adaptive streaming HEVC set recommendations

[damjeux]

Hi there,

One of the issues when encoding for adaptive HTTP streaming is how to choose the right representations (resolution, bitrate, framerate). In the case of H.264/AVC, there are some recommendations available like Zencoder encoding recommendations (https://zencoder.com/en/hls-guide) or Bitcodin - choosing the right configuration (https://www.bitcodin.com/blog/2015/02/resolution-bitrate-recommendation-choosing-the-right-configuration-for-single-and-multi-bitrate-encoding-hls-dash/) or Using HTTP live streaming (https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/StreamingMediaGuide/UsingHTTPLiveStreaming/UsingHTTPLiveStreaming.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40008332-CH102-SW1) and so on. And also this paper from Laura Toni et al. "Optimized Adaptive Streaming Representations based on System Dynamics".

However, all these recommendations are for H.264/AVC. I haven't found anything for the case of HEVC yet.

Does anyone know of such adaptive streaming HEVC set recommendations?

[Blue_MiSfit]

As far as I know, HEVC streaming is possible today (and is done in production) by (at least to my knowledge) M-Go and Netflix. Both are in 4k, and I believe both systems use MPEG-DASH for streaming. I don't think any of the other HTTP streaming methods like HLS, HDS, and Smooth Streaming support HEVC yet.

[benwaggoner]

As far as I know, HEVC streaming is possible today (and is done in production) by (at least to my knowledge) M-Go and Netflix. Both are in 4k, and I believe both systems use MPEG-DASH for streaming. I don't think any of the other HTTP streaming methods like HLS, HDS, and Smooth Streaming support HEVC yet.
Amazon instant video is doing adaptive streaming HEVC for both UHD and HDR.

You are correct that canonical Smooth Streaming as defined only supports up to PIFF 1.1, which doesn't support HEVC and Common Encryption. Those come with PIFF 1.3, which is formally supported in DASH. Of course, one can use DASH almost identically to Smooth Streaming. Devices with old hard-coded Smooth Streaming implementations don't support HEVC anyway.

It would be lovely if the industry would just use DASH for HEVC, and we could leave the other legacy formats behind. HLS in particular would not be missed.