Next gen VVC/ H.266 codec will bring better quality video at lower sizes

[Karlston]

Next gen VVC/ H.266 codec will bring better quality video at lower sizes

Versatile Video Coding (VVC) or H.266, the next-gen MPEG video standard, has been officially announced by Fraunhofer HHI. The firm, along with industry partners like Apple, Ericsson, Intel, Huawei, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Sony, has been working on the technology for the last three years.

 

Much like its predecessor High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), or H.265, this new compression standard also promises to reduce the bitrate and sizes of video files by around 50% with no perceptible difference in visual fidelity. Software capable of taking advantage of VVC encoding and decoding is expected to be released by autumn this year.

 

With global internet video demand on the rise, the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is pushing H.266/VVC as well as two other standards, namely: MPEG-5 Part 1, or Essential Video Coding (EVC), and MPEG-5 Part 2 or Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding (LCEVC). Part of this push may also have to do with the competition from the open-standard AV1 codec, which is capable of yielding similar results to HEVC while also being royalty-free. Preliminary testing conducted by BBC R&D last year has shown promising results for VVC as the new standard exhibits significant bitrate savings over HEVC as well as AV1, especially in the case of 4K UHD files.

Image via Streaming Media Global

The overall adoption of HEVC has been quite slow in the past, but with the rise in high-resolution displays and content, alongside promising preliminary results, VVC/H.266 could receive a more favorable response from the community.

 

 

Next gen VVC/ H.266 codec will bring better quality video at lower sizes

 

[truemate]

 https://newsletter.fraunhofer.de/-viewonline2/17386/465/13/14SHcBTt/u8far30f3W/1

 

Here we go AGAIN....Same lines at the time of H265.. this time with H266.. like 50% compression...same quality..this that..

 

actually h264 still best...fast encode..good quality too.

try to encode in H265..BLOODY 3 TIMES MORE TIME IT TAKES THAN H265 and vid quality too nearly same only

 

H265 TURN TO BE flop... Hardly anyone using it..... This new H266 WILL ALSO END UP LIKE H265

[ghost]

New video format 'halves data use of 4K and 8K TVs'

Although 8K televisions are becoming more common, there is currently little content available in that resolution

 

A new video-encoding technology that promises to cut data use by at least half has been announced, after three years of talks involving some of the tech industry's largest players.

 

The standard should make it possible for people with slow connections to stream footage in higher quality than before, without pauses for buffering.

 

It could also pave the way for on-demand services to offer 8K content.

 

But one expert warned it would probably take years to catch on.

 

The codec - which is called both H.266 and Versatile Video Coding (VVC) - was announced by Germany's Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute.

 

It said Apple, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Intel and Huawei were among those that had worked on its development.

 

It hopes that in time, smartphones and other cameras will be able to automatically record and play back footage in the format. However, new chips will need to be developed before they can do so.

 

In the interim, recordings will need to be re-encoded to take advantage of the extra compression made possible. Playback will probably require a fast processor because today's hardware was not designed with the codec in mind.

Codec choices

H.266 is designed to require half the bitrate - the amount of data transmitted per second - as today's standard H.265.

 

The H.265 codec itself halved the bitrate requirement of its predecessor H.264, which is still widely in use.

 

"H.265 requires about 10 gigabytes of data to transmit a 90-minute ultra-high definition [4K] video," explains a press release.

 

"With this new technology, only 5GB are required to achieve the same quality."

 

Some experts believe VR headsets will only be able to match reality when they can display 16K or higher resolutions

 

 

In order to stream 8K video reliably, tests have indicated that homes would require internet connections capable of more than 85 megabits per second (Mbps), which is beyond what many properties have today. However, that has the potential to drop to a more manageable 40-50Mbps if H.266 takes off.

 

Another benefit of the tech is that users should be able to save double the amount of footage on the same amount of storage, assuming they do not take advantage of the codec to capture it in higher quality.

 

Many people's homes are not big enough to house a television that is large enough to appreciate the four-times boost in the number of pixels that 8K offers over 4K.

 

However, the jump in resolution has big advantages for virtual reality, which fills the user's field of view.

 

In addition, it offers a more efficient way to stream higher-resolution 360-degree footage to next-generation headsets, where the extra detail can make a big difference as users are only ever seeing a section of the recorded image at a time.

 

But just because the standard exists, it does not mean it will be universally embraced.

 

Google has previously opted to use a format it developed itself - VP9 - instead of H.265 to encode YouTube videos.

 

And a consortium - which includes Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Samsung - has already developed a successor, AV1. The video-game streaming platform Twitch has already said it intends to switch "100%" to the format by 2024.

 

Google avoided some of the licence fees involved with H.265 by using a different codec for YouTube

 

"The codec story is always the same: everyone always wants to get better-quality video in a more efficient state, but the challenge is getting people to adopt it," commented Ben Wood from the CCS Insight consultancy.

 

"To be successful, a codec has to get broad adoption from all the key players. And deciding to back one can be somewhat of a religious decision."

 

BBC.com

 

[Karlston]

Similar topics merged.

[steven36]

On 7/7/2020 at 2:02 PM, truemate said:

actually h264 still best...fast encode..good quality too.

It's fast encode  for old PCs  but  H265  while it's slow to encode on PCs  most  Pirate x265 sites  use  a bot and do it in the cloud  and it's really fast  encoding  in the cloud  100s of releases  come out everyday  same with legit sites  it's all automated .  for H264 to be good quality it has to be like 4 times bigger  than h265  so it takes up tons of HD space and  it uses  up more bandwidth if   you stream it  and  data if you dl it,   stuff like YIFY  small h264 look bad on a TVs  It only looks ok on small screens.

[truemate]

21 hours ago, steven36 said:

It's fast encode  for old PCs  but  H265  while it's slow to encode on PCs  most  Pirate x265 sites  use  a bot and do it in the cloud  and it's really fast  encoding  in the cloud  100s of releases  come out everyday  same with legit sites  it's all automated .  for H264 to be good quality it has to be like 4 times bigger  than h265  so it takes up tons of HD space and  it uses  up more bandwidth if   you stream it  and  data if you dl it,   stuff like YIFY  small h264 look bad on a TVs  It only looks ok on small screens.

 

 

yeaa... but its only good if you do it on cloud / RDP and also have latest tv which support x265

[Karlston]

2 hours ago, truemate said:

and also have latest tv which support x265

 

Or use an SBC with a KODI JeOS distro like LibreElec as a media player plugged into the TV.

 

My 2017 vintage ODroid C2 and the newish Raspberry Pi 4 both do h.265 decoding in hardware.

[truemate]

19 hours ago, Karlston said:

 

Or use an SBC with a KODI JeOS distro like LibreElec as a media player plugged into the TV.

 

My 2017 vintage ODroid C2 and the newish Raspberry Pi 4 both do h.265 decoding in hardware.

 

need tuts regarding this..... 😥