The development of the next major generation of video coding standards is progressing with the recent WG11 (MPEG) meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, approving the consideration of the text for formal balloting in the ISO/IEC approval process (Committee Draft).
The new VVC standard (ISO/IEC 23090-3) will be applicable to a broad range of applications. It will provide a substantial improvement in coding efficiency relative to existing standards and will also provide additional functionalities. The amount of improvement in coding efficiency that will be attained by the new standard has not yet been formally measured, but is expected to be quite substantial – e.g., in the range of 35 – 60% bit rate reduction relative to that obtained using High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC; ISO/IEC 23008-2 | Rec. ITU-T H.265) for equivalent subjective video quality at picture resolutions such as 1080p HD or 4K or 8K UHD, either for standard dynamic range video or high dynamic range and wide colour gamut content for levels of quality appropriate for use in consumer distribution services. The focus during the development of the standard has primarily been on 10-bit 4:2:0 content, and 4:4:4 chroma format will also be supported.
The VVC standard is being developed in the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET), a group established jointly by WG11 (MPEG) and the Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) of ITU-T Study Group 16. The VVC standard is expected to be finalised in mid 2020. In addition to a text specification, the project also includes the development of reference software, a conformance testing suite, and a new standard ISO/IEC 23002-7 specifying supplemental enhancement information messages for coded video bitstreams. The approval process for ISO/IEC 23002-7 has also begun, with the issuance of a CD consideration ballot.