HEVC coming to devices [Archive]

nevcairiel

9th September 2014, 21:56

^^so will there be specifications for interlaced content again?

There already is. But thats more for broadcasters than for optical media. They allow 4K@60 on the 4K Blu-ray, no need to use interlacing to get to that temporal resolution anymore, so they can just shove progressive on there. Discs usually have enough space, bandwidth is no concern there. ;)

xooyoozoo

10th September 2014, 00:28

It seems like we can add the new iPhone to the list of HEVC playback devices. The iPhone 6's specs indicate HEVC decode + encode capability. Unfortunately, level support is not listed, and Apple has a history of poor initial implementations of codec features.

Blue_MiSfit

10th September 2014, 06:51

^^ That's huge news. That means OTT services like Netflix can start actually using HEVC in DASH as a real delivery option with tangible improvements over AVC in HLS or Smooth Streaming - one that will actually have a huge population of potential users.

Kurtnoise

10th September 2014, 07:42

It seems like we can add the new iPhone to the list of HEVC playback devices. The iPhone 6's specs indicate HEVC decode + encode capability.
Except for FaceTime, I don't see anything else relative to HEVC...or I missed something ?

xooyoozoo

10th September 2014, 08:39

Except for FaceTime, I don't see anything else relative to HEVC...or I missed something ?

HEVC FaceTime would indicate a mobile device being able to do realtime simultaneous HEVC encode & decode with at least 720p30. Fixed-function hardware is basically a guarantee here, especially as their new SoC comes with a huge transistor count boost. (Edit: huh, a 20nm commercial design can decode 10bit 4K 120fps with 0.5 mm^2 die area (http://ovics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ViC-1-ProdBrief-2014-011.pdf). )

I guess the the question mark is whether the capability will be accessible to 3rd parties (my search through dev docs currently says no), but I'm optimistic and hope that it'd all be a part of a future iTunes TV/Movies push alongside a future iPad/AppleTV/whatever.

And I certainly wouldn't mind having a home server be able to stream x265-transcodes to my phone for when I'm on the road.

Kurtnoise

10th September 2014, 13:09

I guess the the question mark is whether the capability will be accessible to 3rd parties (my search through dev docs currently says no), but I'm optimistic and hope that it'd all be a part of a future iTunes TV/Movies push alongside a future iPad/AppleTV/whatever.

Yeah...I guess so. I didn't try yet VLC for iOS but maybe this would be doable with that.

benwaggoner

24th September 2014, 19:12

^^so will there be specifications for interlaced content again?
Do you have a citation for that? I couldn't find it on Apple's page.

benwaggoner

24th September 2014, 19:13

There already is. But thats more for broadcasters than for optical media. They allow 4K@60 on the 4K Blu-ray, no need to use interlacing to get to that temporal resolution anymore, so they can just shove progressive on there. Discs usually have enough space, bandwidth is no concern there. ;)
Also, I've never heard of anyone considering* the use of interlaced for >1080p content. UHD should be a progressive only paradise.

* And we should threaten anyone who suggests otherwise with those zombie-killing baseball bats with bent nails shoved through them. And glower.

iwod

5th October 2014, 09:52

pandy

6th October 2014, 10:15

^^so will there be specifications for interlaced content again?

AFAIR both (i.e. H.265 and UHD) standards assume only support for progressive - interlace can be supported indirectly only - i.e. back to MPEG-1 times.

Kurtnoise

30th October 2014, 16:28

Android 5.0 lollipop will have also support for HEVC (http://www.android.com/versions/lollipop-5-0/)...

benwaggoner

30th October 2014, 16:35

Android 5.0 lollipop will have also support for HEVC (http://www.android.com/versions/lollipop-5-0/)...
Do we know what this entails?

API level support for HEVC HW decoders when available, or also a fallback SW HEVC decoder?

Kurtnoise

30th October 2014, 16:52

Do we know what this entails?

API level support for HEVC HW decoders when available, or also a fallback SW HEVC decoder?
Software decoder based (http://www.ittiam.com/News/en/Press-releases/2014/162-Ittiam%E2%80%99s-H265-Software-Solution-Enables-HEVC-Support-in-Android%E2%80%99s-Lollipop-Release.aspx) I would say...but this is a press release.

xooyoozoo

2nd November 2014, 04:52

A Windows director tweeted (https://twitter.com/GabeAul/status/528401061779107841) that Win10 will have built-in HEVC decode.

xooyoozoo

14th November 2014, 05:50

Build 9841 (6 weeks old) of Windows 10 has native playback for HEVC Main and Main10 profile in MP4 container. I'm currently downloading the update which supposedly adds MKV container support.

