HEVCI

HEVCI, or High Efficiency Video Coding Interface, is a term used in some circles to denote a proposed standardized interface for devices and software working with High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, H.265). The aim is to provide a common set of APIs and data flows to improve interoperability between encoders, decoders, editors, and playback devices, and to facilitate hardware acceleration, streaming, and cross-platform deployment.

Development and status: There is no single formal standard published under the HEVCI name by major standards bodies such as ITU-T or ISO/IEC. The term has appeared in vendor white papers and research projects as an internal or draft concept; different groups have proposed varying scopes, ranging from API abstractions and memory models to signaling of bitstream features and color formats.

Technical scope: Proposals typically describe components such as encoder interface, decoder interface, and transport/packetization interface, with defined data structures for frames, packets, and bitstream metadata. A key goal is to decouple encoder/decoder implementations from application logic, enabling hardware blocks to be swapped with minimal software changes.

Adoption and impact: As a non-standard or variably defined concept, HEVCI has not achieved universal industry-wide adoption. In practice, developers often work with native HEVC APIs, platform codec frameworks, or vendor-specific interfaces rather than a single HEVCI specification.

Relationship with HEVC: HEVCI aims to complement HEVC by standardizing the interface to HEVC bitstreams rather than the compression syntax itself, which is governed by JVET. Users should distinguish HEVCI from the core HEVC standard and from profiles like Main10.