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1************
2Introduction
3************
4
5Increasing demand for high definition and ultra-high definition video,
6along with an increasing desire for video on demand has led to
7exponential growth in demand for bandwidth and storage requirements.
8These 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
10launched by MulticoreWare in 2013, aiming to provide the most efficient,
11highest performance HEVC video encoder.
12
13About HEVC
14==========
15
16The High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) was developed by the ISO/IEC
17Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group
18(VCEG), through their Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC).
19HEVC is also known as ISO/IEC 23008-2 MPEG-H Part 2 and ITU-T H.265.
20HEVC provides superior video quality and up to twice the data
21compression as the previous standard (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC). HEVC can
22support 8K Ultra High Definition video, with a picture size up to
238192x4320 pixels.
24
25About x265
26==========
27
28The primary objective of x265 is to become the best H.265/HEVC encoder
29available anywhere, offering the highest compression efficiency and the
30highest performance on a wide variety of hardware platforms. The x265
31encoder is available as an open source library, published under the
32GPLv2 license. It is also available under a commercial license, enabling
33commercial companies to utilize and distribute x265 in their solutions
34without being subject to the restrictions of the GPL license.
35
36x265 is developed by `MulticoreWare <http://www.multicorewareinc.com>`_,
37leaders in high performance software solutions, with backing from
38leading 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
41anonymous at this time), and with contributions from open source
42developers. x265 leverages many of the outstanding video encoding
43features and optimizations from the x264 AVC encoder project.
44
45The x265 software is available for free under the GNU GPL 2 license,
46from https://bitbucket.org/multicoreware/x265. For commercial companies
47that wish to distribute x265 without being subject to the open source
48requirements of the GPL 2 license, commercial licenses are available
49with competitive terms. Contact license @ x265.com to inquire about
50commercial license terms.
51
52While x265 is primarily designed as a video encoder software library, a
53command-line executable is provided to facilitate testing and
54development. We expect x265 to be utilized in many leading video
55hardware and software products and services in the coming months.
56
57LEGAL NOTICES
58=============
59
60The x265 software is owned and copyrighted by MulticoreWare, Inc.
61MulticoreWare is committed to offering the x265 software under the GNU
62GPL v2 license. Companies who do not wish to integrate the x265
63Software in their products under the terms of the GPL license can
64contact MulticoreWare (license @ x265.com) to obtain a commercial
65license agreement. Companies who use x265 under the GPL may also wish
66to work with MulticoreWare to accelerate the development of specific
67features or optimized support for specific hardware or software
68platforms, or to contract for support.
69
70The GNU GPL v2 license or the x265 commercial license agreement govern
71your rights to access the copyrighted x265 software source code, but do
72not cover any patents that may be applicable to the function of binary
73executable software created from the x265 source code. You are
74responsible for understanding the laws in your country, and for
75licensing all applicable patent rights needed for use or distribution of
76software applications created from the x265 source code. A good place
77to start is with the `Motion Picture Experts Group - Licensing Authority
78- HEVC Licensing Program<http://www.mpegla.com/main/PID/HEVC/default.aspx>`_.
79
80x265 is a registered trademark of MulticoreWare, Inc. The x265 logo is
81a trademark of MulticoreWare, and may only be used with explicit written
82permission. All rights reserved.