New Video Codec To Ease Pressure On Global Networks : H265

[Guest sae1480]

Geneva, 25 January 2013

– A new video coding standard building on the PrimeTime Emmy award winning ITU-T
H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC was agreed by ITU members today.

The new codec will considerably ease the burden on global networks where, by
some estimates, video accounts for more than half of bandwidth use. The new
standard, known informally as ‘High Efficiency Video Coding’ (HEVC) will need
only half the bit rate of its predecessor,


ITU-T H.264 / MPEG-4 Part 10 ‘Advanced Video Coding’ (AVC),
which currently accounts for over 80 per cent of all web video. HEVC will
unleash a new phase of innovation in video production spanning the whole ICT spectrum, from mobile devices through to Ultra-High Definition TV.

ITU-T’s


Study Group 16
has agreed first-stage approval (consent) of the much-anticipated standard known
formally as Recommendation ITU-T H.265 or ISO/IEC 23008-2.
It is the product of collaboration
between the ITU Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG).

Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General, ITU: “ITU-T H.264 underpinned rapid
progression and expansion of the video ecosystem, with many adopting it to
replace their own proprietary compression codecs. The industry continues to look
to ITU and its partners as the global benchmark for video compression, and I
have no doubt that this new standard will be as effective as its predecessor in
enabling the next wave of innovation in this fast-paced industry.”

ITU-T H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC

is deployed in products and services from companies including Adobe, Apple, BBC,
BT, France Telecom, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Polycom, Samsung, Sony,
Tandberg, Toshiba and others to deliver high definition video images over
broadcast television, cable TV, a variety of direct-broadcast satellite-based
television services, Blu-Ray disc formats, mobile phones, videoconferencing
tools,digital storage media,
and Internet Protocol television (IPTV).
It remains the most deployed global video compression standard.

ITU-T H.265 / ISO/IEC 23008-2 HEVC will provide a flexible, reliable and robust solution, future-proofed to support the next decade of video. The new standard is designed to take account of advancing screen resolutions and is expected to be phased in as high-end products and services outgrow the limits of current network and display technology.

Companies including ATEME, Broadcom, Cyberlink, Ericsson, Fraunhofer HHI,
Mitsubishi, NHK, NTT DOCOMO and Qualcomm have already showcased
implementations of HEVC.

The new standard includes a ‘Main’ profile that supports 8-bit 4:2:0 video, a ‘Main 10’ profile with 10-bit support, and a ‘Main Still Picture’ profile for still image coding that employs the same coding tools as a video ‘intra’ picture.

The ITU/ISO/IEC Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) (formerly JVT) will continue work on a range of extensions to HEVC, including support for 12-bit video as well as 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 chroma formats. Another importantelement of this work will be the progression of HEVC towards scalable video coding. The three bodies will also work within the Joint Collaborative Team on 3D-Video (JCT-3V) on the extension of HEVC towards stereoscopic and 3D video coding.

http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2013/01.aspx