High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)

Overview

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is the current joint video coding standardization project of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (ITU-T Q.6/SG 16) and ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11).

The Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) was established to work on this project. The scope of this group was extended to continue working on Format Range Extensions (RExt), Scalable HEVC (SHVC) and Screen Content Coding (SCC) as extensions of HEVC.

The Joint Collaborative Team on 3D Video Coding Extension Development (JCT-3V) was established to work on multiview and 3D video coding extensions of HEVC and other video coding standards.

The first version of the HEVC standard was finalized in April 2013.

The second version of HEVC including the RExt, SHVC and MV-HEVC extensions was finalized in October 2014.

The third version of HEVC including the 3D-HEVC extension was finalized in February 2015.

Documents

• JCT-VC Documents
• ITU-T Recommendation H.265: High efficiency video coding
• ISO/IEC 23008-2: High efficiency video coding
• Directory of publicly available standards at ISO
• Common Test Conditions and Software Reference Configurations for HM (JCTVC-L1100)

HEVC reference software

The reference software for HEVC is called HM (HEVC Test Model).

The HM software is maintained using the git version control system on a GitLab server.

• HM GitLab page

The software was historically maintained in a subversion repository. All version history was imported into the git repository. The original subversion repositories can still be accessed at:

• HM subversion repository (main at HHI) - not updated
• HM subversion repository (mirror at BBC) - not updated

Recommendation/Standard:

• ITU-T Recommendation H.265.2: Reference software for ITU-T H.265 high efficiency video coding
• ISO/IEC 23008-5: Reference software for high efficiency video coding

HEVC reference software documentation

• HM software manual
• HM source code documentation (Doxygen)
• HEVC Software Development Guidelines (JCTVC-H1001)

Conformance

Recommendation/Standard:

• ITU-T Recommendation H.265.1: Conformance specification for ITU-T H.265 high efficiency video coding
• ISO/IEC 23008-8: Conformance Specification for HEVC

Bitstreams

• JCT-VC Bitstream directory

Bug reporting

Specification and software bugs can be reported using the HEVC bug tracker:

• HEVC bug tracker

Further information

• HEVC contributions of the Image & Video Coding Group at HHI
• HHI contributions to the 3D HEVC extension
• HHI HEVC encoding and decoding solutions

Overview Papers

• G. J. Sullivan, J.-R. Ohm, W.-J. Han, and T. Wiegand, "Overview of the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) Standard", IEEE Trans. Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Vol. 22, No. 12, pp. 1649-1668, Dec. 2012.
• J.-R. Ohm, G. J. Sullivan, H. Schwarz, T. K. Tan, and T. Wiegand, "Comparison of the Coding Efficiency of Video Coding Standards - Including High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)", IEEE Trans. Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Vol. 22, No. 12, pp. 1669-1684, Dec. 2012.
• F. Bossen, B. Bross, K. Sühring, and D. Flynn, "HEVC Complexity and Implementation Analysis," IEEE Trans. Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Vol. 22, No. 12, December 2012.

For papers on the HEVC extensions see the pages on RExt, SHVC, MV-HEVC and 3D-HEVC.