Heading into a panel session on the state of codecs during last week’s Streaming Media Connect was not met with the fire and fury one has come to expect from video codec discussions. Despite a titillating line-up of representatives from Warner Bros Discovery, Netflix, AWS, and Bitmovin – each a competitor to another in some capacity – there was mainly agreement. Agreement that H.264 is still the most ubiquitous codec. Agreement that HEVC adoption is growing but is marred by the shortage of hardware decoders. Agreement that no one is looking seriously at VVC before 2025. Agreement that LCEVC has promise. The only minor disagreement came when questioning whether AV1 support has been slower than expected, or whether the Alliance…