Ericsson and Nokia, as well as the German research firm Fraunhofer’s Heinrich-Hertz-Institute (HHI), have unveiled a 6G-era video codec, which has already been positively received by various standards groups. This is an early proof of concept for what could eventually become H.267, claiming higher compression efficiency and improved scalability. This has triggered the broader video industry into questioning the need for yet another codec generation. Experts have pointed out that computational costs are rising exponentially while the perceptual benefits for standard HD and even 4K streaming are diminishing. Many argue that unless there is a radical shift—such as immersive AR/VR, holo-decks, or AI-driven video consumption—the current generation of video codecs are simply “good enough.” Yet more efficient codecs could accelerate…