What is MPEG-4?

The Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) MPEG-4 is a standard that is used to compress digital video and audio data. It is commonly used for streaming video on the internet, videophone style conversation, broadcast television, and CD distribution. MPEG-4 is currently still in development, although it is used in many sectors of society; and there are various parts of the project which are not widely advertised leading to issues with MPEG-4 compatibility on various systems.

Most of the common problems associated with MPEG-4 stem from the misrepresentation of which parts are necessary for video and audio playback. Even though there are 23 different parts to the MPEG-4 standard, most of the problems have arisen as a result of discrepancies in part 2 and part 10. MPEG-4 part 2, also known as SP/ASP, is used by various video and audio codecs such as DivX, QuickTime 6, and Xvid. MPEG-4 part 10, also known as AVC/H.264 is used by video and audio codecs such as QuickTime 7, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc formats.

Although there are many parts associated with MPEG-4, it is left up to the developers over which parts they wish to implement. Despite allowing flexibility with the set of standards used by each developer, a problem with determining which products offer which codec support has arisen. In order to combat this growing problem, some have proposed the idea to implement various profiles or levels which can better define which MPEG-4 parts are used in an application.

As MPEG-4 is a proprietary technology, it requires licensing in order to be used. Just getting access to the base standards documents costs money, and anyone who wishes to create a program that can play back or encode files in MPEG-4 must first purchase a license from The MPEG Licensing Authority. There are currently many companies which have licensed the technology including prominent technology companies such as: Canon, General Electric, Mitsubishi, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba just to name a few.