Versatile Video Coding

VVC / H.266 / MPEG-I Part 3
Versatile Video Coding
Status	In force
Year started	2017
First published	2020
Latest version	4th Edition[1] 13 January 2026
Organization	ITU-T, ISO, IEC
Committee	SG16 (Secretary: Simao Campos) (VCEG), MPEG
Base standards	H.261, H.262, H.263, H.264, H.265, ISO/IEC 14496-2, MPEG-1
Predecessor	H.265
Domain	Video compression
License	RAND
Website	www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.266

Versatile Video Coding (VVC), also known as H.266,^[2] ISO/IEC 23090-3,^[3] and MPEG-I Part 3, is a video compression standard finalized on 6 July 2020, by the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET)^[4] of the VCEG working group of ITU-T Study Group 16 and the MPEG working group of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29. It is the successor to High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, also known as ITU-T H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2). It was developed with two primary goals – improved compression performance and support for a very broad range of applications.^[5][6][7]

Concept

In October 2015, the MPEG and VCEG formed the Joint Video Exploration Team (JVET) to evaluate available compression technologies and study the requirements for a next-generation video compression standard. The new standard has about 50% better compression rate for the same perceptual quality compared to HEVC,^[8] with support for lossless and lossy compression. It supports resolutions ranging from very low resolution up to 4K and 16K as well as 360° videos. VVC supports YCbCr 4:4:4, 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 with 8–10 bits per component, BT.2100 wide color gamut and high dynamic range (HDR) of more than 16 stops (with peak brightness of 1,000, 4,000 and 10,000 nits),^{[clarification needed]} auxiliary channels (for depth, transparency, etc.), variable and fractional frame rates from 0 to 120 Hz and higher, scalable video coding for temporal (frame rate), spatial (resolution), SNR, color gamut and dynamic range differences, stereo/multiview coding, panoramic formats, and still-picture coding. Work on high bit depth support (12 to 16 bits per component) started in October 2020^[9] and was included in the second edition published in 2022. Encoding complexity of several times (up to ten times) that of HEVC is expected, depending on the quality of the encoding algorithm (which is outside the scope of the standard). The decoding complexity is about twice that of HEVC.

VVC development has been made using the VVC Test Model (VTM), a reference software codebase that was started with a minimal set of coding tools. Further coding tools have been added after being tested in Core Experiments (CEs). Its predecessor was the Joint Exploration Model (JEM), an experimental software codebase that was based on the reference software used for HEVC.

Like its predecessor, VVC uses motion-compensated DCT video coding. While HEVC supports integer discrete cosine transform (DCT) square block sizes between 4×4 and 32×32, VVC adds support for non-square DCT rectangular block sizes. VVC also introduces several intra-frame prediction modes based on these rectangular DCT blocks to provide improved motion compensation prediction.^[10]

History

JVET issued a final Call for Proposals in October 2017, and the standardization process officially began in April 2018 when the first working draft of the standard was produced.^[11][12]

At IBC 2018, a preliminary implementation based on VVC was demonstrated that was said to compress video 40% more efficiently than HEVC.^[13]

The content of the final standard was approved on 6 July 2020.^[8][14][15]

Licensing

To reduce the risk of the problems seen when licensing HEVC implementations, for VVC a new group called the Media Coding Industry Forum (MC-IF) was founded.^[17][18] However, MC-IF had no power over the standardization process, which was based on technical merit as determined by consensus decisions of JVET.^[19]

Four companies were initially vying to be patent pool administrators for VVC, in a situation similar to the previous AVC^[20] and HEVC^[21] codecs. Two companies later formed patent pools: Access Advance and MPEG LA (now known as Via-LA).^[22]

Access Advance published their licensing fee in April 2021.^[23] Via-LA published their licensing fee in January 2022.^[24]

Companies known not to be a part of the Access Advance or Via-LA patent pools as of May 2025 are: Apple, Broadcom, Canon, Ericsson, Fraunhofer, Google, Huawei, Intel, Interdigital, LG, Maxell, Microsoft, Nokia, Oppo, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sharp and Sony.^[25] Access Advance promotes a standalone VVC licensing program under the name of VVC Advance, while Via-LA is promoting a combined HEVC/VVC licensing program; until April 2024, Via-LA was licensing VVC standalone.^[26]

In December 2025 Access Advance acquired Via Licensing Alliance's HEVC and VVC patent pools but that still doesn't resolve the licensing situation because multiple companies beyond the former two patent pools administrators hold patents for the codec.^[27][28] Acquired Via-LA patent pools became known at Access Advance as VCL Advance^[29] but patent, licensor and licensee lists remain hosted on Via-LA websites.

Adoption

See also

• AOMedia Video 1 (AV1)
• AV2
• Scalable coding
• Essential Video Coding

Notes

References

Further reading

• HoangVan, Xiem; NguyenQuang, Sang; Pereira, Fernando (23 November 2020). "Versatile Video Coding Based Quality Scalability With Joint Layer Reference" (PDF). IEEE Signal Processing Letters. 27: 2079–2083. Bibcode:2020ISPL...27.2079H. doi:10.1109/LSP.2020.3039729. S2CID 228091515. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2022 – via Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

External links

• VVC website at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute with source code of: VTM or VVdeC or VVenC
• MPEG - Versatile Video Coding (archived 2023)