H.266/VVC supported by IETF RTP Payload format
Tencent has many years of history of being a world-leader in the creation of video codec standards and implementations for cloud services. While a modern video codec implementation based on Versatile Video Coding (H.266/VVC) undoubtly is the cornerstone of future growth in this challanging but rewarding market, supporting technologies, such as file formats, systems, and network transport technologies optimized for VVC are also required for the success of VVC and related business offerings. To this end, Tencent Medialab is involved in the standardization of transport/system standards in a variety of venues including 3GPP, ISO/IEC MPEG, and the IETF.
Versatile Video Coding (H.266/VVC), with its first version finalized in mid 2020, is the latest generation video codec and best-in-class solution for video compression offering 50% bandwidth gain compared to HEVC. After more than three years of development, the IETF Request for Comment (RFC) specifying the RTP Payload Format for Versatile Video Coding (VVC) issued in late December 2022 as RFC 9328. The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) creates standards for the internet and ensures interworking between network equipment and interoperability across the internet industry. RTP payload formats are“plug-in”specifications mapping a media codec—here VVC—to the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP). RTP (RFC 3550) is the basis of most video conferencing solutions but also used for other media distribution products. Tencent and other organizations including Intel, Fraunhofer HHI, Bytedance, and Nokia contributed to this work.
The payload format has a wide applicability in videoconferencing, Internet video streaming, and high-bitrate entertainment-quality video, among other applications. Such a support of VVC over RTP will ease the integration of the VVC codec into Tencent services using real time protocols for media distribution for a best-in-class user quality of experience.
The RTP payload specification can be downloaded from RFC 9328 - RTP Payload Format for Versatile Video Coding (VVC)
Cloud-based media processing, and especially video processing, is a challenging but rewarding business. Tencent, as a world-leader of cloud-based media processing services, has been on the forefront of standardization, implementation, and deployment of related technologies for many years. This is particularly true for cloud-based offerings supporting the most recent, most advanced, and most efficient video coding standard currently available: Versatile Video Coding, (VVC/ H.266).
Tencent MediaLab standard center actively participated in VVC standardization since 2018, outputing a world-leading amount of technical proposals, adoptions and, according to IPlytics statistics, related essential patents(www.iplytics.com).
During the development of VVC standard, Tencent also initialized the Tencent266 project for an inhouse developed VVC solution, where Tencent MediaLab worked with Tencent Cloud, Tencent Video and WeChat aiming at a industry-leading VVC encoder and decoder.
The first version of VVC standard was finalized in 2020. Just a few months after that, Tencent released the Tencent266 based VVC player (O266player) in community (https://github.com/TencentCloud/O266player). In 2021, Tencent Cloud became the first cloud service provider that supported the VVC format and transcoding by including Tencent266. Since 2023, Tencent Cloud supports VVC live streaming.
In independent performance evaulations by the Moscow State University (MSU) International Video Codecs Comparison Report： MSU Video Codecs Comparison 2022 Part 4 (Sixteen MSU Video Codecs Comparison), the perhaps most respected venue for objective codec comparision-- Tencent266 won 12 first places in 15 metrics among all 20+ codec implementations, while Tencent266 also won all 15 first places in 15 metrics among all VVC encoders and all other standard-complying encoders. The evaluation results showed that Tencent266 is able to save 50%+ bandwidth as compared with the x265 encoder given same encoding speed for various application scenarios, including VOD and real-time coding.
MSU FullHD Codec Comparison Results (MSU Video Codecs Comparison 2022 Part 4 (Sixteen MSU Video Codecs Comparison))
Tencent Media Processing Service (MPS) is an audio and video processing service that leverages years of industry expertise from Tencent Group, Tencent Cloud, and Tencent MediaLab. It provides customers with unparalleled encoding capabilities that significantly reduce storage and bandwidth expenses while ensuring full-platform playback compatibility. MPS has been recognized as the top performer in video encoding for a variety of per-title standards by the international professional streaming media technology blog, Streaming Learning Center (SLC).
Over the recent months, MPS has deployed a number of new techniques. The transcoding services now offer ultra-fast high-definition transcoding to customers worldwide, as well as Versatile Video Coding support based on Tencent's inhouse developed Tencent266 (VVC) codec. Using this technology, a 50% reduction in storage and bandwidth costs can be achieved without compromising video quality. MPS' audio and video enhancement algorithms have been upgraded by integrating the latest AI models for video and audio enhancement. Using such models ensures a superior audio and video experience for end-users. These improvements make MPS a top choice for businesses looking to optimize their audio and video processing needs.