Last week during a regular meeting between the Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) and the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) in San Jose, Northern California, a committee draft was created of the upcoming highly-anticipated H.265 codec standard that is expected to revolutionize efficiency standards in video transmissions for next-gen systems and networks adopting it.

The H.265 standard, or High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), is expected to fully support next-generation video delivery and streaming technologies from day one, including Quad-Full High Definition (4K resolution) at 3840 x 2160 pixels and Ultra-High Definition Television (8K resolution) at 7680 x 4320 pixels.



In perspective, 4K resolution is readily available in most cinemas and movie theaters around the world and provides 8.29 megapixels per frame, or roughly equal to the resolution of four 1080p monitors. On the other hand, 8K UHD resolution is an emerging format proposed by NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories in Tokyo, Japan that aims to provide 33.2 megapixels per frame, or roughly the same resolution as IMAX.

Advocates of the new H.265 codec suggest that it can provide video streaming efficiency boosts of 35 to 40-percent over today's H.264 codecs. During the meeting in San Jose, one speaker even suggested that streaming efficiency could be as high as 67-percent.

Regardless, we will need to wait another six months for the draft international meeting to be held, and another five months after that for the final H.265 standard to receive ratification in January 2013.