HEVC or h.265 is the most advanced codec for now because it has the lowest bitrate without losing the image quality. The codec has three main features that distinguishes it from others: parallel decoding, random access to images within the video stream and larger maximum block size. HEVC is aimed to offer the same level of video quality as AVC (h.264), but with improved compression, that is why a video file compressed with the codec will be twice smaller.

This format was originally created as an alternative to mp3. The idea was to achieve a small file size with better sound quality. The first versions weren’t quite successful, but with the development of AAC, it became possible to store sound with less loss of quality, and with the same file sizes as that of mp3.