Comparison of the Coding Efficiency of Video Coding Standards-Including High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)

• Published in: IEEE transactions on circuits and systems for video technology Vol. 22; no. 12; pp. 1669 - 1684
• Main Authors: Ohm, J., Sullivan, G. J., Schwarz, H., Thiow Keng Tan, Wiegand, T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.12.2012; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Advanced Video Coding (AVC); Circuits; Coders; Coding; Design engineering; Encoders; Equivalence; H.264; High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC); ISO standards; JCT-VC; MPEG; MPEG 4 Standard; MPEG standards; MPEG-4; VCEG; Video coding; Video compression; Visual
• ISSN: 1051-8215; 1558-2205
• DOI: 10.1109/TCSVT.2012.2221192

The compression capability of several generations of video coding standards is compared by means of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and subjective testing results. A unified approach is applied to the analysis of designs, including H.262/MPEG-2 Video, H.263, MPEG-4 Visual, H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC), and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). The results of subjective tests for WVGA and HD sequences indicate that HEVC encoders can achieve equivalent subjective reproduction quality as encoders that conform to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC when using approximately 50% less bit rate on average. The HEVC design is shown to be especially effective for low bit rates, high-resolution video content, and low-delay communication applications. The measured subjective improvement somewhat exceeds the improvement measured by the PSNR metric.