Moving Picture Experts Group - MPEG

Moving picture experts group (MPEG) standards are digital video encoding processes that coordinate the transmission of multiple forms of media (multimedia). MPEG is a working committee that defines and develops industry standards for digital video systems. These standards specify the data compression and decompression processes and how they are delivered on digital broadcast systems. MPEG is part of International Standards Organization (ISO).

The MPEG system defines the components (such as a media stream or channel) of a multimedia signal (such as a digital television channel) and how these channels are combined, transmitted, received, separated, synchronized and converted (rendered) back into a multimedia format.

The basic components of a MPEG system include elementary streams (the raw audio, data or video media), program streams (a group of elementary streams that make up a program) and transport streams that carry multiple programs.

This figure  shows the basic operation of an MPEG system. This diagram shows that the MPEG system allow multiple media types to be used (voice, audio and data), codes and compresses each media type, adds timing information and combines (multiplexes) the media channels into a MPEG program stream. This example shows that multiple program streams (e.g. television programs) can be combined into a transport channel. When the MPEG signal is received, the program channels are separated (demultiplexed), individual media channels are decoded and decompressed and they are converted back into their original media form.

MPEG System Diagram

The MPEG system has dramatically evolved since 1991 when it was introduced primarily for use on compact disk (CD) stored media. The first version of MPEG, MPEG-1, was designed for slow speed stored media with moderate computer processing capabilities.

The next evolution of MPEG was MPEG-2, which allowed television broadcasters (such as television broadcasters, cable television and satellite television providers) to convert their analog systems into more efficient and feature rich digital television systems.

Since its introduction, the MPEG-2 system has evolved through the use of extensions to provide new capabilities. The term MPEG-2.5 is a term commonly used to describe an interim generation of MPEG technology that provides more services and features than MPEG-2 but less than the MPEG-4.

The development of an MPEG-3 specification was skipped. MPEG-3 was supposed to be created to enhance MPEG-2 to offer high definition television (HDTV). Because HDTV capability was possible using the MPEG-2 system, MPEG-3 was not released.

The next progression of MPEG technology was the release of the initial parts of the MPEG-4 specification. The MPEG-4 specification allows for television transmission over packet data networks such as broadband internet. The initial release of the MPEG-4 system did not offer much improvement over the MPEG-2 video compression system.

To develop this more efficient video compression technology for MPEG-4, a joint video committee was created. This joint video committee was composed of members from the IETC and ITU for the purpose of analyzing, recommending, solving technical issues to create an advanced video compression specification. The result of this joint effort was the production of the advanced video coder (AVC) that provides standard definition (SD) quality at approximately 2 Mbps. This new part of MPEG-4 video compression (part 10) technology is approximately 50% more efficient (higher compression ratio) than MPEG-2 video coders. The version of AVC defined by the ITU is called H.264.

This figure  shows how the video coding developed for MPEG-4 was a joint effort between the ISO/IEC and United Nations ITU. Both groups worked together to produce the video coding standard. The ISO/IEC version is called advanced video coding (AVC) and the ITU version is called H.264.

MPEG Joint Video Committee

There are other MPEG industry standards including MPEG-7, which is adds descriptions to multimedia objects and MPEG-21, which adds rights management capability to MPEG systems.

This figure shows how MPEG systems have evolved over time. This diagram shows that the original MPEG specification (MPEG-1) developed in 1991 offered medium quality digital video and audio at up to 1.2 Mbps, primarily sent via CD ROMs. This standard evolved in 1995 to become MPEG-2, which was used for satellite and cable digital television along with DVD distribution. The MPEG specification then evolved into MPEG-4 in 1999 to permit multimedia distribution through the Internet. This example shows that work continues with MPEG-7 for object based multimedia and MPEG-21 for digital rights management.

