Fraunhofer today introduced its H.266 video compression standard. According to the German company, the new standard can create videos with files up to 50% smaller while maintaining the same quality as H.265. Thus, a 4-minute 90K video that used to require 10 GB of bandwidth to be watched will now only use 5 GB.

The new codec is also called VCC (Versatile Video Coding), following in the footsteps of H.265, which was called HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding).

The H.266/VVC standard was created with an eye on ultra-high-resolution video, and according to the company, it is particularly beneficial for streaming 4K and 8K videos to TVs. Fraunhofer believes that with this “major leap in coding efficiency,” video consumption will increase around the world.

The licensing model for the new codec also follows the FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) principle. The project has been developed by Fraunhofer for years, in partnership with companies such as Apple, Ericsson, Intel, Huawei, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Sony.

It supports SD, HD, UHD (4K) and 8K videos. In addition, it also works with HDR (High Dynamic Range) and 360° videos. H.266 also supports wider color gamuts, and in the future it may work with resolutions higher than 8K.

The first encoder and decoder are expected to be released from September this year.

Read more about the new codec on the Fraunhofer website.

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