HEVC : high quality video codec
High-Bandwidth Video compression, or H.264 and MPEG-2, is a video compression format designed as an alternative to the now largely obsolete Advanced Video Compression. Like its older sister H.V.C, H.264 offers higher bitrate for video footage with a shorter file size. This has helped make it the preferred format for many professional and personal video clips, though the increased file size may negatively affect some video editors’ ease of use.
Currently, the most popular multimedia video compression format is the HEVC format. However, there are two major limitations that HEVC faces. First, HEVC uses a lower bitrate than H.V.C does, a factor of roughly two to three during any compression cycle. Second, HEVC suffers from significant compatibility issues with different operating systems. Windows Media, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X all ran on different compression systems, making HEVC incompatible with many video editing programs used on these platforms, for example in youtube video compression.
The good news, however, is that HEVC has been adapted to work well with common computer programs and formats. A HEVC decoder and converter (aka “encoders”) can effectively open doors to upgrading any current computer to a HEVC system, saving on production costs and increased compatibility among multiple HEVC-compliant programs. Converters can also be used to convert video files to high-quality HEVC for transfer and playback on some HEVC-compliant devices, such as Blu-Ray players and digital home theater systems. On the web, there is also a large selection of free HEVC video converter software available.
If you’re looking for a way to upgrade your current video hardware to HEVC, consider a converter. Converters can significantly improve the quality of captured video and dramatically reduce file size. You may also want to upgrade your hardware in order to utilize a higher-quality compression scheme. Depending on how your video is captured and stored, your hardware might not support the latest compression standards, but most modern machines do.
HEVC compression scheme is based on the principle of data compression. In essence, the compressor looks at each frame of every video file, compresses it into a series of small packets, and then divides up the data into its respective slices for further compression. While this does seem complicated, the end result is typically better quality video and less wasted space. HEVC compression schemes also have the added benefit of reducing bandwidth use — as each file is compressed, the overall file size decreases.
There are two main compression standards used in HEVC. The first is the High-Bandwidth Video compression standard, which is the standard used in Blu-ray for Blu-ray disc video and its VGA adapter. The second is the Lossless compression standard, which only uses compression when a file is smaller than a certain size (hence, the term “lossless compression”). If you’re looking at the full-length videos, you’ll definitely want to go with the High-Bandwidth Video compression standard.
High-bandwidth Video compression provides the highest quality images, but is often the most expensive. This is because each block of video data must be compressed into a different size. To compensate, the compression ratio goes up, which means that the final image will be of a much higher quality. On the flip side, the cost goes up because of the greater complexity of the compression schemes. However, if you consider the relative ease of switching from one compression method to another, it may be worthwhile.
There are other methods that are being developed with HEVC in mind. Some compression ratios are in the minority right now, but it won’t be long before the majority of compression schemes support HEVC. When you’re choosing an encoder for your project, make sure that it is HEVC compliant.
