Video Codecs Today: Minefield, Muddle, or Multiple Choice?

The pressure to optimize delivery of video at ever higher bitrates is growing such that the traditional once-in-a-decade leap in compression standards is on the verge of disintegrating.

It’s not that codec development is being outpaced; rather, that advances made in this area driven by the explosion in video over IP are creating heated competition and a fragmented market.

最新加入战斗的是MPEG-5, (又名基本视频编码/EVC), which standards body MPEG has put on a rapid track to ratification by this time next year. MPEG will talk about this at the NAB Show next week.

这是绕过HEVC的又一次尝试, which has been bogged down by perceived or actual high cost of implementation even while its technical benefits are not in question and its install base of 2 billion device continues to rise.

EVC will be royalty-free and aimed to be at least as efficient as HEVC. In tests, this target has reportedly been exceeded by 24%. But royalty-free codec AV1 is already in the market while MPEG’s own Versatile Video Coding (VVC) which targets immersive media applications and has greater target efficiency is due October 2020.

与此同时, Samsung began proposing its own AV1-style codec through MPEG seemingly because Apple is a member of AV1-backers Alliance for Open Media. Since the South Korean firm has just announced its own participation in AOM it's unclear where the fate of this proposal resides.

V-Nova is hoping to get its Perseus Plus codec accepted by MPEG as a standard means to enhance the deployment of codecs processing H.264和H.265. This is something it already does, but you can’t blame V-Nova for wanting official MPEG backing. 这是一种方法, 虽然, 与OTT的内容感知编码竞争, a technique that also does not require clients to 交换 out their hardware decoder.

An outside alternative is from Sweden’s Divideon whose XVC codec is being pitched as a compromise between HEVC and AV1.

媒体编码产业论坛, which launched six months ago and includes companies like Canon, MediaKind, 索尼, 诺基亚, 和苹果, will have its work cut out policing all of this to avoid another HEVC licence debacle, al虽然 it’s worth noting that HEVC patent holder HEVC Advance is also a member.

MPEG可能会对HEVC感到更大的压力, 它就会在许可证问题上让步得越多, but the genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

What seems more likely is that a number of these options could enjoy wide adoption. 正如分析师未来百家乐软件指出, “Broadcasters may favour VVC and streaming services could utilise XVC or AV1.”

The market needs a codec that delivers high compression efficiency, 合理的编码器复杂度, 广泛的解码器支持, 以及明确的许可制度. There are clear questions of scale and the market will need to move to an all-software base, but just as cinematographers now pick digital sensors as they would film stock for different applications, so broadcasters and service providers might one day be able to cherry pick, 交换, 用自动化的方式替换编解码器.