New standard for digital video compression twice as efficient as HEVC
German engineers who once developed the popular MPEG-3 audio coding format, as well as AVC and HEVC, which allowed video to be compressed to fit on a smartphone, announced a new standard for VVC compression, which could become a critical element in the era of ultra high definition video.
Compressed video today represents 80% of global Internet traffic. New standard presented by the Institute of Telecommunications. Fraunhofer, provides improved compression that will reduce file size by 50% compared to the older H.265 / High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) format. In other words, the H.266 / VVC standard will provide faster file transfers with the same quality. It supports all video resolutions from SD and HD to 4K and 8K, high dynamic range video, and 360-degree video.
“Today it is increasingly difficult to distinguish a voice robot from a human”
By reducing data requirements, VVC is making video streaming over mobile networks more efficient, according to the Institute’s website.
For example, if HEVC required approximately 10GB of data for 90 minutes of UHD recording, then with VVC you only need 5GB while maintaining the same quality. The new format is especially suitable for 4K and 8K broadcasts on flat screen televisions.
As with each of the previous protocols, VVC will require new encoding chips that are already in development. Apparently this is being done by the Institute’s partners: Apple, Ericsson, Intel, Huawei, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Sony.
To avoid previous licensing problems, the developers will authorize the use of the new standard on FRAND principles (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory use), which will be enforced by the Media Coding Industry Forum (MC-IF). The first VVC-compliant encoding program will be released this fall.
