Are you still team x264, or have you made the jump to x265/AV1? Let me know in the comments below.

Will it eventually fade? Yes. When 8K becomes the norm and devices catch up, AV1 or VVC will take the crown. But today? Right now?

Every device on earth plays x264. Your iPhone 16, your Grandma’s 2012 laptop, your smart fridge. Try playing AV1 on a smart fridge. You can't. x264 is the universal language.

If you download a TV show, watch a YouTube video (yes, YouTube uses H.264 for many users), or stream on Discord, you are paying tribute to x264.

Launched in 2003, x264 is a software library for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format. While there are other H.264 encoders (like Apple’s or MainConcept’s), x264 became the standard because it was

If you have ever torrented a movie, ripped a DVD, or tried to shrink a 4K video file down to a manageable size, you have met the silent king of compression: x264 .

At 1080p and below, x264 looks perfect . x265 might save you 200MB on a 2GB file, but the encoding time quadruples. For most users, that trade-off isn't worth it. The Verdict: Respect the OG x264 is the shot caller because it never fails. It took the chaos of raw video and brought order to the high seas and streaming services alike.