I n t e r n a t i o n a l T e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n U n i o n
ITU-T
H.264
TELECOMMUNICATION
STANDARDIZATION SECTOR
OF ITU
(06/2019)
SERIES H: AUDIOVISUAL AND MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS
Infrastructure of audiovisual services – Coding of moving
video
Advanced video coding for generic audiovisual
services
Recommendation ITU-T H.264
ITU-T H-SERIES RECOMMENDATIONS
AUDIOVISUAL AND MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS
CHARACTERISTICS OF VISUAL TELEPHONE SYSTEMS
H.100–H.199
INFRASTRUCTURE OF AUDIOVISUAL SERVICES
General
H.200–H.219
Transmission multiplexing and synchronization
H.220–H.229
Systems aspects
H.230–H.239
Communication procedures
H.240–H.259
Coding of moving video
H.260–H.279
Related systems aspects
H.280–H.299
Systems and terminal equipment for audiovisual services
H.300–H.349
Directory services architecture for audiovisual and multimedia services
H.350–H.359
Quality of service architecture for audiovisual and multimedia services
H.360–H.369
Telepresence, immersive environments, virtual and extended reality
H.420–H.439
Supplementary services for multimedia
H.450–H.499
MOBILITY AND COLLABORATION PROCEDURES
Overview of Mobility and Collaboration, definitions, protocols and procedures
H.500–H.509
Mobility for H-Series multimedia systems and services
H.510–H.519
Mobile multimedia collaboration applications and services
H.520–H.529
Security for mobile multimedia systems and services
H.530–H.539
Security for mobile multimedia collaboration applications and services
H.540–H.549
VEHICULAR GATEWAYS AND INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS (ITS)
Architecture for vehicular gateways
H.550–H.559
Vehicular gateway interfaces
H.560–H.569
BROADBAND, TRIPLE-PLAY AND ADVANCED MULTIMEDIA SERVICES
Broadband multimedia services over VDSL
H.610–H.619
Advanced multimedia services and applications
H.620–H.629
Ubiquitous sensor network applications and Internet of Things
H.640–H.649
IPTV MULTIMEDIA SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS FOR IPTV
General aspects
H.700–H.719
IPTV terminal devices
H.720–H.729
IPTV middleware
H.730–H.739
IPTV application event handling
H.740–H.749
IPTV metadata
H.750–H.759
IPTV multimedia application frameworks
H.760–H.769
IPTV service discovery up to consumption
H.770–H.779
Digital Signage
H.780–H.789
E-HEALTH MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS, SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS
Personal health systems
H.810–H.819
Interoperability compliance testing of personal health systems (HRN, PAN, LAN, TAN and
WAN)
H.820–H.859
Multimedia e-health data exchange services
H.860–H.869
Safe listening
H.870–H.879
For further details, please refer to the list of ITU-T Recommendations.
Rec. ITU-T H.264 (06/2019) i
Recommendation ITU-T H.264
Advanced video coding for generic audiovisual services
Summary
Recommendation ITU-T H.264 | International Standard ISO/IEC 14496-10 represents an evolution of the existing video
coding standards (ITU-T H.261, ITU-T H.262, and ITU-T H.263) and it was developed in response to the growing need
for higher compression of moving pictures for various applications such as videoconferencing, digital storage media,
television broadcasting, Internet streaming, and communication. It is also designed to enable the use of the coded video
representation in a flexible manner for a wide variety of network environments. The use of this Recommendation |
International Standard allows motion video to be manipulated as a form of computer data and to be stored on various
storage media, transmitted and received over existing and future networks and distributed on existing and future
broadcasting channels.
The revision approved 2005-03 contained modifications of the video coding standard to add four new profiles, referred to
as the High, High 10, High 4:2:2, and High 4:4:4 profiles, to improve video quality capability and to extend the range of
applications addressed by the standard (for example, by including support for a greater range of picture sample precision
and higher-resolution chroma formats). Additionally, a definition of new types of supplemental data was specified to
further broaden the applicability of the video coding standard. Finally, a number of corrections to errors in the published
text were included.
Corrigendum 1 to Rec. ITU-T H.264 corrected and updated various minor aspects to bring the ITU-T version of the text
up to date relative to the April 2005 output status approved as a new edition of the corresponding jointly-developed and
technically-aligned text ISO/IEC 14496-10. It additionally fixed a number of minor errors and needs for clarification and
defined three previously-reserved sample aspect ratio indicators.
