What is H.264 ?

H.264, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10 or Advanced Video Coding (AVC), converts digital videos into formats with less storage space. This makes it easier to stream, play, and transmit videos over the internet. Many famous vendors use H.264 in their codec versions, like Apple Codec, MainConcept Codec, etc.

How does the H.264 Codec work?

The H.264 video encoder carries out three important processes - prediction, transform, and encoding - to give a compressed H.264 bitstream. The decoder then carries out complementary processes - decoding, inverse transform, and reconstruction - to produce the decoded video stream.

?Features

Using H.264 compression, the codec can retain the video quality without compromising while reducing the required space to only half of the original space. Here are some features which enable it to do that:

1. Slice structure coding?
2. Flexible macroblock ordering (FMO)
3. Data partitioning
4. Intra-coding
5. Switching pictures

Profiles and Levels

?H.264 supports the following encoding profiles:

• Baseline
• Main
• High10
• Extended.

When deciding between these profiles and finding the best ones to use, the answer completely depends on your final requirements. While profiles help care for code complexity and processing powers, levels are all about taking care of bandwidth, maximum resolution, and memory problems on the decoder side.?

Applications of H.264

H.264 is extremely useful in all use-cases requiring long-distance transmission of signals using wires. Since this is extremely fast and does not compromise on the video quality, it is becoming the go-to video compression format for the digital world. Some of the applications where H.264 compression has proven its worth include:

• High-definition DVD formats
• High-definition TV broadcasting
• Mobile TV broadcasting
• Internet video surfing and streaming
• Video conferencing, and more.

Why h.264 compressions?

H.264 video compression intends to provide the best quality video at bit rates much lower than the other video compression formats. It does all of it without increasing the complexity or reducing the robustness of the bitstream.?

Benefits of h.264

• Seamless support for resolution more than and including 8K Ultra High-Definition.
• Extremely high-quality videos even after compressing them to half the original size.
• H.264 keeps coming up with frequent updates to keep the compression algorithms updated and ready for the next challenge.?
• H.264 uses significantly less storage, essential for easy video transmission through IP.

Conclusion

H.264 codec ensures seamless resolution as high as 8K Ultra HD. This enables amazing UX with extremely high-quality videos which take up less than half the original space, cutting down on storage and making it easy to transmit videos through IP.?

Read more about the benefits of using H.264 to transform the video viewing experience completely below: