Editing Advanced Video Coding (section)

=== Profiles ===
The standard defines several sets of capabilities, which are referred to as ''profiles'', targeting specific classes of applications. These are declared using a profile code (profile_idc) and sometimes a set of additional constraints applied in the encoder. The profile code and indicated constraints allow a decoder to recognize the requirements for decoding that specific bitstream. (And in many system environments, only one or two profiles are allowed to be used, so decoders in those environments do not need to be concerned with recognizing the less commonly used profiles.) By far the most commonly used profile is the High Profile.

Profiles for non-scalable 2D video applications include the following:

;Constrained Baseline Profile (CBP, 66 with constraint set 1): Primarily for low-cost applications, this profile is most typically used in videoconferencing and mobile applications. It corresponds to the subset of features that are in common between the Baseline, Main, and High Profiles.
;Baseline Profile (BP, 66): Primarily for low-cost applications that require additional data loss robustness, this profile is used in some videoconferencing and mobile applications. This profile includes all features that are supported in the Constrained Baseline Profile, plus three additional features that can be used for loss robustness (or for other purposes such as low-delay multi-point video stream compositing). The importance of this profile has faded somewhat since the definition of the Constrained Baseline Profile in 2009. All Constrained Baseline Profile bitstreams are also considered to be Baseline Profile bitstreams, as these two profiles share the same profile identifier code value.
;Extended Profile (XP, 88): Intended as the streaming video profile, this profile has relatively high compression capability and some extra tricks for robustness to data losses and server stream switching.
;Main Profile (MP, 77): This profile is used for standard-definition digital TV broadcasts that use the MPEG-4 format as defined in the DVB standard.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_ts/101100_101199/101154/01.09.01_60/ts_101154v010901p.pdf |title=TS 101 154&nbsp;– V1.9.1&nbsp;– Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Specification for the use of Video and Audio Coding in Broadcasting Applications based on the MPEG-2 Transport Stream |access-date=2010-05-17}}</ref> It is not, however, used for high-definition television broadcasts, as the importance of this profile faded when the High Profile was developed in 2004 for that application.
;High Profile (HiP, 100): The primary profile for broadcast and disc storage applications, particularly for high-definition television applications (for example, this is the profile adopted by the [[Blu-ray Disc]] storage format and the [[Digital Video Broadcasting|DVB]] HDTV broadcast service).
;Progressive High Profile (PHiP, 100 with constraint set 4): Similar to the High profile, but without support of field coding features.
;Constrained High Profile (100 with constraint set 4 and 5): Similar to the Progressive High profile, but without support of B (bi-predictive) slices.
;High 10 Profile (Hi10P, 110): Going beyond typical mainstream consumer product capabilities, this profile builds on top of the High Profile, adding support for up to 10 bits per sample of decoded picture precision.
;High 4{{!:}}2{{!:}}2 Profile (Hi422P, 122): Primarily targeting professional applications that use interlaced video, this profile builds on top of the High 10 Profile, adding support for the 4:2:2 [[chroma sampling]] format while using up to 10 bits per sample of decoded picture precision.
;High 4{{!:}}4{{!:}}4 Predictive Profile (Hi444PP, 244): This profile builds on top of the High 4:2:2 Profile, supporting up to 4:4:4 chroma sampling, up to 14 bits per sample, and additionally supporting efficient lossless region coding and the coding of each picture as three separate color planes.

For camcorders, editing, and professional applications, the standard contains four additional [[Intra-frame]]-only profiles, which are defined as simple subsets of other corresponding profiles. These are mostly for professional (e.g., camera and editing system) applications:

;High 10 Intra Profile (110 with constraint set 3): The High 10 Profile constrained to all-Intra use.
;High 4{{!:}}2{{!:}}2 Intra Profile (122 with constraint set 3): The High 4:2:2 Profile constrained to all-Intra use.
;High 4{{!:}}4{{!:}}4 Intra Profile (244 with constraint set 3): The High 4:4:4 Profile constrained to all-Intra use.
;CAVLC 4{{!:}}4{{!:}}4 Intra Profile (44): The High 4:4:4 Profile constrained to all-Intra use and to CAVLC entropy coding (i.e., not supporting CABAC).

