What's New

What's New in AVPro Video 2.0

For a quick and easy comparison, some of the main differences compared to the previous AVPro Video 1.x plugin are summarised in this table:

AVPro Video 2.0 AVPro Video 1.x
First released 2021 (January) 2016 (February)

New Features
Unity 2020 & 2021 support Yes No
Direct3D 12 support Yes 1 No
NotchLC codec support on Windows Yes 2, No
Stereo metadata video on Windows Yes No
Stereo packing detection Yes No
Unity audio playback on Android Yes No
Multi-track support Yes No
Subtitle track support Yes No
Frame-based time methods Yes No
Asset-based media (MediaReference) Yes No
Edit-mode media playback Yes No
Apple Silicon architecture support Yes No
10-bit video support Yes 4 No

Improved Features
Low overhead macOS/iOS/tvOS plugin Yes No
Support for modern Unity features (VfxGraph, Timeline etc) Yes No
Upgraded to latest APIs (ExoPlayer, Audio 360, Hap etc) Yes No
YCbCr optimisation support on macOS Yes No
ASync Hap codec on Windows Yes 2 No
Adaptive streaming support Advanced Basic
Content protection support Advanced 2 Basic

Deprecated Features
Legacy Windows XP No Yes
Legacy Windows Phone No Yes
Legacy Unity 4.x support No Yes
Legacy Unity 5.x support No Yes
Legacy Unity 2017.x support No Yes
WebGL support No 3 Yes
PlayMaker actions included No Yes
NGUI component included No Yes

Asset Changes
New Ultra Edition for advanced users Yes 2 No
macOS, iOS and tvOS plugins combined into a single edition Yes No

Why update to AVPro Video 2.0?

Modernised

  • Now with support for D3D12
  • Upgraded to using latest APIs for best modern features support, eg ExoPlayer, Hap, Facebook Audio 360
  • New WinRT player on Windows
  • Shaders and scripts upgraded to use modern Unity features

Workflow improvements

  • Edit-mode media playback allows media to be played without running the scene
  • New MediaReference asset type allows easy defining of media

Audio improvements

  • Android can now play audio back to Unity
  • Windows supports 16 channel PCM audio
  • Demo MediaPlayerUI includes audio spectrum visualisation

Powerful streaming options

  • New option to force adaptive stream to start at the highest bitrate on Android and Windows (using WinRT API)
  • New WinRT has improved streaming support
  • Android, macOS, iOS and tvOS expose options for specifying the preferred max bitrate and resolution
  • Android exposes new options for controlling buffering behaviour

Better integration with Unity features

  • Ready-to-use components for integration with the Unity features:
    • Timeline / Playables
    • Shader Graph
    • Visual Effect Graph
  • SRP / HDRP / UWP
    • The new texture resolver option makes it easier to integrate with other shaders / features / components

Timed Text

  • Subtitles support
  • ID3 / metadata support (planned)

Long awaited features

  • Stereo videos now work correctly on Windows without having to remove metadata
  • Frame-centric methods
  • Multiple video and audio track support
  • Textures now persist between video loads, allowing for a better visual experience and less resource reallocation (WinRT only currently)

Improved Demos

  • Fewer demos, but higher quality
  • Focused on helping people get started with common use cases

Better Components

  • MediaPlayer can now play media without having to enter Play mode, improving workflow
  • Many MediaPlayer UI improvements

Better Code

  • The C# code has been refactored to give a cleaner and easier to work with API
  • Scripts are now organised using assembly definition (asmdef) files, for improved modularity, better interoperability with modern Unity features, and reduce compile time

Documentation improvements

  • Manual and scripting documentation completely updated
  • Changed from PDF to HTML

Continued support and development

  • Expect the same high level of support and longevity you’ve come to expect from other RenderHeads products
  • New features will continue to be added, with customer feature requests taken into high consideration
  • Customer support will continue to be a top priority, just as it always has been
  • Just as we have done before, we will continue maintaining the product through to new versions of Unity

Better content protection options 2

  • Encrypted video via AES-128 HLS (now also supported on Windows via WinRT API)
  • Custom HTTP headers (now also supported on Windows via WinRT API)

Professional Codec Support 2

  • Hap codec support on Windows now supports Media Foundation API, with faster non-blocking loading
  • New 10-bit NotchLC codec support on Windows
  • Improved support for 10-bit videos 4

Legacy Removal

  • Legacy support removed we can focus on the modern features
  • Removed support for Unity 4.x, Unity 5.x and Unity 2017.x
  • Windows
    • Removed support for legacy Windows Metro (Phone and 8.1)
    • Removed support for Windows XP
  • macOS
    • Minimum version changed to 10.12
    • Dropped OpenGL support
  • iOS / tvOS
    • Dropped 32-bit support
    • Dropped OpenGLES support
    • Minimum version changed to 11.0

 

1 Direct3D12 support requires minimum Unity 2019.3

2 Only in the Ultra Edition

3 WebGL plugin still included, but we do not support it (see WebGL platform notes)

4 10-bit video support has some elements that only work in the Ultra Edition and has other limitations as documented