Next-Generation Video Coding and Streaming

PREFACE

TV remains the single most important and engaging source of information and entertainment. U.S. teenagers spend more than three times of their spare time watching TV than on social media. The global footprint of TV has been enhanced recently by online video, which includes online TV. U.S. consumers watch more movies online than on DVDs, Blu-ray discs and other physical video formats. This trend is driven by the flexibility of on-the-go mobile entertainment and the widespread adoption of video-capable smartphones and tablets. These personal devices have become ubiquitous with greatly expanded computing power and memory, improved displays, and network connectivity. The accelerated growth of video traffic on the Internet is expected to continue. However, supporting high-quality video delivery presents a significant challenge to Internet service providers due to the higher bandwidth demands compared to data and voice traffic.

This book describes next-generation video coding and streaming technologies with a comparative assessment of the strengths and weaknesses. Specific emphasis is placed on the H.265/HEVC video coding standard and adaptive bit rate video streaming. H.265/HEVC has been developed to meet the demands of emerging UHD video services and pervasive online video streaming. The commercial adoption of H.265/HEVC has started to gain traction since 2014. Invaluable insights into the coding efficiencies of the intracoded and intercoded frames are described in this ...