About MPEG-4

Why MPEG-4? Many people view MPEG-4 simply as MPEG-2 with double the compression. This is partly true, but MPEG-4 brings much more than improved compression. MPEG-4 is a complete "architecture" or system that enables broadcasters to deploy a complete, scaleable solution.

MPEG-4 provides not only the description for coding audio and video (as its predecessors MPEG-1 and MPEG-2), but also for coding images, animations, interactivity, protecting content, and distributing content on various transport channels - such as an MPEG-2 transport stream for digital broadcast, or as an IP (Internet Protocol) network for broadband streaming.

 

 

Benefits of MPEG-4 include:

• Open, international standard: MPEG-4 is interoperable between products, ensuring multi-vendor support. Over 300 companies have spent over $500 million creating products based on the MPEG-4 standard.
• Immediate cost savings on bandwidth and storage: MPEG-4 files result in a 50 percent improvement over MPEG-2 files.
• Monetization of digital media assets, engagement of end user: With MPEG-4, you can create interactive media using multiple objects - audio, video, PowerPoint, 2D, and animation - in a single format. In addition, you can protect and monetize your content through digital rights management interfaces.
• Broadest support for networks and devices: MPEG-4 provides optimal audio/video quality for low- and high-bandwidth networks. MPEG-4 files can be played back on multiple devices such as TV set-tops, PCs, and wireless devices.

 

The New Standard: MPEG-4 AVC/H.264

MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (Part 11) is state of the art standard in video compression. This new standard achieves two to three times the efficiency of existing MPEG-based technologies.

With AVC/H.264, Envivio continues to enable higher quality, lower bit rates, and new applications. Service providers in the multi-billion dollar IPTV market benefit from the ability to deliver more content over their existing infrastructures, and users benefit from the ability to store more content on their existing storage infrastructures.

 

AVC/H.264 Coding Efficiency

AVC/H.264 offers a significant improvement in coding efficiency compared to other compression standards such as MPEG-2. Independent lab tests show a 50 to 70 percent improvement in bit rate reduction, making it much more cost effective to deliver broadcast-quality video over cable, satellite, and telecom networks.

As with MPEG-2, AVC/H.264 is based on block transforms and motion compensated predictive coding. AVC/H.264 leverages today's processing power to provide improved coding techniques, including multiple reference frames and several block sizes for motion compensation, intra-frame prediction, a new 4x4 integer transform, a 1/4 pixel precision motion compensation, an in-the-loop de-blocking filter, and improved entropy coding.

• Increased coding efficiency provides the same picture quality at half the bit rate.
• Error resilience tools (included) maintain video quality in error-prone transmissions.

A performance comparison for a 90-minute DVD-quality movie is shown in the following chart.

 

The following tables summarize the savings in offline and live encoding using MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, MPEG-4 ASP and MPEG-2 encoders.

 

H.264 Encoding Feature Evolution

The following table compares H.264 with both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 feature sets.

 

 

Envivio MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Systems

Envivio Inc is the industry expert in developing MPEG-4 products and solutions.  Since the company’s founding in 2000, Envivio has focused exclusively on developing the highest quality MPEG-4 systems. The MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec is integrated within all of the following Envivio product families.

Learn more about Envivio products and solutions.