HEIC and HEVC Technology Specifics

Wes Miller analyzes and writes about Microsoft’s security, identity management, and systems management technologies. Before joining Directions on Microsoft, Wes... more

Apple’s format changes are designed to maintain image quality with more efficient use of storage space for both still images and video files.

Images

HEIF and HEIC are interrelated. HEIF files are static images, and HEIC files are—as the name implies—containers of one or more HEIF files, and potentially other types of media like video. Apple’s Live Photos feature, which concurrently captures a photo and video of the 1.5 seconds before and after the photo, produces HEIC files.

Depending on the scenario, customers exporting files from their Apple mobile devices or Macs may see a file with a .HEIC file extension, rather than the .JPEG or .JPG file extension customers have expected in the past. In some cases, it will be a file with a .HEIF extension instead.

Video

Traditionally, video files on iOS were video captured using the MPEG-4 video codec, licensed from the MPEG Licensing Administration (MPEG LA) organization. The specification for MPEG-4 is sometimes referred to by its standard number, h.264.

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