I'm using a VM, so it wouldn't make sense to do speed comparisons myself, but I wonder how optimized the decoder is compared to LAV's.

LigH

14th November 2014, 09:02

Don't underestimate VMs; I got a faster memory benchmark inside a VM than on the hosting PC, using VirtualBox and Everest... :scared:

pieter3d

21st November 2014, 17:13

I wonder if the new video and picture captured in iPhone 6 are HEVC? I really wish the HEVC movement could start sooner rather then later, We have been stuck with H.264 Basic or Main Profile for far too long.

Another thing, WHY ANOTHER GOD DAMN Profile fragmentation, we have version 2 of HEVC..........

I believe they use HEVC encode only for facetime at the moment. It's highly unlikely their first gen hardware HEVC encoder can support 1080p60 at the quality they want.

mandarinka

25th November 2014, 11:40

This is interesting (from Qualcomm presetnation linked in this post (http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1700739&postcount=499)). They actually state no Main 10 support (as opposed to the rest of industry that is conveniently ambiguous).

http://i.imgur.com/F6bHk20.png (http://imgur.com/F6bHk20)

LigH

25th November 2014, 16:30

Still a bit confusing (if you did not read the whole article, I guess): What's the difference between "check mark" and "green background"?

mandarinka

26th November 2014, 01:21

The checkmark apparently means "in hardware" or hardware-accelerated, since in some cases, there is a "SW" (presumably meaning software decoder) filled in. What do the numbered notes mean I dunno, they were not explained in the slide sadly.

LigH

26th November 2014, 08:09

I am mainly confused by "cross on green" vs. "cross on grey"; the latter clearly means "not supported", but the former?!

mandarinka

26th November 2014, 08:59

Oh, that. Well, I guess it's just error.

SeeMoreDigital

26th November 2014, 10:52

What... There doesn't appear to be any support for MPEG-1!!!

EDIT: How am I going to play my 'huge' collection of VCD back-ups?

LigH

26th November 2014, 11:02

Does that still exist?! ;) ;) ... I guess there may be a VLC or other libav using player for mobile devices, if you are able to install it.

Parabola

26th November 2014, 13:36

What... There doesn't appear to be any support for MPEG-1!!!

EDIT: How am I going to play my 'huge' collection of VCD back-ups?

I think I'm right in saying that MPEG-1 is a subset of MPEG-2 (i.e. any conforming MPEG-2 decoder can also handle MPEG-1). My knowledge is rusty here though - and I'm showing my age!

- John

LigH

26th November 2014, 13:52

Not exactly. Just the AR issue as prominent example: MPEG-2 video supports only 4 of 16 bit combinations (1:1 SAR + 3 generic DARs), while MPEG-1 video has a bunch of specific SARs (deskewing ratios) instead. And I am not sure if there are differences in the stream details as well... apart from different usual sector sizes of Program Streams.

Ars92

30th November 2014, 04:38

Damn,i really thought the 615 is able to decode 2160p30 at least. So i guess i will need to wait for the fireTV 3 to upgrade from my current one to get 4k HEVC support. Not a big deal though as the whole of next year might be when digital content FINALLY start being available in 4k....as there are barely any now.

Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk

SeeMoreDigital

30th November 2014, 11:03

From what I understand Amlogic have released an S812-H quad-core chip-set that's able to play 4K h.265 under Android 4.4...

Has anybody received a test sample unit fitted with one of theses or ordered one?

pandy

1st December 2014, 11:09

mandarinka

12th December 2014, 02:09

http://devgurus.amd.com/message/1306991#1306837

(AMD) APUs and dGPUs scheduled for release in 2015 will have support for 4K Encoding & Decoding as well as H.265 decoding.

Kurtnoise

15th December 2014, 17:19

Impressive list of all supported format (http://www.samsungdforum.com/Tizen/Spec) from Tizen-based Samsung TVs...

