H.264/AVC remains one of the most widely deployed video codecs in the world, supported across an enormous installed base of TVs, set-top boxes, mobile devices and streaming platforms.
MPEG-5 LCEVC provides a way to extend what AVC can deliver, improving compression efficiency and enabling higher-quality services, including UHD, without assuming that every new requirement needs another standalone codec.
Challenge
Video services need to deliver higher quality while controlling bandwidth, infrastructure and operational costs.
Many operators already manage AVC alongside newer codecs such as HEVC or AV1, while others are evaluating their codec strategy in response to new service requirements, infrastructure costs, operational complexity or changing licensing costs.
But codecs rarely replace one another completely. AVC often remains part of the estate because of its broad device support, meaning each additional codec can add encoding, storage, packaging, testing, device qualification and operational complexity, as well as new or potentially increasing licensing costs.
The question is therefore not simply which codec should we deploy next? It is what is the most efficient way to evolve the codec estate we already have?
Solution
MPEG-5 LCEVC enhances an AVC base codec with an additional layer, increasing compression efficiency while retaining AVC at the core of the service.
This extends what AVC can deliver. With LCEVC, operators can use AVC as the foundation for UHD services, adding the compression efficiency needed to address requirements that would traditionally have driven the introduction of another codec path. LCEVC can also improve the efficiency and quality of existing HD services.
This creates a practical option for operators evaluating whether requirements such as UHD necessarily need a separate HEVC or other codec workflow, or whether more can be delivered through the AVC infrastructure they already operate.
Because LCEVC is an enhancement rather than a replacement codec, it can be integrated into existing encoding and delivery workflows while building on established AVC infrastructure and expertise.
AVC + LCEVC can therefore be evaluated alongside HEVC, AV1 and other codec options when operators review their codec strategy, whether the driver is higher resolution, greater efficiency, lower cost or reducing the complexity of the overall codec estate.
Benefits
- Deliver UHD with AVC — Extend an established AVC-based architecture to support UHD services with the additional compression efficiency provided by LCEVC.
- Improve existing HD services — Reduce bitrate at equivalent quality or increase video quality within the existing bandwidth available for AVC services.
- Get more from existing infrastructure — Build on AVC encoding, delivery workflows, operational expertise and infrastructure rather than replacing the entire codec path.
- Reduce codec proliferation — Meet more service requirements using an existing codec, potentially reducing the need to introduce and operate additional standalone codec paths.
- Control the wider cost of codec evolution — Reduce the infrastructure, storage, packaging, testing and device qualification costs that can come with an expanding codec estate. LCEVC itself is licensed, with published licensing programs for video distribution services and consumer devices, and a single direct route to the LCEVC license. This gives operators greater clarity when evaluating the wider operational and licensing costs of their codec strategy.
- Retain flexibility for the future — LCEVC can also enhance HEVC, AV1 and VVC, allowing operators to apply the same enhancement approach as their codec estate evolves.
Why it matters
AVC has traditionally been associated primarily with SD and HD delivery, with newer codecs introduced as services moved towards UHD. LCEVC changes that equation by extending the capabilities of the AVC codec infrastructure operators already have.
That matters at a time when many video services are managing multiple generations of codecs and questioning the operational and commercial cost of continuing to add more.
Codec strategy is therefore no longer simply about choosing the codec with the highest compression efficiency.
For operators already managing AVC, HEVC, AV1 or combinations of them, the bigger question is how many codec paths they need to operate to deliver the services their customers expect.
AVC + LCEVC creates another option: extend what one of the industry’s most widely deployed codecs can deliver, including UHD, while controlling the cost and complexity of the wider codec estate.
That means the decision does not have to be “what replaces AVC?” It can be “where can AVC + LCEVC deliver what we need, and where do we need another codec?”
