46 TVBEurope News & Analysis HEVC goes beyondHD
If we are to move to an Ultra HD world, we will need an ultra efficient compression system. This is the drive behind the move to HEVC/H.265, reports David Fox in the concluding part of his advanced compression investigation
Digital Rapids previewed HEVC encoding at NAB using its Transcode Manager 2.0 and Kayak dynamic workflow platform
on a mainstream basis,” says Digital Rapids’ director of Marketing and Communications, Mike Nann. However, he feels that Ultra HD faces other obstacles, such as the increased screen sizes needed to perceive Ultra HD quality gains, so HEVC Ultra HD services are probably a few years off. Switching to HEVC for 4K
THE NEW High Efficiency Video Coding standard is promised to deliver up to 50% bitrate savings compared to H.264 for HD. It is best suited to resolutions beyond HD, and is being put forward as the mainstay codec for the Ultra HD era. “There are two primary
drivers for HEVC: 4K distribution; and lowering bit rates and thus distribution costs,” says John Pallett, director of Product Marketing, Enterprise Products, Telestream. “For broadcasters, it is a clear cost/benefit exercise unless they are forced into 4K live distribution,” says Haivision CMO, Peter Maag. “Consumer electronics manufacturers are the main driver behind the 4K push, however, we all know how the push for 3D-capable flat panels didn’t entice consumers to retool. Until prime content is readily available in 4K, 4K flat panels’ appeal will be as limited as 3D sets suffering from very little 3D content out there.” “Production is beginning to
move to 4K,” says Motorola Mobility’s Home product architect, EMEA, Mike Gannon,
“so the next challenge is distribution. The major challenge is the consumer device and being able to take advantage of the reduction in bandwidth.” He is already seeing sharp price cuts in terms of 4K TVs (there is one available from Seiki for under $1,500), although the current HDMI standard only allows 4K at up to 24/25p. HDMI 2.0 (expected to be ratified soon) rises from 3.4Gbps to 6Gbps to give 60fps at 4K. Telestream testing has shown serviceable 500Kbps HD content in HEVC (comparable to 1.2Mbps H.264) and, in practice, Pallett reckons that “somewhere between 3Mbps and 1Mbps will offer a great HD experience,” however, “we are still working on Ultra HD bit rates.” At NAB ATEME showed UHDTV (QFHD @ 60fps) at either 24Mbps in MPEG-4 or 13Mbps in HEVC, although its chief strategy officer, Benoit Fouchard, believes that HEVC may not be so efficient below HD resolution, perhaps 30 and 40% depending on content. Current satellite tests for 4K use
two transponders, but with HEVC you can get 4K 60p at 15-17Mbps, “so you can change from a single HD stream to a 4K HEVC stream in the same delivery capacity,” says Gannon. For terrestrial,
“Some of
the techniques in HEVC are not new; they’ve been waiting for the
HEVC will most likely be used (subject to regulation) “coupled with 4K/8K and DVB-T2 within three to five years,” says Boris Felts, VP product marketing, Envivio. Satellite HEVC usage will probably also be linked to 4K/8K distribution, with some trials planned for 2014. For satellite and cable, Eric
computers to get fast enough” Eric Grab, Rovi Corp
NAB, but Gannon believes it will be next year before it is in a mature product.
Gallier, VP Marketing, Thomson Video Networks thinks that “the main driver for HEVC will be Ultra HD […] It will be a few channels per DTH operator, offering movie channels and then sports channels as soon as the Ultra HD production equipment is available and relatively affordable.” Prototype hardware decoders
are already available. Motorola showed a Broadcom unit at
H.264 v H.265 @4K Although H.264 can deliver 4K, all of the respondents view HEVC as critical for the move to Ultra HD. “HEVC is far superior to H.264 for Ultra HD encoding both for quality and bit rate purposes,” says Pallett. “The bit rate reductions
[HEVC] brings will be required to make the delivery of Ultra HD content to consumers viable
would mean you can get about the same bitrates as MPEG-4 for HD now, “so you could keep the same infrastructure,” says Eric Grab,VP Technology, Rovi Corp. Ericsson sees HEVC as “an important component in the rollout of Ultra HD,” where it is needed to handle the resolution and higher frame rates, and will help make the business case for 4K. But, encoding for 4K will require about 80 times the computational power at the headend, compared to current HD services, as HEVC needs about 10 times the power at a given resolution as MPEG-4, says its head of Portfolio Marketing, Compression, Fabio Murra. However, it also “makes an all HD world a lot more financially viable for the operator. The only problem is the need for new STBs, so the business case will vary from operator to operator,” he adds. “Today, 4K is simply bandwidth prohibitive for distribution networks at 18Mbps to 20Mbps required for H.264
compressed 4K content.
HEVC shrinks bitrates required for 4K resolution potentially to under 10Mbps, making UHD much more accessible within current network bandwidth limitations,” says Keith Wymbs, VP of Marketing, Elemental. However, the roll out of some
4K premium channels could be done easily with MPEG-4. “The gating factors today are not in compression, but in production,” says Fouchard. But if we want a 4K channel line up comparable to what is offered in HD today, “then most definitely HEVC is a hard requirement.” “HEVC’s 64x64 Coding
Tree Block provides for very
www.tvbeurope.com June 2013
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52