In Forty years of video coding and counting I presented a short but intense history of ITU and MPEG video compression standards. In this article I will focus on how more functionalities got added to video compression over the years to MPEG standards and how the next generation of standards will add even more. The table below gives an overview of all MPEG video compression standards – past, present and planned. Those in italic have not reached Final Draft International…

Introduction There have always been people in need of technology and, most of the time, people ready to provide something in response to the demand. In book XVIII of Iliad, Thetis, Achilles’s mother, asks Hephestus, the god of, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors and more, to provide a new armour to her son who had lost it to Hector. Hephestus duly complied. Still in the fictional domain, but in more recent years, Agent 007 visits Q Branch to get the latest…

The most visited articles on this blog Forty years of video coding and counting and Thirty years of audio coding and counting prove that MPEG is known for its audio and video coding standards. But I will not tire of saying that MPEG would not it be what it has become if the Systems aspects had not been part of most of its standards. This is what I intend to talk about in this article. It is hard to acknowledge,…

Introduction If I exchange words with taxi drivers in a city somewhere in the world, one of the questions I am usually asked is: “where are you from?”. As I do not like straight answers, I usually ask back “where do you think I am from?” It usually takes time before the driver gets the information he asked for. Then the next question is: “what is your job?”. Again, instead of giving a straight answer, I ask the question: “do…

Introduction In How does MPEG actually work? I described the MPEG process: once an idea is launched, context and objectives of the idea are identified; use cases submitted and analysed; requirements derived from use cases; and technologies proposed, validated for their effectiveness for eventual incorporation into the standard. Some people complain that MPEG standards contain too many technologies supporting “non-mainstream” use cases. Such complaints are understandable but misplaced. MPEG standards are designed to satisfy the needs of different industries and what…

Introduction In Is there a logic in MPEG standards? I described the first steps in MPEG life that look so “easy” now: MPEG-1 (1988) for interactive video and digital audio broadcasting; MPEG-2 (1991) for digital television; MPEG-4 (1993) for digital audio and video on fixed and mobile internet; MPEG-7 (1997) for audio-video-multimedia metadata; MPEG-21 (2000) for trading of digital content. Just these 5 standards, whose starting dates cover 12 years i.e. 40% of MPEG’s life time, include 86 specifications, i.e.…