HEVC, otherwise called H.265 is the successor to H.264; advantages include compression of media by nearly 50% of current sizes, allowing for quicker transfers and paving the way for 8K transmissions.
HEVC or H.265 is the latest codec designed to improve video quality and double the data compression ratio compared to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.
H.265 can support 8K Ultra High Definition (UHD) and work with resolutions up to 8192×4320 pixels. The codec substantially improves coding efficiency compared to its predecessor H.264. With it, bitrate requirements can be reduced by half, which allows video to be streamed much more efficiently.
HEVC is targeted at newer displays and content capture systems that feature progressive scanned frame rates and display resolutions up to 8192×4320. It also supports improved picture quality in terms of noise level reductions, colour gamut and dynamic range.
Ben Kinealy, VP of IPTV & OTT at Intigral says: “HEVC is designed to provide high-quality streaming video, even on low-bandwidth networks. It paves the way for more efficient streaming of video on wired and wireless networks and is anticipated to be 50 percent more efficient than H.264, with a capacity to stream 1080p video at half the amount of bits it takes today. It is expected to be effective, if not more so, than the previous standard.”
Ian Trow, senior director, Emerging Technology & Strategy, Harmonic Inc. says the introduction of H.265 will alleviate bandwidth constraints for broadcasters.
“H.265 improves coding efficiency through several innovative tools — such as enhanced motion compensated filtering, multiple coding block sizes, and expanded loop filters — that exploit spatial and temporal correlations,” said Trow.
With the ability of H.265 to use half the bandwidth compared to H.264, the coded file can be used not just for commercial HD broadcast, but can also deliver the same quality of video for mobile and tablet device users. Kinealy says this will make online video more widely available in markets with poor connectivity.
However, the benefits of the codec, also means its computational requirements will become more complex.
“The new system will inevitably be more complex than the earlier generation – probably three time more – but because of the improvements possible with chip density, it will still be practical with consumer equipment,” said David Wood, chairman of the ITU Working Party.
So what does all this mean for the broadcast industry?
Eugene Keane, CTO of Nevion is of the opinion that a change is definitely on the horizon.
He says: “When the iPad arrived on the market the percentage of video published in H.264 was a mere 10%, with MPEG-2 being the predominant codec.
Since then this number has increased to over 80% with a concurrent massive expansion of content. For example, Netflix now accounts for over 30% of internet traffic in North America, and with the explosion of LTE mobile devices, video on-the-go is also rapidly increasing.”
“These trends are driving the need for a more efficient compression scheme, i.e. to tilt the growth curve of bandwidth consumption while enabling higher quality and/or higher resolution TV,” continued Keane.
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As more content starts being delivered to the consumer on-request, rather than on a broadcaster’s programming schedule, there is a constant need for more network bandwidth and storage.
OTTs like Netflix are continuously making more and more content available and Keane says this will require a scaling of the network and background resources. To keep pace, more efficient encoding is required and H.265 addresses this.
Kinealy of Intigral agrees and says: “The new technology will have a positive impact for the broadcaster in terms of cost and better image quality. It paves way for the next wave of innovation, facilitating faster movie downloads and higher-quality video streaming. A large scale adoption of H.265 could also mean less network strain and more HD video.”
Trow also addresses the massive growth of OTT players and how that could eat away at revenues from broadcasters. He says H.265 will be good for broadcasters though, as there will be massive bandwidth savings that will be critical to helping broadcasters cost-effectively keep pace with consumer demand and improve upon their current service offerings.
He says: “In addition, H.265 has the potential to support a variety of current and future applications, including 4K x 2K Ultra HDTV (UHDTV) and fixed point contribution environments, such as newsgathering, live events, sports, and concerts, where bandwidth is typically restrictive.
The bottom line is H.265 will enable broadcasters to cost-effectively deliver a more advanced service offering to viewers — in terms of video quality, size, and breadth — than ever before.”
Wood advised that the greatest opportunity in broadcasting will be for those countries that are prepared to make the transition to a next generation broadcasting system.
“In France and Italy, when they make the transition to DVB-T2, they can include H.265 compression. This could open the door for them to broadcasting the more advanced HD system 1080p/50, or even Ultra-HD.
This option may not be open to the UK, where the transition to DVB-T2 has already been made with the old compression technology. Ultra-HD broadcasts by satellite will be more practical with HEVC also,” says Wood.
He also indicates that initially, H.265 will be used to carry HDTV via the Internet.
Keane agrees and says in the IPTV environment where bandwidth to the consumer is scarce, more bits can be made available for internet use, maintaining the same quality levels for video by halving the video bandwidth.
He however warns that broadcasters need to consider that deployment of devices and adoption will take some time. “Set top boxes are to date mostly MPEG-2 with some deployment of H.264 in the satellite and IPTV markets. Changing out over a billion STBs will take time and investment, but ultimately it’s where one of the biggest returns on investment will take place,” says Keane.
Keane also thinks HEVC encoding and decoding will likely take another three to four years to become commonplace. This is due to the major increase in required computational power which is estimated to be a factor of ten.
Speaking about when H.265 will full be adopted, Trow says: “In January, the H.265 standard received first-stage approval from the ITU-T and was promoted to Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) status in the MPEG standardization process. Final approval is expected in mid-2013.”
“International adoption of the standard is still at least one or more years away. It is expected that the first deployments of H.265 will be for the delivery of HD OTT services, and will take place in 2014 after encoding and decoding equipment is commercially available.
In addition, French media regulator CSA has announced that it will mandate H.265 for 4K x 2K video services beginning in 2016. UltraHD and contribution are likely to take more time because they would require a bigger change to the broadcast ecosystem,” continues Trow.
Wood of the ITU Working Party thinks adoption will come quickly, at least for the Internet. He says: “Traditionally, you see products a year or so after the specification has been agreed, but I suspect it will come in quite a hurry to the Internet.
They say ‘bits are bucks’ don’t they? It is not going to be ever the only system in use, because there is too much legacy use of MPEG2 and AVC, but it will certainly be the only system used for the age of Ultra High Definition Television.”
