| Extension | .hevc |
| Category | video |
| Description | HEVC, otherwise known as h.265, is a state-of-the-art video codec. A codec is software that compresses and decompresses video files. It's highly efficient, achieving low bitrates—a measure of data used per unit of time—while maintaining excellent image quality. This codec excels in three key areas: increased maximum block size, random access to any frame in the video stream, and parallel decoding. |
| Technical details | The h.264 algorithm breaks images down into square pixels called macroblocks. In contrast, HEVC divides images into Coding Tree Units (CTUs), each up to 64x64 pixels in size. h.264 predicts each macroblock as either intraframe (using data from the same frame) or interframe (using data from adjacent frames). The HEVC codec, however, combines both intraframe and interframe compression within each CTU. To handle intricate images and preserve details, it employs sophisticated motion estimation and prediction techniques. Parallel decoding in HEVC is achieved by dividing the decoding process across multiple processing units, allowing the codec to process different parts of the video stream simultaneously. When compressed with the h.265 codec, video files typically shrink by about half. This demonstrates HEVC's superior compression capabilities compared to its predecessor, h.264. The key advantage of HEVC over h.264 is its significantly improved compression ratio, resulting in smaller file sizes without compromising video quality. |
