H.265/HEVC Overview and Comparison with H.264/AVC

The continuing requirement for better video and audio compression rates driven mainly by consumer demand for quality video output at lower bit rates to mutli-screen devices such as televisions, PCs, laptops and handheld devices calls for new compression standards. Improved quality requires better storage capabilities and transmission rates to deliver video. The video compression industry has maintained standards for video compression since the early 1980’s the fundamental techniques for compression have continued since this time. Standards generally last ten years before a new one is released, generally offering up to 50% gain in compression and visual quality than the previous standard.
Video and audio compression standards are implemented by two main organisations MPEG and ITU-T. This thesis analyses the common techniques and standards that are used to compress video with a focus on comparing H264/AVC the current most widely used industry standard and H265/HEVC the most recent compression standard which was released in January 2013. The aim of the new standard is to address the shortcoming of H264/AVC in delivering new technologies while keeping bit rate and file size low. This would include real time delivery of video on demand (VOD) at better quality and lower bitrates than H265/AVC and the delivery of UltraHD or 4K resolution television for instance. In this book the technical structure and operations of both H.264/AVC and H265/HEVC are examined, analysed and are compared with each other and previous industry compression standards.
The H.264/AVC and H265/HEVC standards are measured and graphed using PSNR and human subjective quality measurement both agreed industry methods for measuring video compression and quality. The results of the measurements are published and used to ascertain if the claimed 50% compression improvements are achieved. The immediate and future of the H.264/HEVC standard is examined. With an estimated roll out time of five years from now before the software and hardware infrastructure is in place that is capable of fully utilising the standard. This paper is the first analysis and comparison of H.264/AVC and H265/HEVC the two most recent standards.