Higher compression efficiency, exceptional image quality, faster encoding time and lower costs

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2 Table of Content Introduction... 2 RealMedia HD fast facts... 2 Key benefits of RealMedia HD RealMedia HD The evolution of video codecs RealMedia Variable Bitrate (RMVB) global and in China The new global reality of video consumption RealMedia HD solution RealMedia HD comparison with H.264 and H a) Encoding compression ratio... 7 b) Ratio of encoding time... 8 c) CPU usage d) Battery usage RealMedia HD products a) RealMedia HD SDK for Android/iOS b) RealProducer HD c) RealPlayer HD

3 Introduction In the last five years the number of smartphones and new portable devices like tablets etc. as well as the amount of data they use have increased greatly along with rapid progress in video delivery through the Internet. Entering an era of high definition video delivered through the Internet to smart devices, consumers expect to reduce mobile data cost, cache/download time, and storage space consumption while enjoying better image quality. RealNetworks faced these new needs of the modern smartphone users squarely and developed a new technology called RealMedia TM HD that addresses those needs in a smart and swift manner. RealMedia HD fast facts Higher compression efficiency, exceptional image quality, faster encoding time and lower costs RealMedia HD, the successor to RealNetworks RMVB video codec, delivers exceptional image quality for a high-definition experience on mobile devices giving viewers high-quality video over the Internet on their choice of devices. RealMedia HD technology increases compression efficiency by 45% vs. H.264 to free up device storage while providing a high-definition image, increasing transmission efficiency and lowering data costs. Key benefits of RealMedia HD 1) Chipset manufacturers enjoy Highly scalable technology RealMedia HD is easily scaled to leverage accelerated hardware evolvement Forward compatibility Integrate once, chipsets can support future upgrades of RealMedia HD Cost savings significant with use of existing hardware 2) Streaming vendors enjoy Significant bandwidth cost saving 2

4 Faster encoding time allowing quick-to-market content release for streaming vendors to outperform their rival who offer similar content Effortless integration with players/apps Lower CPU usage and battery consumption versus H.265 Devices with RealMedia HD SDK integrated can play RMHD videos via software decoding helping solve hardware fragmentation issues streaming vendors facing. 3) OEMs enjoy Backward compatibility With RealMedia HD SDK integrated, users could playback huge amount of existing RMVB content on their devices Effortless integration with players/apps Lower CPU usage and battery consumption versus H.265 Devices with RealMedia HD SDK integrated can play RMHD videos via software decoding. 4) Users enjoy Shorter cache/download time with reduced data costs versus H.264 Higher image quality with lower storage needs versus H.264 Lower battery consumption for longer viewing time versus H.265 3

5 1. RealMedia HD 1.1 The evolution of video codecs Let us look shortly into the evolution of video codecs over time and who was involved in the most important milestones. Video coding standards had first been developed through the coordination of the famous ITU-T (ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector) and the ISO/IEC. ITU-T developed the well-known H.261 and the H.263 standard, while ISO/IEC was instrumental in introducing the MPEG-1 and the MPEG-4 visual standards. At this stage the main applications for these standards were meant for TV use and later also for viewing on PCs. When the internet started to expand globally the two organizations jointly coordinated the development of the H.262/MPEG-2 Video and the H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standards. RealNetworks entered the stage this field in an early stage with a clear focus on streaming video applications to and from the Internet and the RealPlayer which became the first and most famous video-player for PC users. The basis of this application was the RealMedia Variable Bitrate (RMVB) codec, which until today plays a pivotal role in video sharing over the Internet. Figure 1. Overview of Evolution of Video Standards/Codecs The H.265/HEVC (High-Efficiency Video Coding) standard was introduced in 2012 and is the latest video codec standard developed by ISO / IEC and ITU- T, aimed to maximize compression capability and reduce data loss. 4

6 1.2 RealMedia Variable Bitrate (RMVB) global and in China Due to its pioneering technological innovation, RMVB has established itself as one of the most popular codecs on real-time media streaming and also with better video quality for non-real-time streaming via variable bit rate. Until today, RMVB is still one of the mainstream codecs widely used in video sharing forums with over 30% market share in online video sharing forums while new RMVB content is constantly added. RMVB has developed a particular loyal user base among the nearly 800 Million Chinese netizens in In the last eight years, over 1.3 billion RMVB codecs in digital devices have been shipped to the Chinese market. RMVB technology powers audio and video on millions of devices from Mstar, MediaTek Inc., Huawei, Xiaomi, and other global chipset makers and device manufacturers who have recognized the importance and market presence of RMVB in China for years. 1.3 The new global reality of video consumption Users consumption of video has evolved swiftly in the past decade since RMVB was first introduced. Two major changes in user behavior have developed in the last five years. First, today's users want to watch videos in high resolution with at least 720p, 1080p or even 4K. Higher resolution videos require the development of higher compression ratio, faster encoding plus improved features to save computing resource and battery usage. Second, in the past users watched video mainly on PCs. Today they enjoy videos not only on PCs, but also on their smartphones, tablets, smart TVs and in-car devices. In one word today people want to enjoy high-definition videos on multiple screens and devices. 5

