Install av1an with Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix, pacman

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• av1an

Project history

The GitHub project dates from 2020, in the period when AV1 encoders such as aomenc, rav1e, and SVT-AV1 were powerful but slow enough that CPU utilization and chunking strategy mattered. Av1an's README describes its purpose as increasing encoding speed and improving CPU utilization by running multiple encoder processes in parallel.

The project later moved under the rust-av organization and developed a broader documentation site. Its feature set grew beyond simple parallelism into target-quality mode, VMAF plotting, resume support, VapourSynth script support, Docker images, and multiple encoder backends.

Adoption history

Av1an gained traction among video-encoding enthusiasts because it wrapped a stack that otherwise required careful manual scripting: FFmpeg, VapourSynth, metric tools such as VMAF, and separate executable encoders. The official README points to package-manager installation, Cargo, Docker images, Windows release binaries, and nightly builds.

The input records packages in Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix, and Arch, matching the project's audience: users comfortable with command-line video pipelines who want a reproducible binary rather than a pile of ad hoc shell scripts.

How it is used

The simplest usage is `av1an -i input.mkv -o output.mkv`; more advanced usage passes encoder parameters, worker counts, audio settings, logs, target quality, and VapourSynth inputs. Av1an requires FFmpeg and at least one supported executable encoder, not merely an encoder library package.

Its practical role is orchestration: split or index input, run multiple encode jobs, measure quality when requested, and assemble output. That makes it attractive on high-core-count machines where a single encoder instance would leave CPU resources unused.

Why package nerds care

Av1an is package-nerd significant because it exposes the messy boundary between video codec libraries, encoder executables, metrics tools, FFmpeg, VapourSynth plugins, and Rust distribution. Packaging it is not just shipping one binary; users expect the binary to find a working media toolchain.

Timeline

• 2020: GitHub repository created for Av1an.
• 2020s: Rust implementation and documentation site developed under the rust-av organization.
• 2020s: README documents Cargo, package-manager, Docker, Windows release, and nightly installation paths.
• 2020s: Target Quality, VMAF plotting, VapourSynth support, and multi-encoder support become core documented features.

Related projects

• aomenc, SVT-AV1, and rav1e: AV1 encoders supported by Av1an.
• vpxenc, x264, and x265: non-AV1 encoder backends supported by Av1an.
• FFmpeg and VapourSynth: required or common parts of Av1an workflows.
• Netflix VMAF: quality metric used by Av1an target-quality workflows.

Sources

• https://github.com/rust-av/Av1an
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rust-av/Av1an/master/README.md
• https://rust-av.github.io/Av1an
• source_facts.package-manager