Along with the ever-increasing quality of videos that today's smartphones are capable of capturing, the memory requirement of recordings is also increasing. For example, a one-minute video in 4K resolution takes up a considerable 350 MB. That is why, since last year, the new HEVC or H.265 format began to spread widely, which Samsung has now also started to support, specifically in its latest flagship models Galaxy S9 and S9+.
HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) is a compression video standard that cuts the data rate in half, but while maintaining the same image quality as the previous H.264. Although the format was approved back in 2013, smartphone manufacturers only started deploying it last year. He was the first to decide on its implementation Apple, who introduced it as part of the system iOS 11. Now Samsung has joined the Apple company, which although has not publicly boasted about the use of the format, but allows recording videos in HEVC in Galaxy S9 and S9+.
Although recording to HEVC is disabled by default, users can easily enable it. Just open the app Camera, go to Settings (via the gear icon), choose Video resolution and activate the function here with the switch Highly effective video.
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In the editorial office, for the sake of interest, we conducted tests where we recorded a one-minute video first in the old H.264 format and then in the new H.265 format. While the first entry was 350,01 MB, the second took up 204 MB in a highly efficient format. The video in HEVC is therefore not exactly half the size, but it also depends on several other factors, such as the color diversity and the amount of light in the captured scene.
Finally, it is important to note that HEVC also has one major drawback. Although the videos shot in it are noticeably smaller and still high quality, it can pose a problem in terms of compatibility. The HEVC format is still at the beginning, so it is not supported by various editing programs, and older devices, such as smartphones, tablets and especially televisions, have problems with it.
