HEVC

HEVC, formally High Efficiency Video Coding and also known as H.265, is a video compression standard developed by ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG). It was designed to substantially improve coding efficiency over its predecessor H.264/AVC, enabling higher resolutions and lower bitrates for equivalent image quality. The standard was completed in 2013, with sector adoption following in broadcasting, physical media, and streaming.

HEVC achieves its efficiency through several advances, including larger coding units called Coding Tree Units (CTUs) up to 64x64, enhanced inter and intra prediction, more flexible transform and quantization, and advanced entropy coding based on CABAC. It also provides tools for parallel processing, such as tiles and wavefront parallel processing, to improve decoding performance on modern hardware. The format supports a range of chroma formats and bit depths, including 4:2:0 and higher bit depths in various profiles. Commonly deployed profiles include Main and Main 10, the latter enabling 10-bit color.

Applications and impact: HEVC is used for Blu-ray Disc 4K, broadcast and streaming services, and various online platforms that require high efficiency at high resolutions. Adoption has grown, but licensing complexity and patent fees have influenced its deployment and spurred interest in alternative codecs such as AV1 and VVC.

Limitations and considerations: HEVC requires more computational power and hardware support than H.264, which can affect decoding energy use and device compatibility, particularly in older devices and some mobile platforms.