AV2 nightly builds

Ready-to-run builds of AVM, the AV2 reference encoder (avmenc) and decoder (avmdec), rebuilt whenever AVM changes. No compiler needed.

Since 14 October 2026 the builds come from AVM's av2-enc branch instead of main. Its encoder is about 4 to 5 times faster at the same --cpu-used, with about the same quality, and its streams decode with main's avmdec.

Latest build: see the latest release.

Windowsx64 · .zip macOS, Apple Siliconarm64 · .tar.gz macOS, Intelx64 · .tar.gz Linuxx64 · .tar.gz Linux, ARMarm64 · .tar.gz

Older builds

Quick start

Unpack the archive and run the tools from a terminal. The encoder reads .y4m video; FFmpeg can make one from almost any file.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -pix_fmt yuv420p -frames:v 30 input.y4m
avmenc input.y4m -o output.ivf --ivf --end-usage=q --qp=160 --cpu-used=6
avmdec output.ivf -o decoded.y4m

--qp sets quality: lower is better and larger. The AV2 test conditions use 110 to 235.
--cpu-used sets speed, 0 (slowest) to 9. AVM is research software and slow at any setting: expect seconds per frame, or minutes for HD.
On macOS, downloaded tools are blocked at first. Allow them with xattr -d com.apple.quarantine avmenc avmdec.

Other AV2 decoders

Nightly builds of two independent AV2 decoders, rebuilt whenever they change: dav2d from VideoLAN (C, a sibling of dav1d) and rav2d (Rust). Both only decode; use AVM to make streams.

dav2d

Latest build: see the releases.

Windowsx64 · .zip macOS, Apple Siliconarm64 · .tar.gz macOS, Intelx64 · .tar.gz Linuxx64 · .tar.gz Linux, ARMarm64 · .tar.gz

dav2d -i input.ivf -o decoded.y4m

rav2d

Latest build: see the releases.

Windowsx64 · .zip macOS, Apple Siliconarm64 · .tar.gz macOS, Intelx64 · .tar.gz Linuxx64 · .tar.gz

rav2d input.ivf -o decoded.y4m

Each build decodes one of this repository's sample streams and compares the result with avmdec; the result is in BUILD_INFO.txt and the release notes. Both are BSD 2-Clause licensed; the licence files are included in each download.

Good to know

These builds are unofficial and not from the Alliance for Open Media.
AV2 is still changing. A stream made with one build may not decode with another, so note the AVM commit in BUILD_INFO.txt.
TensorFlow Lite and the two encoder experiments that need it are turned off, so all platforms use the same encoder configuration.
AVM is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause Clear License and the AOM Patent License; both are included in each download.