Tears of Steel (3 minutes)

“Tears of Steel” is a short film made in Amsterdam the Netherlands by the Blender Institute. We've encoded some short streams using the HM 10.1 reference encoder (get the source here) for you to test, and included the muxed versions we created as well. (NOTE: Most media players don't yet support HEVC and will not playback these videos. The DivX HEVC Decoder release is coming up in just a few weeks...stay tuned.) Read more after the break.

As a follow up to our DivX HEVC video profiles release, our team is pleased to announce a patch we’re developing to use with MKVToolNix to let you combine a DivX HEVC video stream with audio in an MKV container. MKVToolNix is a great set of tools for creating, inspecting and altering Matroska files. For more info, check out the developer's blog.

With our DivX HEVC decoder on the way and big plans to help enable HEVC video playback on PC, Mac, mobile and consumer electronics, we hope that community tools like MKVToolNix and others will build in native support for DivX HEVC profiles to make it easier for everyone to create their own HEVC-based DivX MKV videos.

Until then:

• Download MKVToolNix binaries and source code
• Grab DivX HEVC video streams from our showcase, or use some of these test streams from this FTP location
• Get more technical details on using MKVToolNix

Let us know what you think, tell your friends, and share results of your muxing efforts in our HEVC Mux Forum. Remember, adding support for a new standard to community tools is not something we can do on our own. Here at DivX, our team actively seeks out and relies heavily on feedback from video experts like you.

It wasn't just hype when we said earlier this year that DivX would be among the first to deliver tools for HEVC content and playback. And it all starts with this first look at the new DivX HEVC 4K, 1080p and 720p profiles our team is developing. Keep in mind that this is a DRAFT, and it only defines the VIDEO portion of the profiles at this time. Audio, features and everything else that make up a DivX profile are still in the works, so check back often or sign up for email alerts when we have something big to announce.

If you’re reading this and excited to start testing out the profiles, you already understand that HEVC, or H.265, is the next big thing in video technology. With the promise of up to 50% compression efficiency compared to today’s best encoding tools (AVC/H.264), we believe HEVC can help to drastically improve video streaming capabilities, particularly in a mobile environment, and facilitate 4K content production and delivery to new Ultra HD displays.