| Feature | | Main Profile (MP) | High Profile (HP) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | B-Frames | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | | Entropy Coding | CAVLC only | CABAC or CAVLC | CABAC or CAVLC | | 8x8 DCT Blocks | ❌ No | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | | Chroma Subsampling | 4:2:0 only | 4:2:0 only | 4:2:0, 4:2:2, 4:4:4 | | Bit Depth | 8-bit | 8-bit | 8-bit to 14-bit | | Relative Compression | Baseline (1x) | ~20-30% better | ~40-50% better | | Decoding Complexity | Low (1x) | Medium (2-3x) | High (4-6x) | | Latency | Lowest | Medium (B-frame delay) | Medium-High | | Primary Use Case | Conferencing, CCTV, WebRTC | Broadcast TV, Blu-ray | 4K Streaming, Archiving |
But H.264 is not a monolith. It is a standard with multiple "profiles" designed for different use cases. Among these—MP (Main Profile), HP (High Profile), and Hi444PP—lives a modest but powerful variant: , or Baseline Profile . h.264 bp