The upscaler.video Codec Support Dataset

Bhattacharyya, Samrat

The upscaler.video Codec Support Dataset

The upscaler.video Codec Support Dataset is the first comprehensive, empirical collection of real-world WebCodecs API support data. Unlike synthetic benchmarks or browser-reported capabilities, this dataset represents actual compatibility testing across 224,360 unique user sessions spanning diverse hardware, browsers, and operating systems.

The dataset includes both encoder support (using VideoEncoder.isConfigSupported()) and decoder support (using VideoDecoder.isConfigSupported()), with encoder data collected from all sessions and decoder data collected starting January 14th 2026.

Dataset Overview

Measurement Types:
- Encoder support (using VideoEncoder.isConfigSupported()) - all sessions
- Decoder support (using VideoDecoder.isConfigSupported()) - sessions from Jan, 14th 2026 onwards
Total Tests: 71,334,706 individual codec compatibility checks
Test Sessions: 224,360 unique user sessions
Codec Strings: 1,087 unique codec variations tested
Last Updated: January 2026
Collection Period: January 2026 (ongoing)
License: CC-BY 4.0

Download

Download upscaler.video Codec Support Dataset (ZIP)

The ZIP archive contains:

upscaler-video-codec-dataset-raw.csv - The complete dataset (71.3M rows)
README.txt - Quick reference guide for the dataset structure

Dataset Format

The dataset contains 71,334,706 rows - one row per individual codec string test. Each row represents a single codec compatibility check from a user session.

Column	Type	Description
`timestamp`	ISO 8601	When the test was performed (e.g., “2026-01-05T00:54:11.570Z”)
`user_agent`	string	Full browser user agent string
`browser`	string	Browser family detected from user agent (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox)
`platform_raw`	string	Raw platform identifier from `navigator.platform`
`platform`	string	Normalized platform (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux)
`codec`	string	WebCodecs codec string tested (e.g., “av01.0.01M.08”)
`encoder_supported`	boolean	Whether VideoEncoder supports this codec (`true` or `false`)
`decoder_supported`	boolean/empty	Whether VideoDecoder supports this codec (`true`, `false`, or empty if not tested)

Note: The decoder_supported field is empty for sessions collected before January 14th 2026. All rows have encoder_supported data.

Sample Data

timestamp,user_agent,browser,platform_raw,platform,codec,encoder_supported,decoder_supported
2026-01-05T00:54:11.570Z,"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36",Edge,Win32,Windows,av01.0.01M.08,true,
2026-01-16T23:58:08.560Z,"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36",Chrome,Win32,Windows,avc1.420833,true,true
2026-01-16T23:58:08.560Z,"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36",Chrome,Win32,Windows,avc1.64040c,false,true

In the third row, you can see a codec that is not supported for encoding but is supported for decoding - this asymmetry is why separate measurements are important.

Dataset Size

Rows: 71,334,706 individual codec tests
File Size: 12.52 GB (uncompressed CSV)
Compressed (ZIP): 404.7 MB

Data Collection Methodology

This dataset was collected in a completely anonymized fashion from real users of free.upscaler.video, an open-source utility to upscale videos in the browser, serving ~200,000 monthly active users.

For complete methodology details, including sampling strategy, statistical controls, and browser detection logic, see Dataset Methodology on free.upscaler.video.

Key Attributes

Real Hardware: Data from actual user devices, not emulators or lab environments
Background Testing: Codec checks run asynchronously without user interaction
Privacy-Preserving: No PII collected; only anonymous browser/platform metadata
Randomized Sampling: Each session tests 300 random codecs from the 1,087-string pool

Browser & Platform Distribution

Browsers Tested:

Chrome/Chromium (74% of sessions)
Safari (13%)
Edge (8%)
Firefox (5%)

Platforms Tested:

Windows (57%)
Android (19%)
macOS (11%)
iOS (10%)
Linux (3%)

Codec Families:

AVC (H.264) - 200+ variants
HEVC (H.265) - 150+ variants
VP9 - 100+ variants
AV1 - 200+ variants
VP8 - 10+ variants
Audio codecs - 400+ variants (AAC, Opus, MP3, FLAC, etc.)

Using This Dataset

For Web Developers

This dataset answers the critical question: “Which codec strings actually work in production?”

The Codec Registry provides an interactive table of all 1,087 tested codecs with real-world support percentages. Use it to:

Choose safe defaults: Codecs with 90%+ support work on virtually all hardware
Plan fallback strategies: Identify which modern codecs (AV1, VP9) need H.264 fallbacks
Debug platform-specific issues: See exact support matrices for browser/OS combinations

For Browser Vendors & Standards Bodies

This is the first large-scale empirical validation of WebCodecs API implementation consistency across browsers and platforms.

