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Video license deal protects the future of 4K
The future of 4K video has been in doubt as of late. You see, the HEVC Advance group that's licensing the H.265/HEVC video format (crucial to stuffing 4K into modern data pipes) wanted steep royalties seemingly everywhere, with no cap -- even free services faced a small outlay. It was so pricey that tech giants started work on their own royalty-free format to avoid being on the hook. At last, though, HEVC Advance has seen the light: it's offering a revamped licensing scheme. While it could still be costly for some, it's inexpensive enough that it might safeguard the future of 4K content.
Google is working to make 4K video less of a data hog
Ultra HD 4K video is still in its infancy, but there's no doubt the format will become increasingly popular in the next year or two. Huge players like YouTube and Netflix already support it, but delivering such high bandwidth video content remains a challenge. Google's trying to do its part to solve that problem by developing a more efficient video compression codec called VP10. The new codec has been in the works for nearly a year, but the company gave some details about how effective it can be over the VP9 format it'll eventually replace. In an interview with CNET, Google product manager James Bankoski said that VP9 uses half the bandwidth needed to deliver the same quality video as the popular H.264 format -- and with VP10, the company is trying to cut it in half again.
