This paper describes the details and the results of the subjective quality evaluation performed at EPFL, as a contribution to the effort of the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) for the definition of the next-generation video coding standard. The performance of 27 coding technologies have been evaluated with respect to two H.264/MPEG-4 AVC anchors, considering high definition (HD) test material. The test campaign involved a total of 494 naive observers and took place over a period of four weeks. While similar tests have been conducted as part of the standardization process of previous video coding technologies, the test campaign described in this paper is by far the most extensive in the history of video coding standardization. The obtained subjective quality scores show high consistency and support an accurate comparison of the performance of the different coding solutions.