High Efficiency Video Coding tiers and levels

High Efficiency Video Coding tiers and levels are constraints that define a High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) bitstream in terms of maximum bit rate, maximum luma sample rate, maximum luma picture size, minimum compression ratio, maximum number of slices allowed, and maximum number of tiles allowed.[1][2] Lower tiers are more constrained than higher tiers and lower levels are more constrained than higher levels.[1][2]

Tiers

The HEVC standard defines two tiers: Main and High.[1][2] The Main tier is a lower tier than the High tier.[1][2] The tiers were made to deal with applications that differ in terms of their maximum bit rate.[1] The Main tier was designed for most applications while the High tier was designed for very demanding applications.[1]

Levels

The HEVC standard defines thirteen levels.[1][2] A level is a set of constraints for a bitstream.[1][2] For levels below level 4 only the Main tier is allowed.[1][2] A decoder that conforms to a given tier/level is required to be capable of decoding all bitstreams that are encoded for that tier/level and for all lower tiers/levels.[1][2]

Tiers and levels with maximum property values[2][3]
Level Max luma sample rate
(samples/s) 		Max luma picture size
(samples) 		Max bit rate for Main
and Main 10 profiles (1000bit/s)[A] 		Max bit rate for Main 12
profile (1000bit/s) 		Max bit rate for Main 4:4:4 12
profile (1000bit/s) 		Max bit rate for Main 4:4:4 16
Intra profile (1000bit/s) 		Max bit rate for High Throughput
4:4:4 16 Intra
profile (1000bit/s) 		Example picture resolution @
highest frame rate[B]
(MaxDpbSize[C])
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additional examples
 MinCR[D] Max number
of slice
segments
per picture[E] 		Max number of tile[F]
Main tier High tier Main tier High tier Main tier High tier Main tier High tier Main tier High tier rows columns
1 552,960 36,864 128 - 192 - 384 - 1,024 - 12,288 - 176×[email protected] (6) 2 16 1 1
2 3,686,400 122,880 1,500 - 2,250 - 4,500 - 12,000 - 144,000 - 352×[email protected] (6) 2 16 1 1
2.1 7,372,800 245,760 3,000 - 4,500 - 9,000 - 24,000 - 288,000 - 640×[email protected] (6) 2 20 1 1
3 16,588,800 552,960 6,000 - 9,000 - 18,000 - 48,000 - 576,000 - 960×[email protected] (6) 2 30 2 2
3.1 33,177,600 983,040 10,000 - 15,000 - 30,000 - 80,000 - 960,000 - 1280×[email protected] (6) 2 40 3 3
4 66,846,720 2,228,224 12,000 30,000 18,000 45,000 36,000 90,000 96,000 240,000 1,152,000 2,880,000
1,280×[email protected] (12)
1,920×1,[email protected] (6)
2,048×1,[email protected] (6) 		4 75 5 5
4.1 133,693,440 20,000 50,000 30,000 75,000 60,000 150,000 160,000 400,000 1,920,000 4,800,000
1,280×[email protected] (12)
1,920×1,[email protected] (6)
2,048×1,[email protected] (6) 		4
5 267,386,880 8,912,896 25,000 100,000 37,500 150,000 75,000 300,000 200,000 800,000 2,400,000 9,600,000
1,920×1,[email protected] (16)
2,048×1,[email protected] (16)
3,840×2,[email protected] (6)
4,096×2,[email protected] (6) 		6 200 11 10
5.1 534,773,760 40,000 160,000 60,000 240,000 120,000 480,000 320,000 1,280,000 3,840,000 15,360,000
1,920×1,[email protected] (16)
2,048×1,[email protected] (16)
3,840×2,[email protected] (6)
4,096×2,[email protected] (6) 		8
5.2 1,069,547,520 60,000 240,000 90,000 360,000 180,000 720,000 480,000 1,920,000 5,760,000 23,040,000
1,920×1,[email protected] (16)
2,048×1,[email protected] (16)
3,840×2,[email protected] (6)
4,096×2,[email protected] (6) 		8
6 1,069,547,520 35,651,584 60,000 240,000 90,000 360,000 180,000 720,000 480,000 1,920,000 5,760,000 23,040,000
3,840×2,[email protected] (16)
4,096×2,[email protected] (16)
7,680×4,[email protected] (6)
8,192×4,[email protected] (6) 		8 600 22 20
6.1 2,139,095,040 120,000 480,000 180,000 720,000 360,000 1,440,000 960,000 3,840,000 11,520,000 46,080,000
3,840×2,[email protected] (16)
4,096×2,[email protected] (16)
7,680×4,[email protected] (6)
8,192×4,[email protected] (6) 		8
6.2 4,278,190,080 240,000 800,000 360,000 1,200,000 720,000 2,400,000 1,920,000 6,400,000 23,040,000 76,800,000
3,840×2,[email protected] (16)
4,096×2,[email protected] (16)
7,680×4,[email protected] (6)
8,192×4,[email protected] (6) 		6
A The maximum bit rate of the profile is based on the combination of bit depth, chroma sampling, and the type of profile.[3] For bit depth the maximum bit rate increases by 1.5x for 12-bit profiles and 2x for 16-bit profiles.[3] For chroma sampling the maximum bit rate increases by 1.5x for 4:2:2 profiles and 2x for 4:4:4 profiles.[3] For the Intra profiles the maximum bit rate increases by 2x.[3]
B The maximum frame rate supported by HEVC is 300 frames per second (fps).[2]
C The MaxDpbSize, maximum number of pictures in the decoded picture buffer, for the maximum luma picture size of that level is 6 for all levels.[1][2] The MaxDpbSize can increase to a maximum of 16 frames, if the luma picture size of the video is smaller than the maximum luma picture size of that level, in incremental steps of 4/3×, 2×, or 4×.[1][2]
D The MinCR, minimum compression ratio, for that level.[2] The MinCR constraint is reduced to half its base value for the 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 chroma sampling profiles and is reduced by an additional half for the Intra profiles.[3] The MinCR is reduced to 1/24th of its base value with the High Throughput 4:4:4 16 Intra profile.[3][4]
E The maximum number of slice segments is the number of slices allowed per picture at both the maximum resolution and maximum frame rate.[2][5]
F The maximum number of tiles allowed per picture.[2] The maximum number of tiles allowed per second is the maximum number of tiles allowed per picture times 120.[2][6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l G.J. Sullivan; J.-R. Ohm; W.-J. Han; T. Wiegand (2012-05-25). "Overview of the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) Standard" (PDF). IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology. Retrieved 2012-09-14.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "H.265 : High efficiency video coding". ITU. 2013-06-07. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Jill Boyce; Jianle Chen; Ying Chen; David Flynn; Miska M. Hannuksela; Matteo Naccari; Chris Rosewarne; Karl Sharman; Joel Sole; Gary J. Sullivan; Teruhiko Suzuki; Gerhard Tech; Ye-Kui Wang; Krzysztof Wegner; Yan Ye (2014-07-11). "Draft high efficiency video coding (HEVC) version 2, combined format range extensions (RExt), scalability (SHVC), and multi-view (MV-HEVC) extensions". JCT-VC. Retrieved 2014-07-11.
  4. ^ K. Sharman; N. Saunders; J. Gamei; T. Suzuki; A. Tabatabai (2014-06-20). "High 4:4:4 16 Intra profile specification". JCT-VC. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
  5. ^ Minhua Zhou (2012-10-01). "AHG9: on number of slices constraint". JCT-VC. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  6. ^ Minhua Zhou (2012-10-01). "AHG9: on number of tiles constraint". JCT-VC. Retrieved 2012-11-27.