How Modern Video Codecs Work

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Modern video codecs have evolved significantly since H264, with new codecs like HEVC, VVC, AV1, and EVC emerging. A major challenge has been licensing, particularly with HEVC, which has hindered its adoption due to complicated licensing issues. In response, codecs that require no licensing, such as AV1 and EVC Baseline, have been developed. AV1 is complex and feature-rich, while EVC Baseline is simpler yet performs comparably to HEVC, achieving 30%-40% better efficiency than H264. The simplicity of EVC Baseline makes it a foundation for developing an AI Codec. Future discussions will explore enhancements to the EVC Baseline codec, integrating AI concepts and referencing LCEVC. An article on these developments is in progress.
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The easiest way to understand modern codecs is to look at the most common one in use today and the one most other codecs are based on, H264:



Since then, several codecs have been developed and are in use (HEVC, VVC, AV1, EVC, etc). A big problem arose with licensing. As codecs became more sophisticated, so did the licensing. It reached the point with HEVC that its uptake was slow due to the horrid licencing situation. Because of that, codecs were developed that require no licensing. The two best-known are AV1 and EVC Baseline. AV1 is a complex codec with many tools. EVC Baseline is the opposite - a simple codec with just a few tools. Surprisingly, it performs about the same as HEVC, which is 30%-40% better than H264. Because of this simplicity, I will build on it in my AI Codec.

For details of EVC Baseline:
https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/Workshops-and-Seminars/20191008/Documents/Ken_McCann_Presentation.pdf

I will leave it there for this post. If this is new, it will require time to understand. If not, it is a good revision.

The next post will introduce new tools that modify the EVC Baseline codec to become a combined AI and EVC Baseline Codec loosely based on the ideas of LCEVC, which will also be introduced.
 
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Will do.

No problemo.

Added later:

I tried to write the article but had problems. I am working on it - I will have it done shortly - hopefully.

Thanks
Bill
 
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This week, I saw a documentary done by the French called Les sacrifiés de l'IA, which was presented by a Canadian show Enquête. If you understand French I recommend it. Very eye-opening. I found a similar documentary in English called The Human Cost of AI: Data workers in the Global South. There is also an interview with Milagros Miceli (appearing in both documentaries) on Youtube: I also found a powerpoint presentation by the economist Uma Rani (appearing in the French documentary), AI...

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