Videos at 720p video at 30 frames per second and less than half a megabit a second: that’s the promise of the H.265 vid compression tech. Video quality keeps getting better, and nowhere is that more apparent than at CES where major consumer electronics manufacturers are showing off 4K TVs and OLED screens – with some even showing off 8K. That’s great for traditional TV, but what about streaming video?

The ITU has approved a new video format ( h.265 ) that could bring 4k video to future broadband networks, while also making streaming HD video available even on bandwidth-constrained mobile networks. The H.265 standard, also informally known as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), is designed to provide high-quality streaming video, even on low-bandwidth networks. Oh yeah ! 4K TV’s ( remember the trend followed by the TV’s launched this CES ? UltraHighDef-Thin-4K)

The new video format is the successor to the H.264 codec, which nearly every video publisher has standardized after the release of the iPad and several other connected devices. The hope is that, through improved compression techniques, H.265 will enable publishers to stream 1080p video with about half as many bits as required today. That should make true streaming HD video available not just in broadband households, but on mobile and tablet devices, using networks that are a lot more bandwidth-constrained. Doing so could make online video more widely available in markets with poor connectivity or mostly mobile connections ( YAY India ! )