HEVC Archives – Page 7 of 14 – The Broadcast Knowledge

Video: How Libre Can you Go?

Posted on 9th August 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

Many companies would love to be using free codecs, unencumbered by patents, rather than paying for HEVC or AVC. Phil Cluff shows that, contrary to popular belief, it is possible stream with free codecs and get good coverage on mobile and desktop.

Phil starts off by looking at the codecs available and whether they’re patent encumbered with an eye to how much of the market can actually decode them. Free codecs and containers like WebM, VP8 etc. are not supported by Safari which reduces mobile penetration by half. To prove the point, Phil presents the results of his trials in using HEVC, AVC and VP8 on all major browsers.

Whilst this initially leaves a disappointing result for streaming with libre codecs on mobile, there is a solution! Phil explains how an idea from several years ago is being reworked to provide a free streaming protocol MPAG-SASH which avoids using DASH which is itself based on ISO BMFF which is patent encumbered. He then explains how open video players like video.js can be modified to decode libre codecs.

With these two enhancements, we finally see that coverage of up to 80% on mobile is, in principle, possible.

Watch now!
Speakers

Phil Cluff
Streaming Specialist,
Mux

Video: Get Ready For A Multiple Codec World

Posted on 19th July 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

The codec world is fragmenting. None of the new entrants on to the market is expected to ever gain the universal status that AVC enjoys. This panel from Streaming Media East takes a look at how to prepare for this.

The panel kicks off discussing the differences between AVC and HEVC, VP9 and AV1 and moves on to discuss the pros and cons of supporting multiple codecs. Tarek from Twitch explains its partial adoption of VP9 – the reasons that it makes sense but the overheads which it brings the business.

Vittorio Giovara from Vimeo explains their reasons for using HEVC including their drive to be able to encode and deliver 10-bit video. Ellation’s Subhrendu Sarakar makes the point that managing codec changes and bitrate changes needs to be done carefully to ensure viewers that notice the change understand them and don’t feel there has been a reduction of quality.

After a brief discussion of encoding strongly characterised video types such as anime and gaming, the conversation moves on to AV1 and migrating from VP9 and there is an audience question on HEVC licensing and the lack of use of SVC (Scalable Video Coding)

It’s now relatively well known that Twitch deployed VP9 using FPGAs rather than as a software encoder which was the only way to get the real-time speed at 1080p60. The panel discusses encoding speed both in the encoder and decoder for VP9 and AV1 then finishes with a Q&A from the audience.

Watch now!

Speakers

	Tim Siglin Founding Executive Director Help Me! Stream
	Tarek Amara Principal Video Specialist, Twitch
	Vittorio Giovara Senior Engineer, Video Encoding Vimeo
	Nathan Egge Video Codec Engineer, Mozilla
	Subhrendu Sarkar Senior Engineering Manager, Video Infrastructure & CMS, Ellation

Video: ABR Streaming and CDN Performance

Posted on 26th April 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

Hot on the heel’s of yesterday’s video all about Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) streaming we have research engineer Yuriy Reznik from Brightcove looking at the subject in detail. We outlined the use of ABR yesterday showing how it is fundamental to online streaming.

Brightcove, an online video hosting platform with its own video player, has a lot of experience of delivery over the CDN. We saw yesterday the principles that the player, and to an extent the server, can use to deal with changing network (and to an extent changing client CPU usage) by going up and down through the ABR ladder. However this talk focusses on how the CDN in the middle complicates matters as it tries its best to get the right chunks in the right place at the right time.

How often are there ‘cache misses’ where the right file isn’t already in place? And how can you predict what’s necessary?

Yuriy even goes in to detail about how to work out when HEVC deployment makes sense for you. After all, even if you do deploy HEVC – do you need to do it for all assets? And if you do only deploy for some assets, how do you know which? Also, when does it make sense to deploy CMAF? In this talk, we hear the answers.

The slides for this talk

Watch the video now!

Speaker

Yuriy Reznik
VP, Research
Brightcove

Video: HEVC/H.265 Video Coding Standard

Posted on 9th April 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

HEVC, also known as H.265 is often discussed even many years after its initial release fro MPEG with some saying that people aren’t using it and others saying its gaining traction. In reality, both sides have a point. Increasingly HEVC is being adopted partly because of wider implementation in products and partly because of a continued push toward higher resolution video which often gives the opportunity to make a clean break from AVC/H.264/MPEG 4.

This expert-led talk looks in detail at HEVC and how it’s constructed. For some, the initial part of the video will be enough. Others will want to bookmark the video to use as reference in their work, whilst still others will want to watch the whole things and will immediately find it puts parts of their work in better context.

Wherever you fit, I think you’ll agree this is a great resource for understanding HEVC streams enabling you to better troubleshoot problems.

Watch now!

Speakers

	David Marpe Head of Department Video Coding & Analytics, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute
	Karsten Suehring Project Manager, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute
	Benjamin Bross Project Manager, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute
	Dan Grois Former Senior Researcher, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute

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