Amendment 1 "Support of additional colour spaces and removal of the High 4:4:4 Profile" contained alterations to Rec.
ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10 Advanced Video Coding to specify the support of additional colour spaces and to remove
the definition of the High 4:4:4 profile.
NOTE – Rec. ITU-T H.264 is a twin text with ISO/IEC 14496-10 and this amendment was published in two different
documents in the ISO/IEC series:
– The removal of the High 4:4:4 profile was found in ISO/IEC 14496-10:2005/Cor.2.
– The specification for support of additional colour spaces was found in ISO/IEC 14496-10:2005/Amd.1.
Amendment 2 "New profiles for professional applications" contained extensions to Rec. ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10
Advanced Video Coding to specify the support of five additional profiles intended primarily for professional applications
(the High 10 Intra, High 4:2:2 Intra, High 4:4:4 Intra, CAVLC 4:4:4 Intra, and High 4:4:4 Predictive profiles) and two new
types of supplemental enhancement information (SEI) messages (the post-filter hint SEI message and the tone mapping
information SEI message).
Amendment 3 "Scalable video coding" contained extensions to Rec. ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10 Advanced Video
Coding to specify a scalable video coding extension in three profiles (the Scalable Baseline, Scalable High, and Scalable
High Intra profiles).
The edition of ITU-T H.264 published in 2005-11 included the text approved 2005-03 and its Corrigendum 1 approved
2005-09. ITU-T H.264 (2005) Amd.2 (2007) was available only as pre-published text since it was superseded by
ITU-T H.264 Amd.3 (2007-11) before its publication; further, ITU-T H.264 Amd.3 was not published separately. This
third edition integrated into the ITU-T H.264 edition published in 2005-11 all changes approved in Amendments 1 (2006-
06), 2 (2007-04) and 3 (2007-11).
Corrigendum 1 (2009) provides a significant number of minor corrections, clarifications, consistency improvements and
formatting improvements drafted in response to accumulated errata reports collected since publication of the 2nd edition
(dated 2005-03, which included a Cor.1 approved 2005-09).
The edition of ITU-T H.264 published in 2009-05 contained enhancement extensions to support multiview video coding
(MVC), specification of a "Constrained Baseline Profile", and some miscellaneous corrections and clarifications.
The edition of ITU-T H.264 published in 2010-03 contained the specification of a new profile (the Stereo High profile) for
two-view video coding with support of interlaced coding tools, the specification a new SEI message (the frame packing
arrangement SEI message), and some miscellaneous corrections and clarifications.
The edition of ITU-T H.264 approved in 2011-06 contained the specification of a new level (Level 5.2) supporting higher
processing rates in terms of maximum macroblocks per second, a new profile (the Progressive High profile) to enable
ii Rec. ITU-T H.264 (06/2019)
implementation of decoders supporting only the frame coding tools of the previously specified High profile, and included
miscellaneous corrections and clarifications.
The edition of Rec. ITU-T H.264 approved in 2012-01 contained the specification of three additional profiles intended
primarily for communication applications (the Constrained High, Scalable Constrained Baseline, and Scalable Constrained
High profiles).
The edition of Rec. ITU-T H.264 approved in 2013-04 contained an additional profile for multiview video coding with
depth information (the Multiview Depth High profile), and contained additional SEI message enhancements, additional
colorimetry identifiers, and corrections and clarifications.
The edition of Rec. ITU-T H.264 approved in 2014-02 specified multi-resolution frame-compatible (MFC) enhancement
for stereoscopic video coding, including the specification of an additional profile, the MFC High profile, an enhanced
profile for combined multiview video coding with depth information (the Enhanced Multiview Depth High profile), and
includes miscellaneous minor corrections and clarifications.
The edition of Rec. ITU-T H.264 approved in 2016-02 specified MFC stereoscopic video with depth maps, including the
specification of an additional profile, the MFC Depth High profile, and the mastering display colour volume SEI message,
additional colour-related video usability information codepoint identifiers, and miscellaneous minor corrections and
clarifications.
The edition of Rec. ITU-T H.264 approved in 2016-10, specified additional levels of decoder capability supporting larger
picture sizes (Levels 6, 6.1, and 6.2), the green metadata SEI message, the alternative depth information SEI message,
additional colour-related video usability information codepoint identifiers, and miscellaneous minor corrections and
clarifications.
