Did you see the old H.264 video codec standard has been polished up to get the most out of its time left before H.265 claims all the glory? #NB I looked at the date on this release in reverse, so this news is a little older than I would normally post… But just in case you missed it: Recent revisions approved 2005-03 contained modifications of the video coding standard to add four new profiles, referred to as the High, High 10, High 4:2:2, and High 4:4:4 profiles, to improve video quality capability and to extend the range of applications addressed by the standard (for example, by including support for a greater range of picture sample precision and higher-resolution chroma formats). Additionally, a definition of new types of supplemental data was specified to further broaden the applicability of the video coding standard. Finally, a number of corrections to errors in the published text were included.
Corrigendum 1 to Rec. ITU-T H.264 corrected and updated various minor aspects to bring the ITU-T version of the text up to date relative to the April 2005 output status approved as a new edition of the corresponding jointly-developed and technically-aligned text ISO/IEC 14496-10. It additionally fixed a number of minor errors and needs for clarification and defined three previously-reserved sample aspect ratio indicators.
Amendment 1 “Support of additional colour spaces and removal of the High 4:4:4 Profile” contained alterations to Rec. ITU‑T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496‑10 Advanced Video Coding to specify the support of additional colour spaces and to remove the definition of the High 4:4:4 profile.
NOTE – Rec. ITU-T H.264 is a twin text with ISO/IEC 14496‑10 and this amendment was published in two different documents in the ISO/IEC series:
– The removal of the High 4:4:4 profile was found in ISO/IEC 14496-10:2005/Cor.2.
– The specification for support of additional colour spaces was found in ISO/IEC 14496-10:2005/Amd.1.
Amendment 2 “New profiles for professional applications” contained extensions to Rec. ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496‑10 Advanced Video Coding to specify the support of five additional profiles intended primarily for professional applications (the High 10 Intra, High 4:2:2 Intra, High 4:4:4 Intra, CAVLC 4:4:4 Intra, and High 4:4:4 Predictive profiles) and two new types of supplemental enhancement information (SEI) messages (the post-filter hint SEI message and the tone mapping information SEI message).
Amendment 3 “Scalable video coding” contained extensions to Rec. ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10 Advanced Video Coding to specify a scalable video coding extension in three profiles (the Scalable Baseline, Scalable High, and Scalable High Intra profiles).
For more details on the H.264 profiles: High, High 10, High 4:2:2, and High 4:4:4 please visit the ITU-T.