As a result of the [[Scalable Video Coding]] (SVC) extension, the standard contains five additional ''scalable profiles'', which are defined as a combination of a H.264/AVC profile for the base layer (identified by the second word in the scalable profile name) and tools that achieve the scalable extension:

;Scalable Baseline Profile (83): Primarily targeting video conferencing, mobile, and surveillance applications, this profile builds on top of the Constrained Baseline profile to which the base layer (a subset of the bitstream) must conform. For the scalability tools, a subset of the available tools is enabled.
;Scalable Constrained Baseline Profile (83 with constraint set 5): A subset of the Scalable Baseline Profile intended primarily for real-time communication applications.
;Scalable High Profile (86): Primarily targeting broadcast and streaming applications, this profile builds on top of the H.264/AVC High Profile to which the base layer must conform.
;Scalable Constrained High Profile (86 with constraint set 5): A subset of the Scalable High Profile intended primarily for real-time communication applications.
;Scalable High Intra Profile (86 with constraint set 3): Primarily targeting production applications, this profile is the Scalable High Profile constrained to all-Intra use.

As a result of the [[Multiview Video Coding]] (MVC) extension, the standard contains two ''multiview profiles'':

;Stereo High Profile (128): This profile targets two-view [[stereoscopic]] 3D video and combines the tools of the High profile with the inter-view prediction capabilities of the MVC extension.
;Multiview High Profile (118): This profile supports two or more views using both inter-picture (temporal) and MVC inter-view prediction, but does not support field pictures and macroblock-adaptive frame-field coding.

The Multi-resolution Frame-Compatible (MFC) extension added two more profiles:

;MFC High Profile (134): A profile for stereoscopic coding with two-layer resolution enhancement.
;MFC Depth High Profile (135):

The 3D-AVC extension added two more profiles:

;Multiview Depth High Profile (138): This profile supports joint coding of depth map and video texture information for improved compression of 3D video content.
;Enhanced Multiview Depth High Profile (139): An enhanced profile for combined multiview coding with depth information.

==== Feature support in particular profiles ====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Feature
! title="Constrained Baseline Profile" | CBP
! title="Baseline Profile" | BP
! title="Extended Profile" | XP
! title="Main Profile" | MP
! title="Progressive High Profile" | ProHiP
! title="High Profile" | HiP
! title="High 10 Profile" | Hi10P
! title="High 4:2:2 Profile" | Hi422P
! title="High 4:4:4 Predictive Profile" | Hi444PP
|- style="display:none"
! I and P slices
| {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}}
|-
! [[Color depth|Bit depth]] (per sample)
| {{Yes|8}} || {{Yes|8}} || {{Yes|8}} || {{Yes|8}} || {{Yes|8}} || {{Yes|8}} || {{yes|8 to 10}} || {{yes|8 to 10}} || {{yes|8 to 14}}
|-
! [[Chroma subsampling|Chroma]] formats
| {{Yes|4:2:0<br /><br />&nbsp;}} || {{Yes|4:2:0<br /><br />&nbsp;}} || {{Yes|4:2:0<br /><br />&nbsp;}} || {{Yes|4:2:0<br /><br />&nbsp;}} || {{Yes|4:2:0<br /><br />&nbsp;}} || {{Yes|4:2:0<br /><br />&nbsp;}} || {{Yes|4:2:0<br /><br />&nbsp;}} || {{yes|4:2:0/<br />4:2:2<br />&nbsp;}} || {{yes|4:2:0/<br />4:2:2/<br />4:4:4}}
|-
! [[Flexible macroblock ordering|Flexible macroblock ordering (FMO)]]
| {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}}
|-
! [[Arbitrary slice ordering|Arbitrary slice ordering (ASO)]]
| {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}}
|-
! Redundant slices (RS)
| {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}}
|-
! Data Partitioning
| {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}}
|-
! SI and SP slices
| {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}}
|-
! Interlaced coding (PicAFF, MBAFF)
| {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}}
|-
! B slices
| {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}}
|- style="display:none"
! Multiple reference frames
| {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}}
|- style="display:none"
! [[Deblocking filter (video)|In-loop deblocking filter]]
| {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}}
|- style="display:none"
! [[CAVLC|CAVLC entropy coding]]
| {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}}
|-
! [[CABAC|CABAC entropy coding]]
| {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}}
|-
! 4:0:0 ([[Monochrome]])
| {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}}
|-
! 8×8 vs. 4×4 transform adaptivity
| {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}}
|-
! Quantization scaling matrices
| {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}}
|-
! Separate C<sub>B</sub> and C<sub>R</sub> QP control
| {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}}
|-
! Separate color plane coding
| {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes}}
|-
! Predictive lossless coding
| {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes}}
|}