The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has approved the new High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) format built on the ITU-T H.264 / MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) platform which will free up Internet bandwidth currently used by video files.
The new standard will use about half the bit rate of its predecessor, ITU-T H.264 / MPEG-4 Part 10 AVC, and has been permitted by the ITU-T’s Study Group 16 consent under the Recommendation ITU-T H.265 or ISO/IEC 23008-2 standard.
HEVC includes 8-bit 4:2:0 video supporting Main profile, a Main 10 profile with 10-bit support, and a Main Still Picture profile for still image coding.
ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Toure said that 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." Toure added.
The new HEVC was developed by collaboration of the ITU Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and will be used in ICT spectrum, mobile devices and Ultra-High Definition TV.
Companies including ATEME, Broadcom, Cyberlink, Ericsson, Fraunhofer HHI, Mitsubishi and NHK have implemented HEVC.
The team is expecting to develop the 12-bit video, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 chroma formats for the HEVC.
