The title of this blog post was a toss-up between ‘Compress This’ and ‘Pixels Gone Wild’ as the major themes at the recent International Broadcasting Convention were h.265 compression and 4k resolution video(and higher).
The next wave of video is clearly on the way, every vendor was displaying HEVC in some form or another. These demos ranged from showing real-time encoding/decoding on 720p60 systems to displaying highly compressed (offline) 4k videos. It appears that HEVC will be running live, at least in some small number of networks, in the first half of next year although most discussions we had on the topic indicated that significant uptake would not be for at least a couple more years.
It was a similar story for 4k displays and video as every vendor was also displaying amazing 4k content. It wasn’t 100 percent clear why one vendor chose to use close-ups of haute cuisine as their ultra HD demo but I guess it worked as the images stuck in my head more so than all the various fish and nature scenes the others were showing (and I do recall feeling hungry every time I walked past that booth).
It was interesting to see how much effort is being put into the next wave of high definition but I do think it would be more interesting if vendors would mix up their messaging a little, maybe something like:
- Your compression is so fat your files get larger!
- Your algorithm is so weak it couldn’t compress the modern art classis ‘A Study in Black – the Movie’
- Your compression is so bad your movies come out looking like 8-bit NES games
But seriously, looking forward to seeing everyone at IBC ’14 where we’ll be showing our Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious HD – which of course will be the highest resolution ever! (until Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Ultra HD of course)
If you haven’t already, check out Atul’s opinion piece from IBC, posted last week and our newest white paper on HEVC.
Here's a picture of Sony's booth at IBC - showing 4k screens and HEVC compression.
