| 1 | ************ |
| 2 | Introduction |
| 3 | ************ |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Increasing demand for high definition and ultra-high definition video, |
| 6 | along with an increasing desire for video on demand has led to |
| 7 | exponential growth in demand for bandwidth and storage requirements. |
| 8 | These challenges can be met by the new High Efficiency Video Coding |
| 9 | (HEVC) standard, also known as H.265. The x265 HEVC encoder project was |
| 10 | launched by MulticoreWare in 2013, aiming to provide the most efficient, |
| 11 | highest performance HEVC video encoder. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | About HEVC |
| 14 | ========== |
| 15 | |
| 16 | The High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) was developed by the ISO/IEC |
| 17 | Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group |
| 18 | (VCEG), through their Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC). |
| 19 | HEVC is also known as ISO/IEC 23008-2 MPEG-H Part 2 and ITU-T H.265. |
| 20 | HEVC provides superior video quality and up to twice the data |
| 21 | compression as the previous standard (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC). HEVC can |
| 22 | support 8K Ultra High Definition video, with a picture size up to |
| 23 | 8192x4320 pixels. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | About x265 |
| 26 | ========== |
| 27 | |
| 28 | The primary objective of x265 is to become the best H.265/HEVC encoder |
| 29 | available anywhere, offering the highest compression efficiency and the |
| 30 | highest performance on a wide variety of hardware platforms. The x265 |
| 31 | encoder is available as an open source library, published under the |
| 32 | GPLv2 license. It is also available under a commercial license, enabling |
| 33 | commercial companies to utilize and distribute x265 in their solutions |
| 34 | without being subject to the restrictions of the GPL license. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | x265 is developed by `MulticoreWare <http://www.multicorewareinc.com>`_, |
| 37 | leaders in high performance software solutions, with backing from |
| 38 | leading video technology providers including `Telestream |
| 39 | <http://www.telestream.com>`_ and `Doremi Labs |
| 40 | <http://www.doremilabs.com>`_ (and other companies who want to remain |
| 41 | anonymous at this time), and with contributions from open source |
| 42 | developers. x265 leverages many of the outstanding video encoding |
| 43 | features and optimizations from the x264 AVC encoder project. |
| 44 | |
| 45 | The x265 software is available for free under the GNU GPL 2 license, |
| 46 | from https://bitbucket.org/multicoreware/x265. For commercial companies |
| 47 | that wish to distribute x265 without being subject to the open source |
| 48 | requirements of the GPL 2 license, commercial licenses are available |
| 49 | with competitive terms. Contact license @ x265.com to inquire about |
| 50 | commercial license terms. |
| 51 | |
| 52 | While x265 is primarily designed as a video encoder software library, a |
| 53 | command-line executable is provided to facilitate testing and |
| 54 | development. We expect x265 to be utilized in many leading video |
| 55 | hardware and software products and services in the coming months. |
| 56 | |
| 57 | LEGAL NOTICES |
| 58 | ============= |
| 59 | |
| 60 | The x265 software is owned and copyrighted by MulticoreWare, Inc. |
| 61 | MulticoreWare is committed to offering the x265 software under the GNU |
| 62 | GPL v2 license. Companies who do not wish to integrate the x265 |
| 63 | Software in their products under the terms of the GPL license can |
| 64 | contact MulticoreWare (license @ x265.com) to obtain a commercial |
| 65 | license agreement. Companies who use x265 under the GPL may also wish |
| 66 | to work with MulticoreWare to accelerate the development of specific |
| 67 | features or optimized support for specific hardware or software |
| 68 | platforms, or to contract for support. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | The GNU GPL v2 license or the x265 commercial license agreement govern |
| 71 | your rights to access the copyrighted x265 software source code, but do |
| 72 | not cover any patents that may be applicable to the function of binary |
| 73 | executable software created from the x265 source code. You are |
| 74 | responsible for understanding the laws in your country, and for |
| 75 | licensing all applicable patent rights needed for use or distribution of |
| 76 | software applications created from the x265 source code. A good place |
| 77 | to start is with the `Motion Picture Experts Group - Licensing Authority |
| 78 | - HEVC Licensing Program<http://www.mpegla.com/main/PID/HEVC/default.aspx>`_. |
| 79 | |
| 80 | x265 is a registered trademark of MulticoreWare, Inc. The x265 logo is |
| 81 | a trademark of MulticoreWare, and may only be used with explicit written |
| 82 | permission. All rights reserved. |