DOCOMO to License HEVC Decoding Software

TOKYO, JAPAN — NTT DOCOMO, INC., Japan’s leading mobile operator and provider of integrated services centered on mobility, announced today that it will license a software for decoding HEVC, the new international standard for video coding, in March. DOCOMO’s HEVC decoding software is the world’s first of its kind for Full HD playback on smartphones.

HEVC was jointly finalized by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) as ISO/IEC 23008-2 and the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) as H.265 on January 25. It is the next-generation standard succeeding H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, the current format used widely in audio and visual equipment and mobile devices. Compared with MPEG-4 AVC, compressed video can be downloaded twice as fast, or higher-quality video can be streamed at conventional speeds. DOCOMO’s HEVC decoding software allows smooth playback of Full HD on smartphones without delays or interruptions. Furthermore, for playback on personal computers the software enables real-time decoding of 4K UHDTV, which offer four times the resolution of Full HD.

DOCOMO will license its new decoding software to facilitate the development and widespread adoption of HEVC in many fields, including mobile video services. DOCOMO itself will use HEVC to broadly reduce communication network load and offer higher-quality mobile video services for smartphones and tablets.

DOCOMO played a leading role in the new standard’s development beginning in 2007, including proposing the concept and technical requirements of using HEVC for mobile video services. Beginning in late 2011, DOCOMO verified feasibility by demonstrating some of the world’s first and most advanced real-time HEVC software decoding on tablets and smartphones. DOCOMO’s achievement of Full HD video on smartphones and real-time decoding of UHDTV video at 60 frames per second on PCs were key milestones in the standard’s eventual realization.

DOCOMO’s HEVC decoding software will be demonstrated at the NTT R&D Forum in Tokyo from February 14 to 15 and Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, Spain from February 25 to 28.

DOCOMO will begin licensing in March.