Aviator Video Encoder is a lightweight, easy-to-use utility with a graphical interface for encoding using SVT-AV1 and Opus. A free and open source program
AV1 aims to be royalty-free efficient alternative to older codecs like H.265 and H.264.
Aviator comes bundled with its own version of FFmpeg that is capable decoding videos, upscaling & downscaling videos with the sharp Catmull-Rom scaling algorithm, & encoding audio using the Opus audio codec via libopus.
Hovering over most user configurable options in Aviator will produce a helpful tooltip that you can look at to make things more clear.
Video Encoding Settings:
You can change the resolution (aspect ratio: width and height) of the video. Manually changing one resolution value will automatically calculate another value based on the aspect ratio of the video;
Aviator’s SVT-AV1-PSY speed preset is set to 6 by default, with a CRF (Constant Rate Factor) of 32. You can set CRF from 0 to 63 using the slider, with larger numerical values indicating smaller filesize at the expense of visual fidelity. Preset 6 offers a good balance between speed & compression efficiency at any CRF level;
The Grain Synth slider allows you to add artificial grain to your video to mimic natural grain. Grain Synth applies the artificial grain at decode time as a filter, which makes it easier to encode grainy videos at high fidelity. The Denoise switch removes noise from the video before applying artificial grain.
Audio Encoding Settings:
Audio is reencoded even if the bitrate is set to be the same as the source audio. Audio is encoded to Opus, which is a highly efficient free audio codec that is often more better than older competitors like AAC & MP3 audio. Because of Opus’s incredible efficiency, audio tracks will be encoded at 80kb/s by default. Opus reaches audio transparency at around 128kb/s, which means the compressed audio will likely be impossible to distinguish from the source;
The Downmix to Stereo switch is for audio tracks with more than two channels, like 5.1 Surround or 7.1 Surround. These channels will be downmixed to a stereo output with two channels. If the input track is stereo, it isn’t mixed any differently even if this option is enabled. If you know your audio is 5.1(side), you should enable this option or use Copy Audio as libopus within FFmpeg cannot handle 5.1(side)-mapped audio streams;
The Copy Audio switch disables WebM output due to potential compatibility hiccups & overrides every option on the Audio page in order to keep the source audio untouched. This option, when enabled, ensures the source audio isn’t reencoded;
The Volume slider allows you to increase or decrease the output’s volume. It is measured in decibles, and negative values decrease the volume. The Normalize switch allows you to normalize the audio’s perceived loudness.
Output
The container your video is stored in is associated with the file extension. Aviator offers two options for video output: the Matroska video container & the WebM container. The open-source Matroska container (.MKV) is Aviator’s default container, a universal multimedia container with widespread video & audio support. WebM is designed for web compatibility & strips subtitles by default because of this. Both work out of the box with Aviator’s AV1 video & Opus audio, but WebM output will be disabled if the Copy Audio switch is enabled because then we lose this format compliance assurance.
