H.266 / VVC (video compression standard)
A new standard for video compression without quality loss appeared
On July 7, 2020, the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute research organization introduced a new video compression standard: H.266 / VVC. The codec created will reduce the size of video files in half, while ensuring fast data transfer between devices.
Fraunhofer HHI explained that the new solution focuses on efficient data compression while maintaining original quality. The codec is capable of performing tasks twice as efficiently as the HEVC solution, which was introduced in 2013. The codec does an excellent job of handling ultra high definition video (4K, 8K, 360 degree video) as well as with more common formats (480p, HD (720p) and FullHD (1080p)).
A new video compression standard has been released. The size is reduced by half without loss of quality.
For example, the HEVC codec above would require 10GB for 90-minute long UHD video. The VVC codec will compress video down to just 5GB. H.266 / VVC is also well suited for text, graphics encoding, the solution supports adaptive resolution switching, 10-bit and HDR. H.266 / VVC was developed in partnership with Apple, Intel, Huawei, Ericsson, Qualcomm, Sony, and Microsoft.
Fraunhofer HHI intends to create a uniform licensing model for patents related to basic codecs, adhering to the FRAND principle (“fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory”). Fraunhofer HHI will present a list of the first applications that support encoding and decoding using the H.266 / VVC standard in Autumn 2020. It is assumed that before 2021-2022, hardware solutions that support the new standard, although chip development aimed at accelerating H.266 at the hardware level is actively underway by July 2020.