SeeMoreDigital

15th December 2014, 17:39

Impressive list of all supported format (http://www.samsungdforum.com/Tizen/Spec) from Tizen-based Samsung TVs...Indeed... Although the quoted 'Bit Rates' seem low :confused:

benwaggoner

16th December 2014, 00:42

Indeed... Although the quoted 'Bit Rates' seem low :confused:
For MJPEG, maybe. But they're ample for HEVC. Main Tier Main Level 5.1 (2160p60) only goes up to 40 Mbps.

SeeMoreDigital

16th December 2014, 10:32

For MJPEG, maybe. But they're ample for HEVC. Main Tier Main Level 5.1 (2160p60) only goes up to 40 Mbps.20Mbps for VC-1 and MPEG-2 is too low for playing any of my Blu-ray.mkv contained back-ups. And MVC appears to be listed within that section too :eek:

benwaggoner

16th December 2014, 19:36

20Mbps for VC-1 and MPEG-2 is too low for playing any of my Blu-ray.mkv contained back-ups. And MVC appears to be listed within that section too :eek:
I'd be surprised if the device actually refuses to play back >20 Mbps for all 1080p content!

Generally those bitrates mean "using the most difficult to decode streams we could find, we successfully tested up to this bitrate." Blu-ray compatible streams have additional complexity constraints applied which makes the worse case easier to decode.

Given it can also decode 80 Mbps full 4K H.264, the horsepower is there in spades.

I don't know how well vetted the list is anyway, given they misspelled "Sorenson" :).

SeeMoreDigital

16th December 2014, 20:39

Agreed... Hopefully it's just a poorly configured chart.

pieter3d

17th December 2014, 02:19

Given it can also decode 80 Mbps full 4K H.264, the horsepower is there in spades.

That could be due to dedicated H.264 hardware though, so that wouldn't help any other codecs.

benwaggoner

25th February 2015, 14:56

AMD just announced HEVC decoder support in thier new mobile platform:

http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/25/amd-carrizo-processor/

jkauff

2nd March 2015, 15:00

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9021/imagination-announces-powervr-g6020-gpu-powervr-series-5-video-encoder

Sounds great, but no consumer products expected for 10-12 months.

LigH

2nd March 2015, 15:11

"Ultra-affordable" ... heh ... let's hope they will come with exchangeable batteries. Or will such devices boost the request for USB recharge packs?

vivan

2nd March 2015, 17:09

Why? For mobile they suggest E5505, which does 4Kp30 / 4:2:0 and this is what last year mobile phones do.
E5800 does 4Kp60 / 4:2:2, and it's targeted at cameras. Guess having twice TDP there is not a big deal.

hi3516a

14th May 2015, 16:19

The mdediacodec lib in Android 5.0 SDK support HW and SW encoding of HEVC

benwaggoner

14th May 2015, 16:32

Windows 10 also includes HEVC SW decode, plus support for HW GPU decode via DXVA.

Lots of mobile chipsets can do at least 8-bit 1080p. I just tried a HEVC file in my 2014 KIndle Fire HDX 8.9, and it worked like a charm. Snapdragon 8084 w/ Adreno 420.

-Ben Waggoner (via TapaTalk)

sneaker_ger

5th August 2015, 17:51

Leaked Snapdragon 820 specs suggest HEVC 10 bit decoding ability.

http://www.ixbt.com/short/images/2015/Aug/sd-820-01.jpg

vivan

5th August 2015, 18:50

Nice, so now basically every upcoming flagship SoC supports 10-bit HEVC.

sneaker_ger

5th August 2015, 19:00

Better than Skylake. :p
They should have never specified 8 bit HEVC in the first place. Too much fragmentation.

NikosD

5th August 2015, 21:14

Windows 10 also includes HEVC SW decode, plus support for HW GPU decode via DXVA.

-Ben Waggoner (via TapaTalk)

It seems that Microsoft at 10240 build of Win 10, decided to enable HEVC SW decoder on very specific systems which fulfill unknown requirements, probably regarding to WDDM 2.0 drivers and AVX2 extensions.

Also, HEVC HW is only available using D3D11 video acceleration and not DXVA2, along with MediaFoundation framework.

The result of this combination makes HEVC HW useless, because WMP (the only available MediaFoundation player , can't use it due to EVR restriction - EVR is incompatible with D3D11 VA.

A not so good score of Win 10, yet.