7 With the current codec technology a 720p video easily needs multiple Gigabytes of storage. If a user moves to higher resolution versions as 1080p or even 4K videos the storage capacity of most devices is overstretched. Such large file sizes have become a serious challenge not only for storage but also due to limited network bandwidth for streaming and limited computing power in mobile devices. Online streaming on 3G/4G data networks can be costly and quite often slow. In one word - users needs aren t met very well at the moment. To address exactly these new requirements RealNetworks put its decade long expertise into action to develop the next generation technology RealMedia HD. 1.4 RealMedia HD solution RealMedia HD is delivering portable device users outstanding image quality for a premium video-playback experience. With the new RealMedia HD a high definition image quality is achieved at a reduction of more than 30% bitrate compared to the H.264/AVC standard. Thus RealMedia HD is easily comparable to the H.265/HEVC standard. But as usual we are not yet 6

8 satisfied with this result and push forward to achieve a 45% bitrate reduction compared to H.264 in order to surpass all presently existing codecs. 2. RealMedia HD comparison with H.264 and H.265 The objective of this testing is to demonstrate overall performance of RealMedia HD codec based on comparison with H.264 and H.265 standard. a) Encoding compression ratio Testing objective: Evaluate RealMedia HD compression efficiency. Encoding software: H.265: X.265 encoder, an open source implement of the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265) standard H.264: X.264 encoder, an open source implement of the Advanced Video Coding (AVC/H.264) standard RealMedia HD: RealProducer TM HD 15.0, RealMedia HD encoder from RealNetworks. Encoding PC: CPU: E5-2667/16 cores/32 threads/2.3g HZ Mem: 16GB OS: WinServer 64bit Major encoding parameters: H.265 RealMedia HD H.264 Max coding block size Transform 4x4-32x32, RQT 4x4-16x16 4x4-8x8 Number of B-frame Number of references ME search range Entropy coder CABAC non-cabac(rn proprietary entropy coder) CABAC Testing method: A high-bitrate 4K video sequence is used as a source video. X.264 encoder and RealProducer HD are used to respectively generate H.264 and RMHD video sequences in 480p, 720p, and 1080p. In this 7

9 testing, the bitrate of RMHD video sequences are 70% of correspondent H.264 video sequences. According to ITU-500 international standard, the tester evaluates video sequences based on DSIS testing method. Testing Institute Institute of Image Communication and Network Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Conclusion: The testing report by former mentioned institute shows that RealMedia HD saves presently up to 30% of bitrate on average compared to H.264 while achieves the same subjective image quality. RealNetworks conducted an internal subjective testing. Tester uses a RMHD video sequence at 70% bitrate of the correspondent H.264 video sequence. Respondents are required to select the one they think has better subjective quality without acknowledgement of codec standard used for encoding those video sequences. The testing result is as follows: The video sequence of Beijing duck is used in this evaluation. 100% Subjective Testing RealMedia HD v.s H % 60% 40% 20% 0% 480p 720p 1080p Video sequence: Beijing duck 42 H.264 is better RMHD is better Similar Chart 1: Video Image Quality Comparison b) Ratio of encoding time Testing objective: Evaluate RealMedia HD encoding performance. Encoding software: 8

10 H.265: X.265 encoder, an open source implement of the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265) standard H.264: X.264 encoder, an open source implement of the High Efficiency Video Coding (AVC/H.264) standard RealMedia HD: RealProducer HD 15.0, RealMedia HD encoder from RealNetworks. Encoding PC: CPU: E /16 cores/32 threads/2.3g HZ Memory: 16GB OS: WinServer 64bit Major encoding parameters: H.265 RealMedia HD H.264 Max coding block size Transform 4x4-32x32, RQT 4x4-16x16 4x4-8x8 Number of B-frame Number of references ME search range Entropy coder CABAC non-cabac (RN proprietary entropy coder) CABAC Video sequences: Beijing duck 168 Incredible 214 Mobile 148 SAMSARA 181 Testing method: The encoding time is measured against the length of video sequence, and is converted into 1:X for easy comparison and understanding. Chart info: The encoding time in chart 2 is an average encoding time of the video sequences with various resolutions listed above. Two-pass encoding is implemented to improve video quality. The lower, the better. 9

