Versatile Video Coding (VCC) has been announced by Germany’s Fraunhofer, one of the world's leading developers, which claimed around 50% compression without losing video quality.

Also behind the popular music encoding format, MPEG-3 before the widely used video formats H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC), Germany’s Fraunhofer is perhaps the world’s most important pioneer in digital media compression. And directly responsible for shrinking media from discs into files that perfectly-fit on smartphones.

VVC has been dubbed H.266, a direct sequel to the “high-efficiency video coding” (HEVC) standard that’s been in use since 2013. While HEVC was considered to be impressive for its time at cutting down file sizes, VVC is perceived as a “quantum leap" in coding efficiency, with around 50% compression without compromising on the visual quality.

How H.266/VCC effect 50% compression of data requirements

H.266/VVC makes transmission of video in mobile networks more efficient, as the previous standard H.265/HEVC requires ca. 10 gigabytes of data to transmit 90-min UHD video, this new technology requires only 5 gigabytes of data to achieve the same quality.

Albeit, H.266/VVC was developed with high-resolution video content in mind, the new standard is more beneficial when streaming 4K or 8K videos on flat screen TV. Though, H.266/VVC is more ideal for all types of moving images; ranging from high-resolution 360° video panoramas to screen sharing contents.

This quantum leap in coding efficiency offered by H.266/VVC, will make the use of video to increase worldwide. And the increased versatility of H.266/VVC makes it more attractive for a broader range of applications within the transmission and storage of video.

What's next for H.266/VVC?

Fraunhofer has planned a uniform and transparent licensing model based on the FRAND principle to be established for the use of standard essential patents related to H.266/VVC.

The chips required for the use of H.266/VVC are currently being designed, and the head of the Video Coding and Analytics department at Fraunhofer HHI, Dr. Thomas Schierl announced that “this autumn Fraunhofer HHI will publish the first software for both encoder and decoder to support H.266/VVC.”