Yahoo Finance New 4K streaming standard could make Netflix, Amazon Prime, and more twice as fast
A new video-encoding standard has been announced that intends to cut data use in half.
The codec, which goes by the name of either H.266 and Versatile Video Coding (VVC), has been introduced by Germany's Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute.
The institute develops broadband communication networks and multimedia systems. It previously created the MP3 file format.
It says it has partnered with companies including Apple, Ericsson, Intel, Huawei, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Sony.
The new standard claims to improve compression, which means that the data requirements for streaming and storing all video resolutions – from Standard Definition to 4K and 8K – can be reduced by half.
This is in comparison to the previous standard H.265, also known as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC).
The institute claims that this new standard only requires 5GB of data to transmit a 90-minute Ultra High Definition (4K) video, while the previous standard would require 10GB.
Many UK homes lack the equipment, or the internet speeds, to stream 8K content.
Televisions capable of playing in such high resolution are expensive, costing upwards of £3000.
Moreover, Netflix recommends that 4K streams require an internet connection of at least 25MB per second. As such, 8K streams could require at least double that speed, and it remains unclear whether UK connections would be able to handle that.
The UK’s average connection can range anywhere between 22.37Mbps to 54.2Mbps (as reported by Ofcom) or 61.75Mbps (as reported by Ookla).
“After dedicating almost three years toward this standard, we are proud to have been instrumental in developing H.266/VVC,“ says Benjamin Bross, head of the Video Coding Systems group at the institute.
“Because of the quantum leap in coding efficiency offered by H.266/VVC, the use of video will increase further worldwide. Moreover, the increased versatility of H.266/VVC makes its use more attractive for a broader range of applications related to the transmission and storage of video.”
“If you consider that Fraunhofer HHI already played a key role in the development of the previous video coding standards H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC, then we are happy with the fact that more than 50% of the bits on the Internet are generated by a Fraunhofer HHI technology,” Dr. Detlev Marpe, head of the Video Coding and Analytics department added in a statement.
However, this is not the only standard that exists for video encoding, and it is unclear yet how all the standards will coexist.
Google, which is notably absent from the list of partnered companies, has developed its own format called VP9 to encode YouTube videos.
It was initially released in 2013, and also claims to “reduce video bit rates by as much as 50% compared with other known codecs.”
Another open source and royalty-free standard, AV1, also exists as a successor to VP9. This is developed by the Open Media Alliance, which has the backing of the five major US technology companies – Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.
Samsung, Netflix, Mozilla, Tencent, Adobe, and VLC also support the endeavour.
