Introduction to Video Compression - A Practical Guide to Video and Audio Compression - page 12

Table 1-2 MPEG Codec Names

Convention Description

MPEG-1 The “grandfather” of the MPEG codecs. This is where it all began.

MPEG-2 Probably the most popular video codec to date when measured in

numbers of shipped implementations.

MPEG-4 A large collection of audio/visual coding standards that describe

video, audio, and multimedia content. This is a suite of
approximately 20 separate component standards that are
designed to interoperate with one another to build very rich,
interactive, mixed-media experiences. You must be careful to
specify a part of the MPEG-4 standard and not just refer to the
whole. Beware of ambiguity when describing video as MPEG-4.

MPEG-4 part 2 Specifically, the video coding component originally standardized

within MPEG-4. The compression algorithms in part 10 are
improved but the way that part 2 can be alpha-channel coded is
more flexible. If people refer to MPEG-4 video without specifying
part 2 or part 10, they probably mean part 2, but that may change
as part 10 becomes dominant by virtue of the H.264 codec being
more widely adopted.

MPEG-4 part 10 A more recent and superior video coding scheme developed jointly

by ISO MPEG and the ITU. This codec is a significant milestone
in video-coding technology, and its importance to the delivery of
video over the next few years will be profound. It is expected to
have at least as much impact as MPEG-2 did when it was
launched. It is likely that MPEG-4 part-2 video coding will
become outmoded in time and people will use the term MPEG-4
when they really mean part10 video coding.

JVT The Joint Video Team that worked on the MPEG-4 part 10, H.264

standard. The standard is sometimes referred to as the JVT
video codec.

AVC Advanced Video Coding is the name given to the MPEG-4 part-10

codec in the standard. Whilst the term AVC is popular amongst
marketing departments, H.264 seems to be used more often by
manufacturers in technical documents.

H.26L An early trial version of the H.264 codec.

H.264 The present champion of all codecs governed by the MPEG

standards group. This is the most thoroughly scrutinized and
carefully developed video-coding system to date.

To be buzzword compliant, I will use the term H.264 to refer to the latest codec
throughout this topic unless I am talking specifically about the codec in the MPEG-4 or