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dav1d is VideoLAN's free, open-source AV1 decoding library, the engine that actually plays AV1 video inside VLC, LAV Filters, FFmpeg and Android, built to be small, multi-threaded and the fastest AV1 decoder in software.
dav1d is the code that turns AV1 video into pictures, and it is almost certainly already running on your machine.
It is not a program you open but a decoding library that sits inside the players and filters you already use.
Most people never need to download it on its own, and the section below says who does.
What dav1d Actually Is
A decoder is the part of a media player that unpacks compressed video. Every player has one for every format it supports, and it is the piece doing the real work while the player draws the buttons.
dav1d is that piece for AV1, written by VideoLAN and the FFmpeg developers and given away under a permissive licence. Because it is free to embed and faster than anything else in software, almost every project that plays AV1 has adopted it.
So when a file plays, dav1d is what played it - you just never saw a window with its name on.
Why AV1 Decoding Matters Right Now
AV1 stopped being a niche format some time ago. In December 2025 Netflix said AV1 accounts for roughly 30% of all its streaming, which makes it their second most-used codec, and that 85% of their HDR catalogue by view-hours is now covered by AV1 with HDR10+.
The reason is bandwidth. Netflix measured AV1 sessions using a third less bandwidth than both H.264 and HEVC, with 45% fewer buffering interruptions.
The catch on the desktop is that Windows 10 and 11 ship without an AV1 decoder of their own. Without one, an AV1 file opens as a black screen or a codec error, and a streaming site quietly drops you to a lower-quality format instead.
Where dav1d Already Lives in Your Setup
dav1d does not run on its own, so the practical question is which of these you already have. Most people are covered by one of the first three rows without installing anything new.
| Where it runs | What that gives you | Use this route when |
|---|---|---|
| VLC Media Player | dav1d is compiled in. Open an AV1 file and it plays, with nothing to configure. | You want AV1 playback with one download and no decisions. |
| LAV Filters | Bundles dav1d as its AV1 decoder and exposes it to every DirectShow player on the system. | You use MPC-HC, MPC-BE or PotPlayer. |
| K-Lite Codec Pack | Wraps LAV Filters, so you get dav1d plus HEVC, H.264, VP9 and the rest in one installer. | You would rather not think about individual components again. |
| AV1 Video Extension | Microsoft's own decoder, not dav1d, but it is what makes AV1 work in Movies & TV and Photos. | You use the Windows built-in apps rather than a third-party player. |
| FFmpeg | Can call dav1d as its AV1 decoder, which matters when decode speed sets the pace of a batch job. | You are transcoding or scripting rather than watching. |
If you want several of those at once, the LAV Filters Megamix puts LAV Filters, MPC-HC, PotPlayer, madVR and the subtitle filters behind a single installer with tick boxes.
Who Actually Needs the Download on This Page
The tell is simple: if you are looking for something to double-click after downloading, this is not it. The archive holds a DLL and a small command-line test tool, and nothing on it opens a window.
It is the right download if you are building an application against the dav1d API, replacing the bundled decoder in a player that loads an external DLL, or benchmarking decode performance. Everyone else is better served by one of the routes in the table above.
Note that the links page carries several builds side by side, going back to 1.3. Take the newest one unless you are reproducing a result against an older version.
What Changed in dav1d 1.5.4
Version 1.5.4 arrived on 17 July 2026 and is an optimisation release rather than a feature one. Nothing about which files play changes; the same files just cost less CPU.
- Threading reworked so tile tasks for every pass are scheduled at once, which keeps more cores busy on high-resolution streams.
- RISC-V gains intra prediction, film grain and motion compensation routines in both 8-bit and 16-bit depths.
- ARM64 routines optimised further, with support added for Armv9.3-A Guarded Control Stack.
- Assembly testing moved to the external checkasm project.
- AV1 decoding added for OS/2, which is a reasonable measure of how portable this code has become.
Technical Highlights
dav1d is hand-optimised assembly wrapped in C99, with SIMD paths for x86, ARM, RISC-V, POWER and LoongArch. That is why it outruns generic decoders on the same processor.
Decoding is split across frames and tiles so it scales with cores rather than clock speed, which is what makes 4K and 8K AV1 practical without a dedicated hardware decoder. Memory use is kept deliberately flat so a long playback session does not creep.
It handles every AV1 profile and level, 8-bit through 12-bit depth, HDR10 and film grain synthesis. Anything built against the dav1d API gets all of that, which is why the adoption list keeps growing.
AV1 on Android
Android 12 and later can use libdav1d as their AV1 software decoder, delivered through the Google Play System Update from March 2024 onward. Apps opt in to it rather than getting it automatically, and YouTube is one that has.
Our news piece on libdav1d arriving on Android covers what it replaced and why it matters on cheaper phones. For setting up a specific player, the AV1 on Android guide walks through MX Player, VLC and mpv.
If You Also Need to Encode AV1
dav1d only decodes. Making an AV1 file is a different job and needs a different tool.
The AOM AV1 Encoder is the official reference implementation and the quality benchmark everything else is measured against. It is also slow, which is the trade.
SVT-AV1 is the one most people should reach for instead, since it reaches comparable quality far faster on multi-core machines. Everything else in the family sits in our video codecs section.
Getting AV1 Working, and Fixing It When It Is Not
For player-by-player setup, the AV1 decoding guide covers VLC, PotPlayer and MPC-HC step by step. If the problem is YouTube specifically, the YouTube AV1 setup guide explains the three playback settings and how to check which codec you are actually getting.
One thing worth knowing before you change settings: dav1d is a software decoder. Turning on hardware-accelerated decoding in a player hands the job to your graphics card instead, so it is not a way to confirm dav1d is working - it is a way to stop it.
When something will not play at all, our Codec Troubleshooter narrows down the cause before you install anything. If you are still deciding whether AV1 is worth the switch, our guide to HEVC against H.264 covers the codec generation it is replacing.
Quick questions
Do I need to download dav1d?
Probably not. If you install VLC, LAV Filters or the K-Lite Codec Pack you already have it, and this download is aimed at developers and people replacing a decoder by hand.
Is dav1d free?
Yes. It is open source under the BSD 2-clause licence, which is why so many projects can bundle it without cost or paperwork.
Is dav1d faster than hardware decoding?
No. A graphics chip with an AV1 decode block will always use less power. dav1d is what runs when your hardware has no AV1 block, and it is fast enough to make 4K workable on machines that would otherwise stutter.
Does dav1d encode AV1 too?
No, it decodes only. For encoding, use SVT-AV1 for speed or the AOM AV1 Encoder for reference quality.
Does Windows 11 play AV1 without it?
Not on its own. Windows 10 and 11 ship no AV1 decoder, so you need either a player that carries one or Microsoft's free AV1 Video Extension for the built-in apps.
Which file on the links page should I take?
The newest one. Older builds are kept for reproducing results against a specific version and offer nothing else over the current release.
Download dav1d 1.5.4 if you need the library itself, or tell us what you used it for - this page has no reviews yet.
