Are We Compressed Yet?) is an open-source tool that allows developers and researchers to easily compare video codecs using a standardized and automated approach. The goal of AWCY is to provide a simple and efficient way to evaluate new codecs or improvements to existing codecs, helping to drive progress in the field of video compression.

AWCY was developed by the Alliance for Open Media, a consortium of technology companies dedicated to creating a royalty-free video codec. It is designed to work with the open-source AV1 codec and other industry-standard codecs such as H.264 and H.265.

Features

Some key features of AWCY include:

• Automated benchmarking: AWCY can be set up to automatically run a set of encoding and decoding tests on different video samples, using different codec configurations and parameters. This allows developers to quickly evaluate the performance of different codecs and settings.
• Performance tracking: AWCY stores the results of each test, allowing developers to track the progress of their work over time and compare current results to past benchmarks.
• Standardized testing: AWCY uses a standardized set of parameters and video samples, ensuring that results are consistent and comparable across different codecs and configurations.
• User-friendly UI: AWCY provides a web-based UI that allows users to view benchmark results, configure tests, and launch new tests.

Getting started

To use AWCY, you'll need to have a working installation of the AV1 codec or another supported codec. You can then clone the AWCY GitHub repo and follow the instructions in the README file to set up the tool.

Once you've set up AWCY, you can customize the benchmark settings to suit your needs. AWCY comes with a default set of tests and video samples, but you can add your own if you prefer.

Once you've configured the benchmark settings, you can launch a new test and monitor the progress through the web-based UI. Results will be stored in a database for future analysis.

Conclusion

If you're a video codec developer or researcher, AWCY is a powerful tool that can help streamline your workflow and improve your work. Its automated benchmarking, performance tracking, and standardized testing make it a valuable addition to any codec development toolkit.