When AV1, the first version of the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) codec, finally arrived with a frozen code base late in March 2018 the debate over how great its impact will be continued with contradictory results over performance. One problem is that the relevant codecs, especially the legacy H.264 and its successor HEVC from the ISO MPEG camp, along with VP9 which provided a foundation for AOMedia, in addition to AV1 itself, are all at different stages of their development, making meaningful comparisons difficult. Meanwhile AOMedia already has its next version AV2 under the wings in R&D, while MPEG also has its sequel to HEVC called JEM (Joint Exploration Model) available for early testing, as is being done by…