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Introduction
Advancements in AVC: Research titles that focus on the latest technological , also known as H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10 is a block-oriented motion-compensation-based video compression standard developed by the Joint Video Team (JVT). As an ISO/IEC and ITU standard, AVC facilitates higher quality video transmission and storage using less bandwidth compared to its predecessors. The standard was developed jointly by the UIT-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) together with the ISO/IEC JTC1 Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), making it a hybrid of the standards developed by these groups. AVC has become one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of video content.
History and Development
The development of Advanced Video Coding (AVC) began in 2001 with the goal of creating a standard capable of at least twice the compression capability of existing standards. The previous MPEG video compression standards such as MPEG-2 and H.263 and ITU standards such as H.261 and H.263 were developed in the 1990s but faced limitations in providing high-quality video transmission at lower data rates. After extensive research and development over several years by VCEG and MPEG together, the final AVC/H.264 standard was approved in May 2003. Key improvements over prior standards included greater multiresolution support, richer motion representation, increased granularity of motion compensation, and improved entropy coding. These enabled AVC to maintain high video quality even at much lower bitrates compared to prior standards.
Video Compression Techniques
Some of the main video compression techniques used by AVC which enable its higher compression efficiency include variable block-size motion compensation, multi-picture inter prediction coding, spatial and temporal integer transform coding, in-loop deblocking filtering, and cabac entropy coding. AVC supports multiple block sizes for motion compensation ranging from 16×16 down to 4×4 pixel blocks enabling finer granularity of motion representation. It can use multiple reference frames for inter prediction, allowing maintaining high quality even at lower bitrates. Transforms are applied over transform blocks before quantization which efficiently concentrates information. Deblocking filtering is done within the encoder/decoder loop to minimize blockiness commonly seen in heavily compressed videos. CABAC provides a more optimal entropy coding scheme.
Applications and Adoption
Since its introduction in 2003, AVC/H.264 has been rapidly adopted across various consumer electronics and industrial applications for digital video. Some of its core applications include high-definition broadcasting, video conferencing, internet video sharing, video surveillance, digital cinema production, video on demand, web television, Blu-ray Discs, and more. It has become the compression standard of choice for most online video portals and video hosting sites due to its highly efficient use of network bandwidth for streaming. Blu-ray Discs use AVC/H.264 for encoding HD video content at high quality with minimal storage size. Many surveillance cameras encode real-time video feeds using AVC due to its ability to handle multiple video streams on resource-constrained devices. Overall, its high compression ratio and ability to provide near-lossless quality at fractional bandwidth requirements compared to prior standards have been driving factors for its wide-scale adoption worldwide.
Future Advancements
While AVC revolutionized video compression when it was introduced, continued technological developments necessitate newer more capable standards. To address emerging application needs, its successor High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard was developed by the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) which consisted of ITU-T Study Group 16 and ISO/IEC JTC1. HEVC was finalized in 2013 and standardized as ISO/IEC 23008-2 and ITU-T H.265. It provides around 50% higher data compression over AVC for the same level of video quality. HEVC has started gaining adoption for 4K UHD video distribution due to its ability to encode such high-resolution content using reasonable bandwidth. Though AVC will continue being used in legacy applications for a long time, HEVC and potentially its successors will play a larger role in addressing bandwidth and storage needs of high-quality digital video going forward.
Conclusion
Advanced Video Coding (AVC) revolutionized digital video compression when it was introduced in 2003 by providing significantly higher compression capability than prior standards. Adopted worldwide, it has played a crucial role in enabling the distribution and transmission of high-definition video over bandwidth-constrained networks and the storage of HD content on storage mediums. While its successor HEVC has begun taking over in applications requiring even higher resolutions, AVC will continue serving as the workhorse standard for various existing video infrastructure and applications even beyond the next decade. Its widespread acceptance has transformed how video content is created and consumed globally.
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1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
