Qualcomm Launches APV: The Open Standard for Pro-Grade Video to Rival Apple ProRes

Qualcomm has launched APV, the Open Standard for Pro-Grade Video, designed to rival Apple ProRes. Alongside the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the company unveiled support for APV encoding, intended for professional video capture and post-production control.

According to Judd Heape, Qualcomm’s Vice President of Product Management, the encoding specification was developed collaboratively by Qualcomm, Adobe, Google, ArcVideo, Company3, Blackmagic, Dolby, Samsung and others, and is released as an open-source standard to broaden access to professional video content. By adopting an open standard, Qualcomm seeks to rally industry support for APV as a competitor to ProRes and as an alternative to paid-licensing formats like H.265.

APV-enabled hardware will not be available until 2026, with industry adjustment and preparation cited as needed. Technical features include up to 10% smaller file sizes than ProRes, support for 10-bit 4:4:4 and 4:2:2, and encoding rates between 3Gbps and 4Gbps, enabling higher colour depth with reduced storage while preserving throughput. Microsoft will bring APV support to Windows PCs for seamless editing without transcoding.