H265 encoder/decoder in Media SDK

[Roman_T_]

Hi all!

As I know Intel Media SDK is a free product.

But H265 encoder/decoder in Media SDK requires non-free license (about 1000 USD in total).

This year I was a participant of MIPS exhibition in Moscow.

There were a lot of IP-camera vendors in this exhibition (Sony, Samsung, Siemens, etc.)

An all they said "we have no H265 support in our devices because final version of this standard doesn't exist". 

My question: what specification of H265 encoder/decoder supported in Media SDK and why this option is non-free?

Best regards,

Roman

[OTorg]

h265 isn't a draft since 04/13: http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.265-201304-I

[Surbhi_M_Intel]

Hi Roman,

You can download an evaluation version of the HEVC plugin from here.
We generally keep up with the latest HEVC Test Model Specification. You can find more information about the evaluation and the main version in the release notes. 
I am not a Marketing expert, so can't answer why it is not free. But can definitely forward it to Marketing team to answer that question. 
Thank you for Question.

-Surbhi

[Mark_B_Intel1]

Dear Roman T

dj_alek is correct.  H.265 / HEVC /  ISO/IEC 23008-2 has been an International Standard for more than a year.  There is certainly at least one IP camera manufacturer using HEVC so I can't explain these other manufacturer's comments to you; perhaps they are waiting on support for a HEVC elsewhere in the system (server, client).

As to why we charge for our elementary stream encoder/decoder ... I belive we offer the fastest performing software decoders for x86 and our encoder offers extremely good coding efficiency all along along the quality/performance tradeoff curve.  See our whitepaper at http://software.intel.com/sites/default/files/Intel_HEVCwhitepaper_v1.2_26Jun2014.pdf for specifics. That kind of performance and quality isn't free.   If $1000 is too much, there are open source encoders with non-commercial licenses available from other vendors.

Regards,

-Mark Buxton