Overview

You may have heard or read the abbreviation MPEG. You may have various associations attached to this four-letter term. Chances are that the associations you have are either with video on DVDs or with digital broadcast television. Other people immediately think about audio files on the Web or Napster or similar MP3 file-sharing systems. People think of all sorts of things when they hear the term MPEG. However, the truth about what MPEG actually stands for and what it represents is not generally known. And for the average consumer, there is no immediate need to. Many people don t understand how a mobile phone works in detail or what GSM stands for and they can still make use of these technologies. This is somewhat the same with MPEG. It s mostly invisible to the end consumer.

However, if one is doing business in a marketplace where MPEG represents a relevant technology, more knowledge about the facts behind this famous abbreviation are necessary. MPEG stands for Moving Picture Expert Group. In order to better understand any of the MPEG standards and MPEG-4 in particular, it is helpful to have some insights into what sort of animal MPEG is as an organizational body, how it works, where it lives, and you get the idea.

In this chapter, we will elaborate on the organizational concepts behind MPEG. In order to better grasp MPEG-4, it is helpful to have a basic understanding of how and why the MPEG standards were created,...