11 Ratio of Encoding Time RealMedia HD v.s. H.264,H p 720p 480p H.264 RMHD_OnePass RMHD-TwoPass H.265 Chart 2: Ratio of Encoding Time The chart shows that it takes shorter time to encode RMHD video compared to H.265 in various resolutions, meaning that RealMedia HD has lower complexity than H.265 while achieving same image quality and bitrate reduction. Going forward, the encoding performance will reach real-time, that is, 1:1. c) CPU usage Testing objective: Evaluate CPU usage of RealMedia HD decoder on smartphone and tablet. Testing devices 1 : Device A Device B Device C CPU GPU Display Resolution Samsung Exynos bit Mali-T inches 2560*1440 8cores/2.1Ghz NVIDIA Tegra K1 NVIDIA Denver 64-bit Tegra 2cores/2.5Ghz 8.9inches 1536*2048 Samsung Exynos cores/1.4Ghz Mali inches 1280*572 Media players: 1 The criteria for device selection are including CPU capability, device brand, and price range (low to midend, and mid to high-end). We tested on three devices in this testing. Device A C: Samsung S6, Nexus 9, and Samsung Note

12 RMHD video: RealMedia HD Demo Player with RealMedia HD Android SDK, H.264 and H.265 video: MX Player. Video sequence: Beijing Duck 42 Incredible 214, Mobile 14 Testing method: The CPU usage is collected using CPU info command (top) provided by Android operating system while playing the testing video sequence. Chart info: The data in chart 3 and chart 4 shows the case of 1080p and 720p resolution specifically. The lower, the better. 100% CPU Usage (1080p) Lower is better 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Samsung S6 Nexus 9 Samsung Note 10 H.264 RMHD H.265 Chart 3: CPU Usage (1080p) 11

13 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% CPU Usage (720p) Lower is better Samsung S6 Nexus 9 Samsung Note 10 H.264 RMHD H.265 Chart 4: CPU Usage (720p) RealMedia HD s CPU usage is higher that of H.264, but much lower than H.265. One key issue of H.265 is huge consumption of CPU, causing hesitated adoption in the market, although it provides superior compression efficiency comparing to H.264. Now RealMedia HD offers H.265 level compression efficiency with H.264 level CPU usage. RealMedia HD overcomes the challenge. As a result, the market can go ahead with enjoying higher compression efficiency provided by our new technology. d) Battery usage Testing objective: Evaluate the battery consumption of playing back RealMedia HD content on smart phone and tablet. Testing devices: CPU GPU Display Resolution Battery Capacity Phone Qualcomm Krait 400 4cores@2.5Ghz Adreno inches 2560* mAh Tablet ARM Cortex-A15 NVIDIA Kepler 7.9inches 2048* mAh 12

14 Media players: RealMedia HD: RealMedia HD Demo Player with RealMedia HD Android SDK H.264 and H.265: MX Player Video sequence: Beijing Duck 42 Testing method: The battery usage is measured by percentage of battery consumed by playing back 2 hours videos of RealMedia HD, H.264, H.265 respectively. Chart info: The data in chart 5 shows the battery consumption when playing back 1080p video sequence. The data in chart 6 shows the battery consumption when playing back 720p video sequence. The lower, the better. Battery Consumption (1080p) Lower is better 100% 50% 0% Phone Tablet H.264 RMHD H.265 Chart 5: Battery Consumption (1080p) 13

15 Battery Consumption (720p) 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Phone Tablet H.264 RMHD H.265 Chart 6: Battery Consumption (720p) While saved around 30% bitrate compared to H.264, RealMedia HD consumes comparable battery power to H.264, but much less than compared to H.265. As a result, Consumers enjoy longer video hours on their mobile device with RealMedia HD than with H RealMedia HD products a) RealMedia HD SDK for Android/iOS Video codecs: RealVideo 7 RealVideo 8 RealVideo 9 RealVideo 10 RealVideo 11 (RealMedia HD) Audio codecs: RealAudio6 RealAudio8 RealAudio9 RealAudio10 System requirements 2 : Operating system: Android OS version This is the minimum system requirement for 720p RMHD video playback. 14

16 Memory: 80M CPU: 2 cores 1.4Ghz GPU: OpenGL ES2.0 and above b) RealProducer HD Inputs/Outputs: Inputs: mp4 (H.264) Outputs: RMVB, RMHD System requirements: Hardware: E5-2667/16cores/32 threads/2.3g HZ /16G memory 3 Operating system: WinServer bit c) RealPlayer HD RealPlayer HD supports many formats including the following mainstream formats 4 : RealAudio RealVideo (including RMVB and RMHD, etc.) MPEG MPEG-4 AVI MP4 MKV FLV System requirements: Windows 7 32 bit and 64 bit Windows 8 64 bit 2016 RealNetworks. All rights reserved. RealMedia HD 01/14 3 This is the hardware requirement for the same encoding efficiency as showed in Chart 2. 4 Some formats may require correspondent decoder plug-in installed on the PC. 15

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