H.265 / HEVC

H.265, also called HEVC, is the successor to H.264, delivering similar visual quality at roughly half the data rate, or better quality at the same size. It is widely used for 4K and HDR delivery, modern phone recording, and bandwidth-conscious streaming. Like H.264 it relies on long-GOP inter-frame compression, so it is excellent for distribution but demanding to edit directly, often requiring hardware decode support to scrub smoothly. It also carries more licensing and compatibility considerations than H.264, though support is now broad. Editors encounter HEVC most as camera source (especially 10-bit HDR) and as an efficient export target where smaller files matter. As with H.264, a common workflow is transcoding HEVC source to an intra-frame intermediate for editing, then exporting back to HEVC for final delivery.