---
title: 'H264 vs H265 | Explained'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=SUvlWYD67QQ'
video_id: 'SUvlWYD67QQ'
date: 2026-06-14
duration_sec: 567
---

# H264 vs H265 | Explained

> Source: [H264 vs H265 | Explained](https://youtube.com/watch?v=SUvlWYD67QQ)

## Summary

Video compression is essential for making videos accessible and streamable. This video explains the two most important compression standards, H.264 and H.265, comparing how they work and their real-world implications for quality and file size.

### Key Points

- **Video Compression Basics** [00:00] — Video compression reduces file size for easier transfer and streaming by using codecs like H.264 and H.265.
- **H.264 Overview** [00:26] — H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC) is a widely used block-oriented standard that uses macroblocks (16x16 pixels) to compress video efficiently.
- **Compression Example** [01:52] — Codecs compress static backgrounds by only storing changes, reducing file size without significant quality loss.
- **H.265 Overview** [03:00] — H.265 (HEVC) is a newer standard using coding tree units (CTUs) up to 64x64 blocks, offering better compression than H.264.
- **H.265 Advantages** [04:48] — H.265 requires about half the bitrate of H.264 for the same quality, enabling 4K streaming at ~15 Mbps vs ~32 Mbps.
- **Motion Compensation** [06:50] — H.265 has better motion compression, maintaining quality in high-action scenes even at lower bitrates.
- **H.265 Adoption Barriers** [08:02] — H.265 requires more computing power for encoding/decoding, but hardware support is growing, making it more accessible.

### Conclusion

H.265 offers superior compression and quality over H.264, especially for high-resolution and high-motion content, but adoption is limited by higher computational requirements.