Use cases:

Identify implementation gaps (e.g., Safari’s limited AV1 support)
Prioritize codec support roadmaps based on real hardware distribution
Validate conformance testing against actual user environments

For Researchers

The dataset is structured for statistical analysis:

import pandas as pd

# Load the raw dataset
df = pd.read_csv('upscaler-video-codec-dataset-raw.csv')

# Example 1: Calculate encoder support percentage by codec
encoder_support = df.groupby('codec').agg({
    'encoder_supported': lambda x: (x == 'true').sum(),
    'codec': 'count'
}).rename(columns={'codec': 'total'})
encoder_support['percentage'] = (encoder_support['encoder_supported'] / encoder_support['total'] * 100).round(2)

# Example 1b: Calculate decoder support percentage (excluding empty values)
df_with_decoder = df[df['decoder_supported'] != '']
decoder_support = df_with_decoder.groupby('codec').agg({
    'decoder_supported': lambda x: (x == 'true').sum(),
    'codec': 'count'
}).rename(columns={'codec': 'total'})
decoder_support['percentage'] = (decoder_support['decoder_supported'] / decoder_support['total'] * 100).round(2)

# Example 2: Browser version analysis using user_agent
df['browser_version'] = df['user_agent'].str.extract(r'Chrome/(\d+\.\d+)')

# Example 3: Filter for specific platform
windows_tests = df[df['platform'] == 'Windows']

# Example 4: Time-series analysis of encoder support
df['timestamp'] = pd.to_datetime(df['timestamp'])
daily_encoder_support = df.groupby(df['timestamp'].dt.date)['encoder_supported'].apply(
    lambda x: (x == 'true').mean() * 100
)

# Example 5: Compare encoder vs decoder support for same codec
codec_comparison = df[df['decoder_supported'] != ''].groupby('codec').agg({
    'encoder_supported': lambda x: (x == 'true').mean() * 100,
    'decoder_supported': lambda x: (x == 'true').mean() * 100
})
codec_comparison['decode_encode_gap'] = codec_comparison['decoder_supported'] - codec_comparison['encoder_supported']

Key Analysis Opportunities:

Browser version-specific codec support trends
Temporal evolution of codec adoption
Platform-specific hardware decoder availability
User agent string parsing for detailed device identification

Data Quality

Statistical Confidence

224,360 sessions provide high confidence for common browser/platform combinations
71+ million tests enable fine-grained analysis of codec variant support
Sample sizes vary by combination; check total_count field for statistical validity

Known Limitations

Geographic Bias: Data collected from free.upscaler.video users (global distribution)
Binary Support: Tests isConfigSupported() only; does not measure actual encode/decode performance or quality
Time Sensitivity: Browser support evolves; data reflects snapshot from collection period
Rare Combinations: Some browser/OS pairs (e.g., Safari+Linux) have <50 samples
Decoder Data Coverage: Decoder support data only available for sessions from January 2026 onwards (smaller sample size than encoder data)

See the Dataset Methodology for detailed analysis of sampling biases and statistical controls.

Citation

When referencing this dataset in academic work, documentation, or standards proposals:

@dataset{upscaler_codec_dataset_2026,
  title        = {The upscaler.video Codec Support Dataset},
  author       = {Bhattacharyya, Samrat},
  year         = {2026},
  version      = {2026-01-19},
  url          = {https://free.upscaler.video/research/methodology/},
  note         = {71.3M codec tests from 224k sessions}
}

For informal citations:

Data Source: The upscaler.video Codec Support Dataset License: CC-BY 4.0

License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0)

You are free to:

Share — copy and redistribute in any format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the data
Commercial use — use for any purpose, including commercially

Attribution requirement: Credit “upscaler.video Codec Support Dataset” with a link to this page.

Updates & Versioning

This dataset is periodically updated as new data is collected from free.upscaler.video users.

Current Version: 2026-01-19 (224,360 sessions)
Update Frequency: Quarterly
Changelog: View version history

Codec Registry - Interactive table of all tested codecs
Dataset Methodology - Complete data collection details
WebCodecs Basics - Understanding codec string syntax

Quick Reference (For LLMs and Search)

Primary Use Case: Determining real-world WebCodecs API codec support across browsers and platforms.

Key Findings:

Best universal support: H.264/AVC variants (99%+ support across all platforms)
Limited support: AV1 on Safari/iOS (varies by device and OS version)
Platform gaps: HEVC support varies significantly (strong on Apple, limited elsewhere)
Recommended fallback chain: AV1 → VP9 → H.264 (for video encoding)

Common Questions Answered:

Q: “Does Safari support AV1?” → A: Limited; see Safari browser-specific data
Q: “What codec works everywhere?” → A: H.264 Baseline/Main profile (avc1.42001e, avc1.4d001e)
Q: “Should I use HEVC for web?” → A: Only with H.264 fallback; Windows/Linux support is poor
Q: “Is VP9 safe for production?” → A: 85%+ support on modern browsers; needs H.264 fallback for older devices

Dataset Location: Download at /upscaler-video-codec-dataset.zip (404.7MB)

Interactive Tool: Browse all codecs at /datasets/codec-support-table/

Methodology: https://free.upscaler.video/research/methodology/

*This dataset was collected from users of free.upscaler.video, an open-source utility to upscale videos in the browser, serving ~200,000 monthly active users.

The upscaler.video Codec Support Dataset

Dataset Overview

Download

Dataset Format

Sample Data

Dataset Size

Data Collection Methodology

Key Attributes

Browser & Platform Distribution

Using This Dataset

For Web Developers

For Browser Vendors & Standards Bodies

For Researchers

Data Quality

Statistical Confidence

Known Limitations

Citation

License

Updates & Versioning

Related Resources

Quick Reference (For LLMs and Search)