Profiles
The HEVC standard defines three profiles: Main, Main 10, and Main Still Picture. It also contains provisions for additional profiles. Future extensions that are being discussed for HEVC include increased bit depth, 4:2:2/4:4:4 chroma subsampling, Multiview Video Coding (MVC), and SVC. The amendment to add HEVC range extensions is under development and is expected to be released in January 2014.
A profile is a defined set of coding tools that can be used to create a bitstream that conforms to that profile. An encoder for a profile may choose which coding tools to use as long as it generates a conforming bitstream while a decoder for a profile must support all coding tools that can be used in that profile.
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