x265 version 1.8 has been released. This release supports 12bit input depths, a large amount of AVX2 optimizations, entropy coding optimizations, as well as new quality features.

Full documentation is available at http://x265.readthedocs.org/en/stable/

============================API Changes ===========================

Experimental support for Main12 is now enabled. Partial assembly support exists.
Main12 and Intra/Still picture profiles are now supported. Still picture profile is detected based on x265_param::totalFrames.
Three classes of encoding statistics are now available through the API.
x265_stats — contains encoding statistics, available through x265_encoder_get_stats()
x265_frame_stats and x265_cu_stats — contains frame encoding statistics, available through recon x265_picture
—csv
x265_encoder_log() is now deprecated
x265_param::csvfn is also deprecated
—log-level now controls only console logging, frame level console logging has been removed.
Support added for new color transfer characteristic ARIB STD-B67

=========================== New Features ==========================

limit-refs
This feature limits the references analysed for individual CUS.
Provides a nice tradeoff between efficiency and performance.
aq-mode 3
A new aq-mode that provides additional biasing for low-light conditions.
An improved scene cut detection logic that allows ratecontrol to manage visual quality at   fade-ins and fade-outs better.

======================= Preset and Tune Options =======================

tune grain
Increases psyRdoq strength to 10.0, and rdoq-level to 2.
qg-size
Default value changed to 32.