MPEG Evolution Diagram

   Related MPEG Definitions

1080i
1080p
480i
480p
720p
Advanced Audio Codec - AAC
Advanced Simple Profile - ASP
Advanced Television System Committee - ATSC
Advanced Video Coding – AVC
Alpha Blending
Alpha Channel
Animation Framework eXtension - AFX
Audio Digitization
Audio Profile
Audio Synchronization
Audio Track
Audio Visual Synchronization Offset
Base Layer
Bidirectional - B
Bidirectional Frames - B-Frames
Bit Rate Control
Block
Burst Loss Rate
Channel Map
Chrominance
Color Depth
Color Pixelation
Color Space
Common Interchange Format - CIF
Common Scrambling Algorithm - CSA
Compact Disc - CD
Conditional Access - CA
Conditional Access Message - CAM
Conditional Access Table – CAT
Content Server
Continuity Count Error
Contouring
Cross Luminance
DC Frames - D-Frames
Decode Time Stamp - DTS
Degradation Factors
Dependent Frame
Digital Audio
Digital Audio Broadcast - DAB
Digital Audio Video Council - DAVIC
Digital Item Adaptation - DAI
Digital Program Insertion - DPI
Digital Satellite System - DSS
Digital Storage Media - DSM
Digital Storage Media Command and Control - DSM-CC
Digital Transrating
Digital Video
Digital Video Broadcast - DVB
Digital Video Broadcasting Common Interface- DVB-CI
Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld - DVB-H
Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestial - DVB-T
Digital Video Quality - DVQ
Discrete Cosine Transform - DCT
Dolby AC-3®
Dots Per Inch - dpi
Electronic Programming Guide - EPG
Elementary Stream - ES
Entitlement Control Messages - ECM
Entitlement Management Messages - EMM
Event Information Table - EIT
Extensible 3D - X3D
Field Mode
Frame
Frame Dropping
Frame Mode
Frame Rate
Frame Type Analysis
Frames Per Second - FPS
Free to Air - FTA
Gap Length
General eXchange Format - GXF
Group of Pictures - GOP
High Definition - HD
High Definition Multimedia Interface - HDMI
High Definition Television - HDTV
High Efficiency Advanced Audio Codec - HE AAC
High Profile - HP
Improved Definition Television - IDTV
Integrated Receiver and Decoder (IRD)
Intelligent Streaming
Intra Frames - I-Frames
Jerkiness
Joint Photographic Experts Group - JPEG
Joint Picture Experts Group 2000 - JPEG2000
Lines Per Inch - LPI
Lossy Compression
Luminance - Luma
Luminance Signal - Y
Macroblock
Macroblock Matching
Main Profile - MP
Material eXchange Format - MXF
Media Flow Control
Media Format
Media Stream
Media Synchronization
Media Synchronization
Metadata Transcoder
Motion JPEG - MJPG
Motion Judder
Motion Vector
Moving Picture Experts Group - MPEG
Moving Picture Experts Group Layer 3 - MP3
Moving Picture Quality Metrics - MPQM
Moving Picture Experts Group 21 – MPEG-21
MPEG-2
MPEG-21
MPEG-4 - MP4
MPEG-7 Multimedia Content Description Interface
MPEG Level
MPEG over Internet Protocol - MPEGoIP
MPEG Layer 3 - MP3
MPEG Motion Estimation
MPEG Profile
MPEG Transport Stream - MPEG-TS
MPEG Transmission
Multichannel Audio
Multiprogram Transport Stream - MPTS
Musicam
National Television System Committee - NTSC
Near Instantaneous Companded Audio Multiplex
Network Information Table - NIT
Network Queues
Non-Real Time Encoding
Packet Elementary Stream – PES
Packet Identifier - PID
Packet Identifier Dropping - PID Dropping
Packetized Elementary Stream - PES
Phase Alternating Line - PAL
Pixel - px
Predicted Frames - P-Frames
Presentation Time Stamp - PTS
Presentation Time Stamp Error - PTS Error
Presentation Unit - PU
Private Tables
Program Allocation Table – PAT
Program Association Table - PAT
Program Clock Reference - PCR
Program Clock Reference Error - PCR Error
Program Map Table - PMT
Program Specific Information - PSI
Program Stream – PS
Psycho-Visual Redundancy
Quantizer Scaling
Quarter Common Interchange Format - QCIF
Quarter Common Intermediate Format - QCIF
Quasi Error Free - QEF
Real Time Encoding
Real Time Streaming Protocol - RTSP
Real Time Transport Protocol - RTP
Reference Frame
Re-Stamping
Run Length Coding - RLC
Scalable Profile
Scene Graph Profile
Slice
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers - SMPTE
Standard Definition - SD
Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language - SMIL
System Clock Reference - SCR
System Time Clock - STC
System Time Stamp - STS
Transport Stream - TS
Temporal Compression - Time Compression
Temporal Redundancy
Tiling
VC-1
Video Coding Experts Group - VCEG
Video Compression
Video Digitization
Video Frame Structure
Video Mode
Video Service Audio Quality - VSAQ
Video service picture quality - VSPQ
Video Service Transmission Quality - VSTQ
Video Synchronization
Virtual Reality Modeling Language - VRML

   MPEG Books

more details

Introduction to MPEG This book explains the basics of audio and video digitization and compression and the standard formats that are used be MPEG. You will learn about the different MPEG audio coders and video coder options. $19.99 Printed, $16.99 eBook

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