The H.26x family refers to a series of video compression standards developed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This family includes popular codecs like H.264 and H.265, which are widely used for streaming video, video conferencing, and broadcasting. These standards help reduce the file size of video content while maintaining high quality, making it easier to transmit over various networks. H.264, also known as AVC (Advanced Video Coding), was introduced in 2003 and became the most commonly used video codec. H.265, or HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), was released in 2013 and offers improved compression efficiency, allowing for higher resolutions like 4K and 8K to be streamed more effectively.