HEVC的未来:即将到来，但仍有许多问题

HEVC is the next-gen compression technology lauded as the enabler for a host of new services and capabilities. I discuss the historical development of HEVC and its technical underpinnings in my article HEVC是什么.265)?” 在本文中, I’ll briefly review those findings and focus on how quickly HEVC will make a mark in streaming media and OTT markets.

 

 

根据 multiple studies, HEVC should deliver up to 50% better compression than H.264 in video on demand (VOD) applications, which means similar quality at half the bitrate. 在实时编码中, 这显然需要实时执行, 最初的期望是在类似的质量水平下减少35%的带宽. 另外，HEVC还可以支持更大分辨率的电影，无论是2K还是4K.

 

从本质上讲，这是HEVC在流媒体领域的两个好处. 第一个涉及到用HEVC而不是H编码现有的SD和HD内容.264, enabling cost savings and/or the ability to stream higher quality video to lower bitrate connections. 第二项是为超高清(UHD)视频开辟新市场.

 

在回放方面，有多个数据点，但没有真正清晰的画面. 几家公司已经发布了软件解码器, 但目前还不清楚需要多少马力来驱动它们. The original targets for HEVC were 10x encoding complexity and 2x–3x decoding complexity as compared to H.264，大多数来源都证实了编码的10倍数字. Perusing various comments from various sources, decoding complexity has ranged from “same as H.264”到2x-3x的数字.

 

记住，H.在大多数播放平台上，264播放在硬件上是加速的, 包括电脑上的gpu加速播放. 根据我在显卡供应商NVIDIA的消息来源, “目前在我们当前的gpu中没有任何专门的(硬件)支持HEVC. 对于未来的产品，我能说的非常有限. But I’ll just say that our goal is for our GPUs to support all current video standards. 现在, 也就是说, it is quite possible for third parties to write HEVC encoders and decoders using CUDA to use the processing capability of current GPUs.”

 

虽然GPU加速可能会到来，但它还没有出现，所以H.264 and HEVC aren’t on a level playing field when it comes to accessible playback hardware. 不过，据高通公司(Qualcomm, 公司 .)的一位消息人士透露., “我们可以得到1080p, 30fps HEVC Main profile video with just a little bit over 50% CPU utilization on a quad-core architecture.”

 

在移动端, 我的线人报告说, “At CES we showcased Ittiam’s ARM based decoder and played back 1080p HEVC and 1080p H.264 videos side by side on recently announced Snapdragon 800 platform. Ittiam的解码器仍在开发中，将得到进一步的增强.” You can see a video of HEVC playing back on the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform from the Mobile World Congress 2012 at go2sm.com/qualcomm.

 

根据一份题为 消费类设备中的HEVC解码 多媒体研究集团的高级分析师米歇尔·亚伯拉罕. estimated that the number of consumer devices that shipped in 2011 and 2012 that would be capable of HEVC playback with a software upgrade totaled around 1.预计2013年的销量将超过10亿部. 根据亚伯拉罕, in compiling these statistics she assumed that all PCs shipped in each year would be HEVC-capable.

 

 

I spoke with several encoding companies; many were bullish on HEVC and have either made HEVC-related product announcements (Elemental Technologies, 公司.)或将在NAB. Another made the very cogent comment that the encoding side was always ahead of the game and that the path to actual producer adoption is widespread playback availability.

 

说到回放, 没有一家大公司——Adobe, 苹果, 谷歌, 或微软，都宣布在各自的播放器中支持HEVC播放, 吃嫩叶的动物, 或移动或桌面操作系统. One reason why -- and a potential monkey wrench in at least the short-term HEVC adoption cycle -- is that no one knows what it will cost to use HEVC.

 

 

What’s clear at this point is that multiple companies have patents relating to HEVC technology, 他们还计划向使用他们技术的人索要版税. 这就是H的情况.264也是, 尽管流媒体行业的许多人对版税颇有怨言, 这种不满当然没有限制H.264年的成功.

 

HEVC有两点不同. 首先，H在哪?.264涉及由MPEG LA管理的单一专利持有人组, it appears that some HEVC patent holders want to pursue royalties outside of a patent group, 这将使HEVC用户获得技术许可更具挑战性. 根据 “专利混乱可能会推迟新的视频编解码器，” 联发科和高通都不想加入MPEG LA制定的HEVC集团, 三星还没有做出决定.

 

一位芯片制造商高管, 匿名接受《百家乐软件》的采访, 评论, “HEVC has so many patent holders and some of them say they will not be part of the pool but want to collect royalties themselves. If say 20 people all want to collect royalties it will kill the standard -- we need a fixed cost, 它不能是可变的,他补充道.

 

Beyond this uncertainty, HEVC is coming to the streaming media market much faster than H.264, where royalty policies were in place well before any significant market adaption. 重新描述一下，H.264规范于2003年3月获得批准 MPEG LA宣布许可条款 2003年11月. 显然，当苹果宣布支持H.264在QuickTime 7在2005年4月，版税政策是牢固的地方. 当Adobe宣布它将包括H.2008年3月，微软在Flash中加入了H . 264.264在2009年7月发布到Silverlight.

 

Our contact at MPEG LA reported that while the HEVC group had met three times as of February 2013, there was still no guarantee that a group would be formed or that all patent holders would join the group. So it appears that HEVC early adopters will have to decide to implement the technology without knowing the cost.

 

For large companies such as Adobe, 苹果, 谷歌, and Microsoft, that might be tenable; the H.264 license was capped, and it’s reasonable to assume that the HEVC license will also be capped. 这四家公司都可以将成本摊销到数百万件产品的出货量上, and I think it’s highly likely that one or more of these companies will announce HEVC integration by NAB.

 

Even the encoding companies that I spoke with 评论 that they might incorporate HEVC technologies into their encoding tools without knowing the cost, 因为, 正如一位高管所说, “支持新格式是我们的竞赛.这位高管还指出, 然而, that this was the first time that they were ever forced to consider embracing a codec without having an idea about the licensing structure.

 

然而, let’s get back to the two potential benefits that actual publishers seek from HEVC: cost savings and opening up new products and services. 这两种情况, it seems unlikely that any producer would use HEVC-encoded video without a known cost structure. 当然,H.264使用免费的互联网视频是免费的, 但这一决定是在完全不同的情况下做出的, HEVC的使用是否会同样不受阻碍，这是值得怀疑的.

 

 

一个简短的历史课将解释为什么H.264免费了. 当初始H的项.H . 264许可证公布后，H.264编码视频部署在按次付费或订阅操作. 版税并不是针对免费的网络视频, 至少在许可证的初始期限内, 12月结束. 31, 2010.

 

The licensing terms attributed this waiver to the fact that the internet streaming market was “still developing,尽管这可能是不诚实的. 事实是H.与VP6相比，当时的264实现只提供了轻微的质量改进, 主要的Flash编解码器, 并且需要更多的CPU能力来播放. There was also no mobile platform such as iOS or Android that wasn’t compatible with VP6 that could force producers to use H.264. 所以99%的制作人对VP6很满意，不会尝试使用H.如果有版税的话.

 

2010年2月, MPEG LA将免费互联网视频的版税暂停期延长至2016年12月. 在与 流媒体, MPEG LA总裁兼首席执行官拉里·霍恩 attributed this decision to the fact that “[t]hough some companies are doing well with advertising supported video, 总的来说，这些模式仍在不断变化, and the patent group didn’t want to plug a royalty into a business model that’s still unsettled.”