New H.265 Video Format Could Bring 4K To Broadband Connections [Updates]

New H.265 Video Format Could Bring 4K To Broadband Connections [Updates]

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced its approval of the H.265 video format standard on Friday. The new codec may bring 4K video to broadband and also limit bandwidth usage for HD streaming, offering both higher resolution video and lower data use.

As already announced by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) in August of last year, H.265 video is designed to divide bandwidth usage in half. The new format is also expected to allow for true HD streaming in places with low connectivity, mobile phones, and tablets. In areas with sufficient broadband, 4K could also be made available to consumers at a rat e of 20-30Mbps.

The new codec is a successor to H.264, a common format used for most videos released and streamed online. H.265 is also known as High Efficiency Video Coding (HVEC).

H.265 was created as a collaboration between the ITU Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and MPEG. No information has been released regarding the new video format’s date of availability to consumers.

What are your thoughts concerning the new H.265 format? Do you think it will affect your media-viewing habits? For those of you who have a mobile data cap, will you consider changing your plan?

Source: ITU via Techcrunch

Image Credit: jsawkins