BPG Image Format (HEVC subset for browsers)

[benwaggoner]

Originally Posted by foxyshadis

BPG is more comparable to JPEG-XR, the VC-1-based image format.

FWIW, JPEG-XR wasn't based on VC-1. It is a layered format like JPEG-XR, but the layers alternate between being DCT-like and wavelet-like.

A VC-1 I-frame image codec certainly would have outperformed JPEG, but would have still been 8-bit YUV only. JPEG-XR was designed to be colorspace independent, and support things like 16-bit CMYK, 10-bit RGBA, and IIRC even RAW Bayer patterns. Its target was really the photography industry, to offer all the stuff JPEG didn't and J2K was too slow or too large for. It would have been great for digital filmmaking if it had caught on.

Also AFAIK, it never really got used for anything practical, despite being royalty free and everything. I'm not sure the psychovisual tuning ever got to the point where it offered a meaningful advantage over J2K, which by that point had substantial momentum. Its RAW Bayer support could have been awesome, and addressed a lot of ongoing industry issues in both file size and interoperability. Those >4Kp60 cameras can record a lot of data!