## Transcript

video has become a huge part of our
internet experience these days videos
are everywhere from funny cat videos on
facebook to this video that you're
watching right now the only reason
videos are so accessible and so common
these days is because of something known
as video compression this means turning
one video source into a smaller one for
either easier video transfer or for
streaming over the internet so let's
take a look at the two most important
video compression standards currently in
use these are h.264 and the newer h.265
standards we will look into how these
two standards work and more importantly
how do these two video compression
standards compare to each other whether
you are someone who likes to upload
nature walk videos onto the internet or
likes to stream video games on twitch
it's really interesting to understand
how video compression works hello
everyone this is mike from sabrin here
and if you enjoy tech videos and tech
related videos then make sure to hit
that subscribe button and hit that
notification bell so you get updated for
any future videos both h.264 and h.265
are known as codex a codec is a piece of
software that can utilize hardware to
code video files during their creation
and also to decode the same type of
video for playback in fact the word
codec is a combination of the words code
and decode video compression codecs can
reduce the size of a video file by
essentially following a series of
program processes that allow a computer
system that is doing the video encoding
to squeeze the video data into smaller
file sizes without a substantial or
notable loss in quality in most cases
this is done by using a combination of
things like prediction and complex
algorithms video compression codecs like
h.264 and h.265 are used to compress raw
video data that can take up a lot of
space in your computer and then compress
it into more smaller and more manageable
file sizes for example let's say you
need to compress a video of yourself
talking to a camera with a simple static
background like this one just here now
the codec will determine that your
background isn't changing that
drastically as you're speaking so
instead of storing all of that real-time
information about your background the
codec will compress your background
information meaning that it will isolate
you from your background and only
keeping the data of the real-time
changes like of me moving my hands as
i'm speaking or for example the mouth as
i'm talking this is because your
background is static and there's no need
to keep all of that information as the
information is essentially repeating
itself throughout the video this is
obviously an over simplified way of
explaining how these codecs work but you
get the idea by using simple tricks you
can reduce the file sizes now let's look
at one of the most popular decompression
codec standards out there h.264 and its
newer and
arguably better sibling the h.265 video
standard h.264 is a well-known video
compression standard for high definition
video is also known as mpeg-4 part 10
advanced video coding or mpeg-4 hevc for
short h.264 is an industry standard and
widely used in all kinds of video files
from recording to streaming and it's not
just used for videos and entertainment
h.264 is also widely used for things
like surveillance footage too h.264 is a
block orientated compression standard it
works by compressing frames of the video
using a block orientated motion
compensated based video compression
standard those units are called macro
blocks macro blocks typically consists
of 16 by 16 pixel samples that can be
subdivided into transform blocks and may
be further subdivided into what are
known as prediction blocks this allows
h.264 to reduce the file size of the
video without compromising much on video
quality there are many video formats
that use h.264 compression standards two
of the most popular ones are dot mov and
dot mp4 formats formats themselves are
just digital file containers both of
these formats use ht64 to compress the
information in a video file dot mov is a
proprietary file format that was made by
apple to work exclusively with their
devices and mp4 is an international
standard for video files and a lot of
streaming and video platforms recommend
that you use this file format while mp4
is more commonly used it is a more
compressed video file format and thus
comparing it to file formats like mov
mp4 does have a slight worsening in
quality h.265 on the other hand is the
newer video compression standard and
since it is the newer one it is also the
better video compression standard first
published in 2013 h.265 has yet to
become as widely used as h.264 but it is
catching up pretty fast according to the
video developers report of 2019 is the
second most commonly used video coding
standard after h.264 h.265 is also known
as high efficiency video coding or hevc
for short while h.264 uses macro blocks
h.265 processes information by using
something called coding 3 units or ctus
a macro block could span between 4x4 to
16x16 block sizes ctus on the other hand
can process as many as 64 by 64 blocks
giving them the ability to compress
information more efficiently this means
that h.265 can retain more information
in a video after compression as compared
to h.264 h.265 is more advanced than
h.264 in several ways the main
difference is that hevc allows for
further reduction file sizes and
therefore reduce the required bandwidth
for your live streams or video
recordings what this means in the real
world is that when you're recording a
video or streaming of a video you can
actually stream at a much higher quality
by using the same if not actually
smaller file sizes than the h.264 file
format without getting too much into
things like bitrate and such h365 needs
less bitrate to store the same level of
information as compared to h.264
basically put the higher the bitrate the
larger the video size so real world
example just to give you a comparison
the required bandwidth to stream 4k
video is around 32 megabits per second
for h.264 for h.265 it is just under 15
megabits per second this essentially
means that the video can be recorded or
streamed at half the bitrate without
compromising on quality this also means
that when you are recording higher
quality video you can actually use lower
bit rates meaning that you can record
things like 8k video or even 6k video
using just an sd card whereas before you
would have had to have used more
expensive media types in addition to
cutting down file sizes even further
h.265 also has much better motion
compression and spatial prediction than
h.264 what this means is that you can
have a lot of stuff going on in the
video like this or more than that really
and you can still get away with running
a lower bit rate previously recording at
a lower bit rate meant that wherever
there was a lot of motion in the video
the quality of the video would become
worse this was because in a video with a
lot of movement and action going on
there is a lot more information that
needs to be captured but at a lower bit
rate there is only so much bandwidth to
go around this is why when you are
watching a live stream of action sports
for example and then suddenly there is a
lot of action on stream it looks like
the video quality has got worse almost
immediately with h.265 compression
standards this video would actually
perform much better so you might ask if
h.265 is so great and it's been around
for almost eight years why is h.264
still more widely used around the world
well the answer is pretty simple h.265
requires significantly more computing
power when the video is viewed edited
and even played back the fact is is that
this is a huge barrier to entry for a
lot of people and industries however we
are seeing more and more devices with
special h.265 encoders and decoder chips
to handle this kind of codec meaning
that processors can basically be less
powerful making it easier and cheaper to
implement h.265 encoding and decoding
just a decade ago you would have had to
take out a loan to get your hands on a
4k camera and a tv to play on but today
almost every phone has the ability to
record and play back this footage and it
won't be long until 6 and 8k video will
become the norm with h.265 as well
becoming the norm but that's it for
today's video if you've enjoyed it then
please make sure to hit that like button
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bell so you stay updated on all our
future videos anyway we'll see you in
the next one
bye
[Music]
you