h265 codec, (successor to h264) now approved

about time, 264 has been pushed as far as i can imagine(in a good way)

but wondering if this required new hardware or if existing chips can be firmwared to encode this
 
imdjay said:
about time, 264 has been pushed as far as i can imagine(in a good way)

but wondering if this required new hardware or if existing chips can be firmwared to encode this
Click to expand...

Good question. That was my first thought as well. I'm sure we'll find out some news at NAB...
 
imdjay said:
about time, 264 has been pushed as far as i can imagine(in a good way)

but wondering if this required new hardware or if existing chips can be firmwared to encode this
Click to expand...

It will require new hardware. Let's also keep in mind, so far they've only approved Main, Main 10, and Main Still Picture profiles. There is more to come: 12 bit, 4:2:2 & 4:4:4 choroma subsampling, MVC (for 3D viewing), better compression, etc. Which are reserved for extensions.

Another thing is HEVC is designed to support up to 8K@120fps. The likelihood is that the first few rounds of hardware won't even support higher end specs of HEVC as there are no displays that reach that level.

I would expect there would be some future 4K/8K Blu-ray format announced soon using HEVC (likely with some new Playstation of some sort). For digital distribution, HEVC will be a double-edged sword, it will allow for bandwidth requirement to be significantly reduced (by as much as half), but by adding 10-bit/12-bit. 4:2:2, rec.2020, there is a lot more qualitative additions that will also eat away at bandwidth.
 
4 to 5 times as much CPU power! That's a ton, I think because of that it's going to be at least 3-5 years before H.265 becomes main stream. The 35 to 50% less bandwidth is huge thou.

Anyone remember when the GoPro HD first came out. People were struggling with the 1080 files. I remember reading posts asking "what's an MP4??? H.264?!?!? Why can't my computer play it!!!" I upgraded my computer and picked up the latest version of Vegas (movie studio) at the time just so I could edit the stuff. Seems like that was a decade ago :)
 
Steve Castle said:
I would expect there would be some future 4K/8K Blu-ray format announced soon using HEVC (likely with some new Playstation of some sort). For digital distribution, HEVC will be a double-edged sword, it will allow for bandwidth requirement to be significantly reduced (by as much as half), but by adding 10-bit/12-bit. 4:2:2, rec.2020, there is a lot more qualitative additions that will also eat away at bandwidth.
Click to expand...

Sony have already said no 4k Blu-ray is planned. At present, sales of traditional dvd still equal Blu-ray.
 
imdjay said:
about time, 264 has been pushed as far as i can imagine(in a good way)

but wondering if this required new hardware or if existing chips can be firmwared to encode this
Click to expand...

I have yet to see anyone use the high end of h.264 though. I mean, it supports 4:4:4 14bit Intra CAVLC at a maximum bitrate of 720Mbps, that is extreme though.
 
Tom Roper said:
Sony have already said no 4k Blu-ray is planned. At present, sales of traditional dvd still equal Blu-ray.
Click to expand...

Sony has officially announced a "Mastered in 4K" Blu-ray and a 4K digital distribution system, but not an actual 4K Blu-ray format that I know of. Though I think it a foregone conclusion that they will.

My guess would be that whenever Sony makes a 4K Blu-ray, they will also lay down the framework for 8K within that next upgrade as well. As neither content nor display technology for 8K exists, I'm sure they'll setup the groundwork scaling for the eventual 8K transition. In that I mean that H265 already supports 8K, Blu-ray disk have always been designed for multi-layers, at 16 layers it can go upto 400GBs. We should presume that physical media will face an uphill battle as digital distribution becomes common place. Hence, 4K and beyond needs the least amount of friction between transition as possible in terms of format.

As you say, Blu-ray sales haven't overtaken DVD sales, that's with DVD sales dwindling. Digital distribution is clearly the future, but for 4K the bandwidth requirements are still very high. For 4K delivery via HEVC H265 is expected to require a sustained 20-30 Mbps, for 8K its expected to require 100 Mbps . It'll take awhile before sustained speeds reach a wide enough consumer reach for even 4K delivery becomes a mass market/standard delivery solution.

Its also not just a user-end issue, you also have to think about the server end. Imagine, in primetime, millions of users (maybe tens of millions of users eventually) requiring 20-30mbps each of bandwidth and serving them up simultaneously. Its very challenging economically. For digital distribution the friction isn't hardware but rather bandwidth and infrastructure.

For the near term, 4K Blu-ray will be the only feasible delivery solution. It also may be an opportunity to differentiate itself from digital distribution by offering bandwith eating solution like 10-bit 4:2:2 & higher framerates options as part of its specification. Either way, we should start hearing much more news
 
I have a horrible feeling this new CODEC will be used mainly for consumer cameras shooting low bit-rate 8-bit 4:2:0 video, and that the higher bit-rate "Main 10" ( 10-bit 4:2:2 ) implementations will take forever to show up in prosumer gear.
 
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