With CPUs in the last decade or so becoming ever more powerful, cheaper, and more abundant, there has been an industry-wide trend to trade storage space on hard drives for computation via CPUs. The choice to use any particular codec is always partly informed by what particular hardware is available. HEVC was specifically created to provide UHD HDR deliverables with wider color gamuts, rather than just the HD SDR Rec.709 deliverables of H.264.

If you’ve read our definitive guide to codecs, you should already be familiar with H.264. In short, HEVC is the successor to the H.264 codec. So it’s time to sit down and take a good look at this new video technology and discover how it can benefit your video workflows. Challengers like VP9 and AV1 have powerful allies in the fight for our screens. But there is growing competition in the realm of futuristic codecs. If HEVC takes off, it will shape the industry for years to come. This sort of performance is what we dream about as video professionals, and could simplify and improve the jump to ultra high definition production. Which could pave the way to an even more ambitious 8k HDR future. HEVC promises to deliver high-quality 4k video that’s up to 75% smaller than before. This fanfare should come as no surprise to anyone in the video industry. Other hardware and software vendors keep announcing new support almost every month. Apple integrated this next-generation codec into MacOS High Si erra, and professional NLEs FCP X and Premiere Pro now support it. You may have heard a lot about high-efficiency video coding or HEVC recently.

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