OBS Studio will soon be able to livestream to YouTube with AV1. The software previously received support for that codec for recording videos, but did not let users live stream with it yet.
The option for AV1 live streams will be added with OBS Studio version 29.1, noted VideoCardz. The feature can be used by users who have a GPU with AV1 encoder, such as an Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 or Intel Arc GPU. YouTube itself is currently still transcoding AV1 live streams to a different codec, OBS Studio reports in its patch notes. This means that live streams are not yet served to viewers in native AV1 format. With AV1, live streamers should nevertheless be able to offer higher quality, with fewer compression artifacts, even at lower bit rates.
Discord previously received support for AV1 live streams, although that currently only works on GeForce RTX 40 GPUs. OBS Studio’s AV1 live streaming feature also works on Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs. However, the OBS Studio changelog does not mention whether YouTube AV1 live streams are also supported on AMD Radeon RX 7000 GPUs. OBS Studio has previously received support for recording videos with the AV1 codec, also on the RX 7000 series.