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WHAT IS THE H.264 CODEC?

The H.264 codec is a further development of the MPEG-4 standard, also called MPEG-4 part10. In favor of H.264, at least the fact that high definition television (HDTV) works accurately using the H.264 standard speaks.

Compared to MPEG-4, the H.264 standard provides better compression due to the use of more complex stream encoding schemes. In scenes that are difficult to code with fast motion, color transitions are smoother and similar colors are compressed at a lower bit rate. This codec conveys fine details better, because unlike MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, where the minimum macroblock sizes are 16×16 and 8×8 pixels, H.264 uses blocks of up to 4×4 pixels and the block size changes adaptively for each individual fragment. In scenes with high details or fast-moving objects, this provides better image quality. With the same amount of information and image quality, the H.264 file is on average 30% smaller in terms of the size of the MPEG-4 file.

In the beginning, the obstacle to using this codec was that real-time video decoding requires very powerful hardware from the computer. Now, with the launch of Intel and AMD multi-core processors on the market, the required level of PC performance is available to a wide range of users.

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AVC / H.264

The AVC (Advanced Video Coding) video compression standard was proposed by the JVT (Joint Video Team) in May 2003. At that time, it represented a revolutionary advance in video compression technology. The new standard completely surpassed the commonly used MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 Part 2 (SP, ASP) standards. By some estimates, storing video compressed according to the AVC standard requires 2 times less memory space than for video compressed according to the MPEG-2 standard with the same quality.

 

The new standard made it possible to receive broadcast quality standard definition video at a rate of 1.5 Mbps. This compression ratio allows the transmission of approximately 12 compressed TV channels in the frequency band previously occupied by an analog TV channel. Additionally, the introduction of AVC enabled television operators to provide new video services in places where they were not previously available and opened up the ability to “pack” more video channels into a narrow and expensive frequency range for transmission. Advantages in encoding efficiency, such as good video quality at low bit rates, have made AVC the undisputed leader in Internet TV systems and have taken the industry to a whole new level. AVC has also significantly improved the quality of digital television and made HDTV high definition television widely available.

MPEG-LA’s low license fees have also contributed to the rapid adoption of the standard, and H.264 / AVC has successfully established itself in the market to date. In 2010, the number of AVC-based solutions exceeded the number of similar solutions based on the outdated MPEG-2 standard and increased every year until the adoption of the next H.265 / HEVC video compression standard.

Key features of the H.264 / AVC standard
The H.264 standard provides advanced encoding technology using methods similar to the previous MPEG and ITU-T standards. New tools that include the following provide increased productivity and quality.

Improved motion estimation

Motion estimation allows you to search for sub-macroblocks of various sizes from 16×16 to 4×4 pixels. Motion vectors are now accurate to 1/4 pixel for luma and 1/8 pixel for chroma. Furthermore, the coding of motion vectors has been significantly improved; your prediction is used.

Spatial prediction

H.264 performs internal predictions for intracoded blocks, allowing up to 9 different directional predictions to be applied.

Optimization of encoding parameters

The classical encoding method involves making optimal local decisions at each stage. Obviously, in this case, the resulting solution may not be optimal. The AVC standard proposes a new algorithm to optimize RDO (Frequency Distortion Optimization) encoding parameters, the essence of which is to select those parameters, the use of which will better affect the result.

Modified PrEP

To transform the residual information, a modified integer discrete cosine transform (MDCT) is used, which avoids rounding errors. One important difference from previous standards is the block sizes for DCT. AVC allows transformations in 8×8 and 4×4 pixel blocks.

Filter block limits

Another innovation of the AVC standard is the use of an unblocking filter, the main task of which is to smooth out block artifacts at the boundaries of macroblocks in the image. Thus, the visual perception of each frame and the entire video sequence as a whole is improved.

Enhanced coding on smooth movements

Several new conditions have been added to AVC to encode macroblocks in “jump” mode. In fact, in this case, the macroblock is not encoded, but a different macroblock is used in the same position but of a different frame. Therefore, significant gain is achieved at low bit rates or with smooth camera movements, when the entire image is moved in the same way.

Entropy coding

The standard provides two more efficient entropy encoding processes. Context Adaptive Variable Length Encoding (CAVLC – Context Adaptive Encoding with Different Lengths of Codewords) is an entropy encoder, the principle of which is close to the Huffman compression algorithm. CAVLC allows you to compress information quickly, while providing an acceptable compression ratio.

Context Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding (CABAC – Context Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding) is an arithmetic coder.

What is H.264?

H.264 is the leading video compression standard used today in video surveillance and beyond.

H.264, MPEG-4 Part 10, or AVC (Advanced Video Coding) is a licensed video compression standard designed to achieve a high compression ratio of a video stream while maintaining high quality.

Created by ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) together with ISO / IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) under the Joint Video Team (JVT) program.

ITU-T H.264 and ISO / IEC MPEG-4 Part 10 (the formal name is ISO / IEC 14496-10) are technically completely identical. The final draft of the first version of the standard was completed in May 2003.

It is used in HDTV digital television and in many other areas of digital video.

A little more about H.264 and why is it popular?

H.264 is a modern compression standard adopted in 2003. Thirteen years is a short time for an industry standard. For comparison, the first version of USB was adopted in 1995 and the second, which everyone uses now, in 2000.

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The H.264 standard is reliable, compatible with almost any device, and provides good compression. HD quality video will be displayed at a bit rate of no more than 7-8 Mbps, while the previous standard (HD, MPG-2) required 12-20 Mbps, roughly double.

There is a more modern H.265 standard, but so far not everyone is ready to use it (developing codecs based on it is a bit more expensive for the software and hardware manufacturer, and the best is the enemy of the good), there is an outdated MPEG-2 (whose use requires more space in media, needs thick channels for traffic). Therefore, in our time it is so important for the universality of software and technology to maintain this compression standard.

H.265 is gradually being introduced to Hikvision cameras and recorders, with support for backward compatibility. This is how USB 3.0 (blue) is now being introduced, appearing more and more frequently on new motherboards and laptops.