The HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) codec has passed its headline target of 50% reduction in bitrate for a given video quality compared with its MPEG 4/AVC/H.264 predecessor in only the first version. This has emerged from the MPEG standards group, which has just completed the most extensive testing so far of HEVC Version 1 against a wide range of video material encoded at varying qualities and resolutions following the standard’s finalization last year. Halving the bit rate was also the target for the preceding H.264, but in that case it took over 10 years of optimization to pass the mark. Introducing a new encoding standard is an expensive exercise requiring substantial algorithmic and coding development as well as replacement…