Next-Generation Video Coding and Streaming

CHAPTER 4H.265/HEVC STANDARD

The emergence of 4K ultra-high definition (UHD) video services has created a stronger need for coding efficiencies superior to H.264/AVC. The ubiquity of online video streaming and HD-capable mobile devices has also increased the demand for efficient and high-quality video delivery. Two key differences between H.264 and H.265 include increased modes for intraprediction and adaptive partitioning for interprediction. Unlike the fixed size macroblock structure of H.264, H.265 defines three different units. The coding unit defines a region in the video frame that shares the same intra or interprediction mode. The prediction and transform units define the regions sharing the same prediction and transform information respectively. The coding and transform units are specified using different quadtrees, which can be flexibly pruned to smaller units to match the characteristics of the video content. The decoding complexity of H.265 is not significantly greater than H.264 and 720p videos can be decoded on H.265-equipped mobile devices without significant battery drain. With H.265, video services are poised to be revolutionized by high quality and scalable delivery of digital content to heterogeneous home and enterprise networks, and user terminals.

4.1 H.265 OVERVIEW

MPEG and Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) worked together in a partnership known as the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) to develop the new high efficiency video coding (HEVC) ...