The edition of Rec. ITU-T H.264, approved in 2017-04, specified the Progressive High 10 profile; support for additional
colour-related indicators including the hybrid log-gamma transfer characteristics indication, the alternative transfer
characteristics SEI message, the IC
T
C
P
colour matrix transformation, chromaticity-derived constant luminance and non-
constant luminance colour matrix coefficients, the colour remapping information SEI message; and miscellaneous minor
corrections and clarifications.
This edition of Rec. ITU-T H.264, approved in 2019-05, specifies additional SEI messages for ambient viewing
environment, content light level information, content colour volume, equirectangular projection, cubemap projection,
sphere rotation, region-wise packing, omnidirectional viewport, SEI manifest, and SEI prefix, and miscellaneous minor
corrections and clarifications.
History
Edition
Recommendation
Approval
Study Group
Unique ID
*
1.0
ITU-T H.264
2003-05-30
16
11.1002/1000/6312
1.1
ITU-T H.264 (2003) Cor. 1
2004-05-07
16
11.1002/1000/7255
2.0
ITU-T H.264
2005-03-01
16
11.1002/1000/7825
2.1
ITU-T H.264 (2005) Cor. 1
2005-09-13
16
11.1002/1000/8572
2.2
ITU-T H.264 (2005) Amd. 1
2006-06-13
16
11.1002/1000/8811
2.3
ITU-T H.264 (2005) Amd. 2
2007-04-06
16
11.1002/1000/9036
3.0
ITU-T H.264
2007-11-22
16
11.1002/1000/9226
3.1
ITU-T H.264 (2007) Cor. 1
2009-01-13
16
11.1002/1000/9519
4.0
ITU-T H.264
2009-03-16
16
11.1002/1000/9710
5.0
ITU-T H.264
2010-03-09
16
11.1002/1000/10635
6.0
ITU-T H.264
2011-06-29
16
11.1002/1000/11293
7.0
ITU-T H.264
2012-01-13
16
11.1002/1000/11466
8.0
ITU-T H.264
2013-04-13
16
11.1002/1000/11830
9.0
ITU-T H.264 (V9)
2014-02-13
16
11.1002/1000/12063
10.0
ITU-T H.264 (V10)
2016-02-13
16
11.1002/1000/12641
11.0
ITU-T H.264 (V11)
2016-10-14
16
11.1002/1000/12904
12.0
ITU-T H.264 (V12)
2017-04-13
16
11.1002/1000/13189
13.0
ITU-T H.264 (V13)
2019-06-13
16
11.1002/1000/13903
*
To access the Recommendation, type the URL http://handle.itu.int/ in the address field of your web browser, followed by the
Recommendation's unique ID. For example, http://handle.itu.int/11.1002/1000/11830-en.
Rec. ITU-T H.264 (06/2019) iii
FOREWORD
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialized agency in the field of
telecommunications, information and communication technologies (ICTs). The ITU Telecommunication
Standardization Sector (ITU-T) is a permanent organ of ITU. ITU-T is responsible for studying technical,
operating and tariff questions and issuing Recommendations on them with a view to standardizing
telecommunications on a worldwide basis.
The World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA), which meets every four years, establishes
the topics for study by the ITU-T study groups which, in turn, produce Recommendations on these topics.
The approval of ITU-T Recommendations is covered by the procedure laid down in WTSA Resolution 1.
In some areas of information technology which fall within ITU-T's purview, the necessary standards are
prepared on a collaborative basis with ISO and IEC.
NOTE
In this Recommendation, the expression "Administration" is used for conciseness to indicate both a
telecommunication administration and a recognized operating agency.
Compliance with this Recommendation is voluntary. However, the Recommendation may contain certain
mandatory provisions (to ensure, e.g., interoperability or applicability) and compliance with the
Recommendation is achieved when all of these mandatory provisions are met. The words "shall" or some other
obligatory language such as "must" and the negative equivalents are used to express requirements. The use of
such words does not suggest that compliance with the Recommendation is required of any party.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
ITU draws attention to the possibility that the practice or implementation of this Recommendation may involve
the use of a claimed Intellectual Property Right. ITU takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or
applicability of claimed Intellectual Property Rights, whether asserted by ITU members or others outside of the
Recommendation development process.
As of the date of approval of this Recommendation, ITU had received notice of intellectual property, protected
by patents, which may be required to implement this Recommendation. However, implementers are cautioned
that this may not represent the latest information and are therefore strongly urged to consult the TSB patent
database at http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/ipr/.
ITU 2019
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written permission of ITU.
