Video Codec Names Pronunciation

H.264 is pronounced 'aitch dot two-sixty-four' — the letter 'H', the word 'dot', then '264' read as a whole number. In a technical interview: "H.264 encoded the stream at a bitrate low enough for mobile data, without visible artifacts."

HEVC is pronounced 'AYCH-EE-VEE-SEE' — every letter spoken individually, H-E-V-C. In a technical interview: "HEVC halved our storage bill by encoding the same footage at roughly the same quality but half the size."

AV1 is pronounced 'AY-VEE-WUN' — 'A' and 'V' spoken as letters, plus the number 'one'. In a technical interview: "AV1 delivered noticeably better quality at the same bitrate, but the encode itself took far longer."

VP9 is pronounced 'VEE-PEE-NYN' — 'V' and 'P' spoken as letters, plus the number 'nine'. In a technical interview: "VP9 let us serve high-resolution video without paying any codec licensing fees."

VVC is pronounced 'VEE-VEE-SEE' — every letter spoken individually, V-V-C. In a technical interview: "VVC promised another thirty percent reduction over HEVC at the same visual quality, on paper at least."