State of HEVC Bitrates in 2014: Comparing HEVC, H.264, and MPEG-2
This paper presents the results of empirical testing of high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) for standard-definition (SD), high-definition (HD), and ultra-high-definition (UHD), including data from hundreds of encoding tests across a variety of bitrates. The paper then compares HEVC quality results with the quality achieved by common Motion Picture Experts Group 2 (MPEG-2) and advanced video coding (AVC) distribution profiles to determine HEVC bitrate recommendations for SD, HD, and UHD distribution. The paper presents the following recommended bitrates for HEVC encoding: SD at 860 kbits/sec, HD at 2703 kbits/sec, and UHD at 23,922 kbits/sec. These represent a 45% bitrate savings, compared to AVC. HEVC encoding was done using x265 version 1.2, and all quality measurements were done using the peak signal-to-noise ratio and structural similarity index. The paper uses the HEVC Main (8-bit) profile to allow quality matching with H.264 and MPEG-2 8-bit encoding.
- Print ISSN
- 1545-0279
- Electronic ISSN
- 2160-2492
- Published
- 2015-10
- Content type
- Original Research
- Keywords
- HEVC, MPEG-2, H.264, bitrates, encoding, comparing HEVC, x265
- DOI
- 10.5594/j18612