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Collaboration, Voice & AV · Foundational

H.264 (AVC)

The ITU-T and ISO video compression standard (MPEG-4 Part 10 Advanced Video Coding) used by most conferencing systems.

Definition

H.264 uses intra-frame and motion-compensated inter-frame prediction with I, P and B frames, and profiles such as Baseline, Main and High trade complexity for efficiency. It is the most widely interoperable video codec in collaboration endpoints, streaming and AV-over-IP encoders. A 1080p30 conferencing stream typically needs about 1.5 to 3 Mbps with H.264.

Example

A Cisco Room Kit sends 1080p30 H.264 High profile at 2 Mbps in a Webex meeting.

Exam tip

Know that H.264 is the baseline interoperable codec, H.265 roughly halves bit rate for similar quality, and AV1 is royalty-free.

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