The objective of video content compression is to devise effective technical strategies that result in data reduction while minimizing signal distortion. This facilitates the distribution, reproduction, and storage of substantial data volumes. Specific compression standards facilitate the reduction of video content by capitalizing on both statistical and subjective redundancies. For instance, the human visual system exhibits reduced sensitivity to intricate details and colors. Moreover, sequences of moving images often exhibit considerable similarities between successive and/or preceding frames. This paper will describe the development of video compression standards with the fundamental features and tools of the H.264 (AVC) compression process defined in detail. It will also define the main features and tools of the HEVC compression process and explain the improvement of the HEVC compression process compared to H.264 (AVC). To test and compare the results of the HEVC compression process, it is necessary to define measures for the evaluation of video quality. Finally, the application of the HEVC compression standard will be presented and an overview of the latest developments in this type of compression will be given.