HEVCH265

HEVCH265, commonly referred to as HEVC or H.265, is a video compression standard developed by ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group and ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 29, Working Group 11, as the successor to H.264/AVC. It was designed to provide substantially improved data compression at the same video quality or improved quality at the same bitrate, enabling efficient delivery of high-resolution video such as 4K and 8K, as well as high dynamic range and wide color gamut content.

HEVC achieves its gains through a range of technical innovations, including a Coding Tree Unit structure up to 64x64 pixels, more flexible prediction and transform blocks, and enhanced motion compensation. It introduces advanced intra- and inter-prediction, larger transform sizes, and improved in-loop filtering such as deblocking and Sample Adaptive Offset (SAO) to reduce artifacts. The standard also supports multiple color formats and bit depths from 8 to 16 bits, and provides profiles, tiers, and levels to accommodate devices with varying capabilities.

Key profiles include Main and Main 10, with additional tools for scalable and tiled coding. HEVC is capable of supporting resolutions from conventional HD up to 8K, various chroma subsampling options (including 4:2:0, 4:2:2, and 4:4:4), and high dynamic range content. The format has been widely implemented in hardware and software decoders and is used in applications ranging from Blu-ray 4K and broadcast television to streaming services and videoconferencing.

Licensing for HEVC is managed through patent pools, and its adoption has been influenced by royalty considerations alongside competing codecs such as AV1 and the newer H.266/VVC. See also: AV1, H.266/VVC, H.264/AVC.