Development of next generation video codec "Daala" that can realize H.265 or higher quality at no cost goes smoothly

Aiming at image quality exceeding the latest video codec (video compression standard) such as HEVC (H.265) and VP9,Royalty-freeOpen Source · Next Generation Codec "Daala (Dara)"Has been reported so far and it is clear that the development has already advanced to a considerable level already.

Next generation video [interlude]: Daala update 20141223
https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/daala/update1.shtml

Xiph.org Foundation(Xiph) announced the latest developments about the free next-generation video codec "Daala" which is being developed jointly with Mozilla familiar with Firefox.

Since the movie is made up of continuous pictures if it is simplified, how to improve the picture quality of one frame per picture while improving picture quality determines the superiority of the video codec. H.265 and VP9 are "Discrete cosine transform(DCT) "technology was standardized more than 20 years agoH.261On the extension line of the basic design of DaalaAdopting coding technology called "Lapped Transforms"By doing so, it achieves high image quality without violating the existing patented technology.


Also, paying attention to the fact that most of the movie frame (frame) has almost the same content as the next frame, and only partly changes, in Daala, some frames ( By predicting the contents of the next frame in advance from the key frame), we can achieve efficient and high-speed compression by processing only the changed part (difference).

This time announcedProgress report page, An image that compares the image quality of the JPEG and Daala frames (1 frame), which is the still image standard, is embedded, so you can compare the image quality by sliding the broken line on the screen to the left or right.Block noiseDaala maintains high quality to detail in contrast to JPEG where blocking artifacts such as blocking artifacts are noticeable.


It is now possible to compare with x265 which is said to achieve the highest quality. The image quality of Daala is approaching quite nice but it is still not over x 265.


"(PDF file)Fast-SSIM algorithm"Comparing the relative image quality is like this. You can see that the red line of Daala exceeds x 265 in some areas. In addition, the range of light purple color indicates "how much Daala's image quality improved in one year".


Daala steadily evolving will eventually realize a higher quality than the current latest codecs H.265 and VP9, ​​unlike H.265 it is open source and free, so a powerful next-generation video It seems to be very promising as a codec.