This Recommendation | International Standard represents an evolution of the existing video coding standards (H.261, H.262, and H.263) and it was developed in response to the growing need for higher compression of moving pictures for various applications such as videoconferencing, digital storage media, television broadcasting, Internet streaming, and communication. It is also designed to enable the use of the coded video representation in a flexible manner for a wide variety of network environments. The use of this Recommendation | International Standard allows motion video to be manipulated as a form of computer data and to be stored on various storage media, transmitted and received over existing and future networks and distributed on existing and future broadcasting channels. The revision approved 2005-03 contained modifications of the video coding standard to add four new profiles, referred to as the High, High 10, High 4:2:2, and High 4:4:4 profiles, to improve video quality capability and to extend the range of applications addressed by the standard (for example, by including support for a greater range of picture sample precision and higher-resolution chroma formats). Additionally, a definition of new types of supplemental data was specified to further broaden the applicability of the video coding standard. Finally, a number of corrections to errors in the published text were included. Corrigendum 1 to ITU-T Rec. H.264 corrected and updated various minor aspects to bring the ITU-T version of the text up to date relative to the April 2005 output status approved as a new edition of the corresponding jointly-developed and technically-aligned text ISO/IEC 14496-10. It additionally fixed a number of minor errors and needs for clarification and defined three previously-reserved sample aspect ratio indicators. The H.264 edition published in 2005-11 included the text approved 2005-03 and its Corrigendum 1 approved 2005-09. Amendment 1 "Support of additional colour spaces and removal of the High 4:4:4 Profile" contained alterations to ITU-T Rec. H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496 10 Advanced Video Coding to specify the support of additional colour spaces and to remove the definition of the High 4:4:4 Profile. NOTE - ITU-T Rec. H.264 is a twin text with ISO/IEC 14496 10 and this amendment is published in two different documents in the ISO/IEC series: - The removal of the High 4:4:4 profile is found in ISO/IEC 14496-10:2005/Cor.2. - The specification for support of additional colour space will be found in ISO/IEC 14496-10:2005/Amd.1. Amendment 2 "New profiles for professional applications" contained extensions to ITU-T Rec. H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10 Advanced Video Coding to specify the support of five additional profiles intended primarily for professional applications (the High 10 Intra, High 4:2:2 Intra, High 4:4:4 Intra, CAVLC 4:4:4 Intra, and High 4:4:4 Predictive profiles) and two new types of supplemental enhancement information (SEI) messages (the post-filter hint SEI message and the tone mapping information SEI message). Amendment 3 "Scalable video coding" contained extensions to ITU-T Rec. H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10 Advanced Video Coding to specify a scalable video coding extension in three profiles (the Scalable Baseline, Scalable High, and Scalable High Intra profiles).

H.264 (03/2005) Amd.3 was published as an integrated Edition 3 with the base text, plus Cor.1 (09/2005), Amd.1 (06/2006) and Amd.2 (04/2007), in full alignment with the ISO/IEC JTC1 twin text counterpart.