[Update]: A new email reflector,  jct-vc@lists.rwth-aachen.de, is created for discussions of the new team effort. For subscription, you should follow this link: http://mailman.rwth-aachen.de/mailman/listinfo/jct-vc. Only subscribers to the list will be able to send messages to this list.

During the 39th VCEG and 91st MPEG meeting held in Kyoto, Japan on January 17-22, 2010, the call for proposals (CfP) on video compression technology (H.NGVC/HVC) will be finally issued jointly by ITU-T SG16 Q.6 (VCEG) and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) on January 22, 2010. A Joint Collaborative Team (JCT) on Video Coding Standard Development will also be established accordingly between VCEG and MPEG.

Some minor modifications to draft CfP issued in November 2009 are made. The modifications involve the timeline, test conditions and test fees, etc., as follows:

• Timeline

The timeline of the Call for Proposals is changed:

2010/01/22:                 Final Call for Proposals.
2010/01/22:                 For[......]

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Permanent Link: Final Call for Proposals on H.NGVC/HVC Issued Jointly by VCEG and MPEG

As mentioned in the previous post, MPEG/VCEG has launched a new video coding standardization project, which is tentatively named as High-performance Video Coding (HVC). The formal name is still under discussion. A short list of candidates most supported in MPEG-newvid mailing list are summarized by Ken McCann from ZetaCast,

• HVC – High-efficiency Video Coding (Note: not High-performance Video Coding? I prefer the latter)
• EPVC – Enhanced Performance Video Coding
• HEVC – High Efficiency Video Coding
• HCEV – High Coding Efficiency Video

An online poll was set up at Doodle [Poll: Name of new MPEG/VCEG Standard].  Your opinion is very important. Please vote with your real name to keep the process transparent.

Permanent Link: Vote for Your Favorite Name of Next Generation Video Coding Standard

As well-known, JVT (a joint video team between MPEG and VCEG) has achieved great success in the standardization of the state-of-the-art video compression, including H.264/AVC, SVC, and MVC. The academic and industry want to continue the success in the collaboration between MPEG and VCEG. Some proposals from VCEG suggest the H.NGVC (or H.265) standardization should be collaboratively done with MPEG to produce a significantly advanced video coding standard and to avoid producing multiple similar standards, which confuse the market. VCEG agrees that conducting this work jointly with MPEG will be beneficial to avoid duplication of efforts in this area. Therefore, in this MPEG London meeting, a joint meeting between MPEG and VCEG discusses the future collaboration. However, the collaboration method arouses a lot of controversy, focusing on which one of the following practical experiences should be chosen:

• Practical experience 1: MPEG-2, a integrate part of video subgroup when under WG 11 a[......]

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Permanent Link: Future Collaboration between MPEG and VCEG

The 89^th MPEG / 31^st JVT / 38^th VCEG meetings are hosted by the Centre for Digital Music, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science of Queen Mary University of London, UK.

• AhGs will meet on 27 - 28 June 2009.
• The 89^th MPEG Meeting will be held on 29 June - 3 July, 2009.
• The 31^st JVT Meeting will be held on 29 June - 3 July, 2009.
• The 38^th ITU-VCEG Meeting will be held on 1 - 2 July, 2009. (Note: this VCEG meeting only discusses the future collaboration of VCEG and MPEG. Technical issues will be discussed in Geneva meeting on July 6 – 8.)

I will go to London to attend the meetings, and will report the progress in good time. Keep an eye on this website!

Permanent Link: The Upcoming 89th MPEG/31st JVT/38th VCEG Meetings

In the 37th VCEG meeting,  held in Yokohama on April 15-18, a potential “NGVC” project standing for next-generation video coding was discussed, which could mean either an extension of H.264/AVC or a new standard, depending on which form of standardization is determined to be appropriate for the technology design.

The preliminary requirements of the NGVC project focus on the following areas.

1. Coding efficiency:

• NGVC should be capable of providing a bit rate reduction of 50% at the same subjective quality

2. Complexity:

• NGVC should be capable of operating with a complexity ranging from 50% to 3 times H.264/AVC High Profile.
• When operated at a complexity of 50% compared to H.264/AVC High Profile, NGVC should provide a 25% bit rate savings compared to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile at equivalent subjective quality.

3. Applications:

• Low-delay interactive video communications
• Surveillance
• Streaming
• Broadcast
• Digital cinema and large-screen digital imagery
• Mobile video enter[......]

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Permanent Link: The Preliminary Requirements for NGVC

The VCEG and MPEG’s meeting plan for 2009 is listed as follows.

Jan. 27-Feb. 6 2009,    Geneva, CH              37th VCEG meeting + 30th JVT meeting 

Feb. 2-6 2009,             Lausanne, CH           87th MPEG meeting              

Apr. 15-18 2009          Yokohama, JP           37th VCEG meeting                    

Apr. 20-24 2009,         Maui, Hawaii, USA   88th MPEG meeting + 31st JVT meeting   

Jun. 29-Jul. 3 2009,     London, UK               89th MPEG meeting                                   

Oct. 20-30 2009,         Geneva, CH              38th VCEG meeting + 32nd JVT meeting  , 

Oct. 26-30 2009,         Xian, CN                    90th MPEG meeting

Permanent Link: VCEG and MPEG Meetings in 2009

H.265 is a long-term video coding standard, launched by VCEG. As indicated in ITU-T SG16′s homepage, VCEG plans to complete the requirement definition and begin the detailed algorithm design for H.265 in the study period 2005-2008, and if the progress in contribution technology is sufficient, H.265 is expected to be finalized in 2009-2010.

Currently, H.265 hasn’t been formalized and VCEG keeps seeking proposals and information regarding the possibility of a major gain in performance to justify the step from H.264 to H.265. Though the necessary scope of H.265 is yet to be determined, it is agreed that among the goals will be [AA01]:

• simplicity and “back to basics” approach
• high coding efficiency, e.g., two times compared with H.264
• computational efficiency, considering both encoder and decoder
• loss/error robustness
• network friendliness
• other considerations as necessary 

Backward/forward compatibility is not assumed to be required for H.265, as H.265 is a brand [......]

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Permanent Link: Current Status of H.265 (as at July 2008)