Everything you need to know about HEVC / H.265
You may have heard a lot about HEVC / H.265 lately. With the rise in popularity of 4K video, Apple has embraced this new industry standard on Mac Hight Sierra and iOS 11. Compared to H.264, H.265 / HEVC has great advantages, but what are they? And can you really take advantage of that H.265 / HEVC? I will go into HEVC / H.265 in detail below and hope it is helpful.
What is HEVC / H.265?
HEVC stands for High Efficiency Video Coding, also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2, it is the latest and most advanced video compression standard jointly developed by MPEG and VCEG, which offers higher encoding efficiency and better improved video quality. HEVC is capable of compressing video with twice the data compression rate, but only requires half the bit rate to maintain the same video quality and halve the storage space compared to H.264.
Why does HEVC / H.265 come?
As you may know, more and more 4K and 8K videos are appearing in the world, while these HD videos require a lot of space, making it impossible to download and stream them in the best quality. To reduce storage space while maintaining the same H.264-based quality, it uses HEVC encoding technology.
HEVC can easily deliver video content to your Apple TV, computer, even iPhone or other portable devices with high quality and less space. If you like to play HEVC / H.265 videos, you can decode the files first and play them through the media player. However, you can also convert DVD to H.265 codec to get half the size but the same video quality. Therefore, many consumer devices and operating systems gradually support HEVC / H.265.
H.265 performance, advantages and disadvantages
H.265 is designed to deliver higher quality video with limited bandwidth that is cut in half. This means that we can enjoy 1080p high definition video with our smartphone and tablets online. The H.265 standard keeps pace with the high resolution display.
The main advantage of H.265 is that H.265 has better compression performance and lower bandwidth utilization, which can further reduce the design bit rate to reduce transmission and storage costs. And now, many high-definition 4K devices, such as 4K Blu-ray player or other streaming media players, support H.265. By the way, you can also convert H.265 to other supported formats with a free H.265 converter to play on your devices.
It is worth noting that the investment in H.265 is huge, especially after H.264; many industrial companies will hesitate to choose H.265. On the other hand, H.265 has 3 groups of patents with different price structures and terms. Lack of clarity on royalties stopped the adoption of H.265.
Development and current status of H.265
H.265 is now increasingly supported by many platforms and operating systems, but it is not widely supported. The successful popularization of a video standard depends on several aspects, including the decision of the standards organization, the emergence of competitors, applications, and royalties. Unlike H.264, H.265 requires high license fees, which are charged by HEVC Advance, an independent license manager.
Like the development of a high-resolution display, H.265 will also evolve. Despite its industrial rival VP9 and other limiting factors, H.265 will find a way out and gain massive popularity.
