Software decoding is an option. My Thinkpad T480 can play 1080p AV1 if the bitrate isn't super high. That's a mid range business laptop from 2018. It's the encoding that really needs hardware acceleration.
cmnybo
joined 2 years ago
That doesn't help with all the content that's been encoded in H.264 over the last two decades though.
Hosting and development would just move to a country that doesn't allow software patents.
Around 25% for a 1080p 30fps youtube video played in MPV. Power consumption is about 10-12 watts. A video with hardware acceleration uses about 8 watts.