A new video codec has finally been approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to be the next upcoming standard that allows higher quality videos in less than half the bitrate of H.264 and will also allow lesser strain on network bandwidth for streaming HD videos and probably 4K in the future. This will also allow easier and better access to high definition content on mobile devices.
The press release on the ITU website states, “ITU-T H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC is deployed in products and services from companies including Adobe, Apple, BBC, BT, France Telecom, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Polycom, Samsung, Sony, Tandberg, Toshiba and others to deliver high definition video images over broadcast television, cable TV, a variety of direct-broadcast satellite-based television services, Blu-Ray disc formats, mobile phones, videoconferencing tools, digital storage media, and Internet Protocol television (IPTV). It remains the most deployed global video compression standard.” The post also mentions that companies like ATEME, Broadcom, Cyberlink, Ericsson, Fraunhofer HHI,Mitsubishi and NHK have already come up with reference implementations of the new standard.
Apart from the obvious advantage of double data compression ratio that this new standard has, it will also support 8K UHD and allow resolutions up to 8192 x 4320. While there have been issues with H.264 before, it has eventually been come out be the most used on the Internet with almost 80 per cent of web video being encoded in this format, most importantly after Apple stuck to its decision to use this open standard as opposed to proprietary formats like Adobe flash player’s VP8 on its devices. It is yet to be seen how this new standard comes out to be in the coming year and how well received it is in the market.
