Why it matters

H.265 is the compression sweet spot for many workloads. Patent situation matters for streaming distribution.

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The architecture

Compression: coding tree units (CTU) up to 64x64 vs H.264's 16x16 macroblocks. Better prediction, adaptive block sizes.

Result: ~50% bitrate savings vs H.264 at same quality.

H.265 improvementsLarger blocks (CTU)up to 64x64Better predictionmore modesAdaptive partitioningrecursiveCompression gains from more sophisticated block partitioning and prediction
H.265 features.
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How it works end to end

Hardware decode: iPhone, modern Android, TVs, GPUs. Widely available.

Encoders: x265 (open), hardware encoders.

Patents: MPEG-LA + HEVC Advance + others. Licensing complex; some companies avoid it.

Alternatives: AV1 patent-free, but harder to encode. VP9 also patent-free.