Hi there video nerd! 🤓 Buckle up because we‘re going on a journey through video encoding history to see how we arrived at the H.264 vs H.265 crossroads we find ourselves at today.
Why Video Compression Matters
Before we dive deep on the standards themselves, it‘s crucial we understand why video compression exists in the first place.
You see, uncompressed video is a total data monster. We‘re talking 1 GB per second or more at full HD resolutions! Streaming or storing raw video is wildly impractical even with today‘s networks and drives.
That‘s why compression algorithms are so invaluable – they remove redundant video information and optimize how frames are stored. The result? Files small enough to stream and share, with little perceptible quality loss!
Over the decades, each new video coding standard achieved better compression, fueling new eras of video technology as we know it. DVDs, Blu-ray, Youtube, Netflix – all built upon advancements in compression science!
Now let‘s explore the two compression titans who rule the industry today…
H.264 – King of HD Video
- Also known as AVC (Advanced Video Coding)
- Designed byITU-T Video Coding Experts Group + MPEG committee
- First introduced in 2003
- Quickly dominated thanks to technical innovations
Building on pioneering work around block-based encoding in prior standards, H.264 took compression efficiency to unprecedented levels for standard definition and HD video.
Rather than applying compression across entire frames, H.264 broke each frame down into macroblocks – tiny 16×16 pixel squares. It analyzed each block, choosing to retain or omit specific blocks to save space. This micro-level optimization is what allowed H.264 to squeeze HD video into compact file sizes smoothly streamed across 2000s era networks!
Over the decade that followed, H.264 ceased to be just a standard – it became a cultural sensation!
Blu-ray adopted H.264 for pristine HD movie playback. YouTube, Netflix, Hulu relied on it to stream HD content to the mass market. iPads, iPhones, and countless devices supported playback using dedicated H.264 hardware decoders. Its roaring success made H.264 the gold standard for HD video distribution.
Trouble In Paradise – Enter 4K
As the 2010‘s brought demands for ever higher video resolutions, H.264 began to show its age. Storing and streaming 4K using H.264 required high bitrates, ballooning bandwidth budgets. A 30-minute 4K video could devour storage, with some estimates putting it north of 100 GB!.
Clearly this was unsustainable – 4K‘s potential hung in the balance! The industry needed a dramatic compression breakthrough…and fast!
H.265 – 4K‘s New Best Friend
- Also known as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)
- Joint project by ITU-T, MPEG organizationsStarted in 2010
- First official release in 2013
Armed with research into the latest compression techniques, industry pioneers developed the next-generation H.265 standard. Its mission? Tame those 4K data appetites once and for all!
Rather than tiny macroblocks, H.265 uses more flexible coding tree units (CTUs) which come in multiple sizes adaptively set per video. It also analyzes temporal data across frames to save space.
This advanced approach, combined with brute-force computational power, brought shocking results…
At similar visual quality levels, H.265 achieved 50% BETTER COMPRESSION than H.264! 4K bitrate requirements were slashed dramatically thanks to H.265 optimization magic!
suddenly, 4K distribution became much more viable. Blu-ray adopted H.265 to push crisp 4K films out to the masses. Netflix and Youtube began streaming H.265 for viewers eager to feast their eyes on those 8 million pixels!
And H.265 has continued to gain steam since 2013. According to Cisco forecasts, over 90% of the world‘s video traffic will use H.265 by 2022!
Now that‘s what I call dominance! 😎📈
On the next page, we‘ll peek under the hood to understand WHY H.265 is so darn efficient compared to old H.264…
