High efficiency video coding (HEVC): Replacing or complementing existing compression standards?

The HEVC (H.265) video compression standard was finalized in January 2013. It doubles the coding efficiency compared to its predecessor H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, however, with significantly higher complexity. Now that HEVC is available, the question of its industry adoption and implementation within the video broadcasting market segments is addressed in this paper. It is discusses whether HEVC should replace existing compression technology or should be dedicated to emerging markets. It demonstrates that HEVC will coexist with currently deployed video compression standards, and shows how the initial limitation of HEVC to progressive material - eventually penalizing the HEVC standard adoption by the industry - can be overcome. Finally, insight is provided on a software architecture suitable for implementing multi-standard, multi-screen HEVC encoders.