H.265
H.265
History of HEVC
The HEVC standard came out of a project to standardize video coding by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (ITU-T Q.6/SG 16) and ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11). The Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) was established to work on this project. The Joint Collaborative Team on 3D Video Coding Extension Development (JCT-3V) was also established to work on 3D video coding extensions of HEVC and other video coding standards.
The ITU-T began development of a successor to H.264 in 2004, while ISO/IEC began working in 2007. In January 2010, the groups collaborated on a joint Call for Proposals, which culminated in a meeting of the MPEG & VCEG Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) in April 2010, at which the name High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) was adopted for the codec. In October, 2010, the JCT-VC produced the first working draft specification, with the Draft Standard — based upon the eight working draft specifications — approved in July, 2012. In January of this year the ITU announced that HEVC had received first stage approval (consent) in the ITU-T Alternative Approval Process, while MPEG announced that HEVC had been promoted to Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) status in the MPEG standardization process. In April 13, 2013: HEVC/H.265 video codec approved as an ITU-T standard, and it’s now available for download on the ITU-T site.
How Does it Work?
Source video, consisting of video frames, is encoded or compressed by an HEVC video encoder to create a compressed video bitstream. Each individual frame is first broken up into blocks of pixels. The blocks are then analyzed for spatial redundancies and temporal linkages between frames are analyzed to take advantage of areas that do not change. These are encoded via motion vectors that predict qualities of the given block on the next frame. The residual information is encoded using an efficient binary compression.
This standard can definitely enable better compression. Same picture size and quality, a HEVC sequence can occupy less storage or transmission capacity than the equivalent H.264 video sequence. And the quality or resolutions should be higher than the H.264 video sequence.
Benefits of HEVC
As mentioned above, according to multiple studies Hhigh efficiency video coding should deliver up to 50% better compression than H.264 in video on demand (VOD) applications, which means better quality at half the bitrate. In live encoding, which obviously has to be performed in real time, the initial expectations are a 35% bandwidth reduction at similar quality levels. Alternatively, HEVC can also enable larger resolution movies, whether 2K or 4K.
In addition, encoding existing SD and HD content with HEVC rather than H.264 will add to cost savings and/or the ability to stream higher quality video to lower bitrate connections.
One thing of note is that HEVC is currently delivering the most reduction in bandwidth with larger resolutions. With smaller resolutions, there is not as much cost savings. Going forward as more companies implement HEVC, lower resolutions will also deliver equivalent quality at half the bitrate of H.264.
While H.264 was the codec that originally facilitated OTT and was the making of Netflix and YouTube, high-efficiency video coding could prove to be the codec that, by enabling HD quality, makes unmanaged networks viable for delivering premium Pay TV services. One definite is that HEVC will cut IP transport costs over CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) for OTT services.
One thing is for sure, there is a significant difference in quality when comparing HEVC to H.264
HEVC Adoption
A multitude of tech companies are starting to adapt the new standard and offer support. At this year’s IBC, several companies confirmed backing of the standard. At the 2014 NAB, several companies such as Harmonic will be announcing support for the standard. Many others such as LG, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Philips, Sharp, ARM, Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Realtek Semiconductor and Mozilla have backed the codec, and even Google will support it in Chrome and hasn’t ruled out YouTube support. Apple has even moved to support HEVC on its iPads — those sold in 2012 are HEVC compliant.
Why the initial lag in adoption of the new codec? One explanation was the uncertainty of price and what it would cost to use HEVC. Also the incorporation of HEVC playback into the iOS or Android platforms, either via an app or OS upgrade, is necessary for ratification of the standard. As expected, mobile video and OTT are leading the way in terms of HEVC adaption.
Encoding.com and HEVC
Encoding.com is now offering support for H.265 video encoding in both the UI and API. Refer to the information below on how they are use with each integration method.
For our sample XML, see below and here:
.
<format>
<output>mp4</output>
<video_codec>hevc</video_codec>
<video_codec_parameters>
<refresh>1</refresh>
<rc-lookahead>20</rc-lookahead>
<b-adapt>2</b-adapt>
<bframes>4</bframes>
<b-pyramid>1</b-pyramid>
<ref>3</ref>
<ctu>64</ctu>
<tu-intra-depth>1</tu-intra-depth>
<tu-inter-depth>1</tu-inter-depth>
<me>1</me>
<subme>2</subme>
<merange>60</merange>
<max-merge>2</max-merge>
<rect>1</rect>
<amp>1</amp>
<early-skip>0</early-skip>
<fast-cbf>0</fast-cbf>
<signhide>1</signhide>
<lft>1</lft>
<tskip>0</tskip>
<sao>1</sao>
<weightp>1</weightp>
<tskip-fast>0</tskip-fast>
</video_codec_parameters>
</format>
For more information on how we can assist you with h.265 video encoding, feel free to contact us.