The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is a working group of authorities that was formed by ISO and IEC to set standards for audio and video compression and transmission. It was established in 1988 by the initiative of Hiroshi Yasuda (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) and Leonardo Chiariglione, group Chair since its inception. The first MPEG meeting was in May 1988 in Ottawa, Canada. As of late 2005, MPEG has grown to include approximately 350 members per meeting from various industries, universities, and research institutions. MPEG's official designation is ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 – Coding of moving pictures and audio (ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 29, Working Group 11).
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 – Coding of moving pictures and audio has following Sub Groups (SG):
Requirements
Systems
Video
Audio
3D Graphics Compression
Test
Communication
Joint Video Team (JVT) is joint project between ITU-T SG16/Q.6 (Study Group 16 / Question 6) – VCEG (Video Coding Experts Group) and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 – MPEG for the development of new video coding recommendation and international standard. It was formed in 2001 and its main result has been H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (MPEG-4 Part 10).
Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) is a group of video coding experts from ITU-T Study Group 16 (VCEG) and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 (MPEG). It was created in 2010 to develop High Efficiency Video Coding, a new generation video coding standard that further reduces (by 50%) the data rate required for high quality video coding, as compared to the current ITU-T H.264 / ISO/IEC 14496-10 standard. JCT-VC is co-chaired by Jens-Rainer Ohm and Gary Sullivan.
Standards
The MPEG standards consist of different Parts. Each part covers a certain aspect of the whole specification. The standards also specify Profiles and Levels. Profiles are intended to define a set of tools that are available, and Levels define the range of appropriate values for the properties associated with them. Some of the approved MPEG standards were revised by later amendments and/or new editions. MPEG has standardized the following compression formats and ancillary standards:
MPEG-1 (1993): Coding of moving pictures and associated audio for digital storage media at up to about 1.5 Mbit/s (ISO/IEC 11172). The first MPEG compression standard for audio and video. It is commonly limited to about 1.5 Mbit/s although the specification is capable of much higher bit rates. It was basically designed to allow moving pictures and sound to be encoded into the bitrate of a Compact Disc. It is used on Video CD and can be used for low-quality video on DVD Video. It was used in digital satellite/cable TV services before MPEG-2 became widespread. To meet the low bit requirement, MPEG-1 downsamples the images, as well as uses picture rates of only 24–30 Hz, resulting in a moderate quality. It includes the popular MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3) audio compression format.
MPEG-2 (1995): Generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information (ISO/IEC 13818). Transport, video and audio standards for broadcast-quality television. MPEG-2 standard was considerably broader in scope and of wider appeal – supporting interlacing and high definition. MPEG-2 is considered important because it has been chosen as the compression scheme for over-the-air digital television ATSC, DVB and ISDB, digital satellite TV services like Dish Network, digital cable television signals, SVCD and DVD Video. It is also used on Blu-ray Discs, but these normally use MPEG-4 Part 10 or SMPTE VC-1 for high-definition content.
MPEG-3: MPEG-3 dealt with standardizing scalable and multi-resolution compression and was intended for HDTV compression but was found to be redundant and was merged with MPEG-2; as a result there is no MPEG-3 standard. MPEG-3 is not to be confused with MP3, which is MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III.
MPEG-4 (1998): Coding of audio-visual objects. (ISO/IEC 14496) MPEG-4 uses further coding tools with additional complexity to achieve higher compression factors than MPEG-2. In addition to more efficient coding of video, MPEG-4 moves closer to computer graphics applications. In more complex profiles, the MPEG-4 decoder effectively becomes a rendering processor and the compressed bitstream describes three-dimensional shapes and surface texture. MPEG-4 supports Intellectual Property Management and Protection (IPMP), which provides the facility to use proprietary technologies to manage and protect content like digital rights management. It also supports MPEG-J, a fully programmatic solution for creation of custom interactive multimedia applications (Java application environment with a Java API) and many other features. Several new higher-efficiency video standards (newer than MPEG-2 Video) are included, notably:
MPEG-4 Part 2 (or Simple and Advanced Simple Profile) and
MPEG-4 AVC (or MPEG-4 Part 10 or H.264). MPEG-4 AVC may be used on HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs, along with VC-1 and MPEG-2.
MPEG-4 has been chosen as the compression scheme for over-the-air in Brazil (ISDB-TB), based on original digital television from Japan (ISDB-T).
In addition, the following standards, while not sequential advances to the video encoding standard as with MPEG-1 through MPEG-4, are referred to by similar notation:
MPEG-7 (2002): Multimedia content description interface. (ISO/IEC 15938)
MPEG-21 (2001): Multimedia framework (MPEG-21). (ISO/IEC 21000) MPEG describes this standard as a multimedia framework and provides for intellectual property management and protection.
Moreover, more recently than other standards above, MPEG has started following international standards; each of the standards holds multiple MPEG technologies for a way of application. (For example, MPEG-A includes a number of technologies on multimedia application format.)
MPEG-A (2007): Multimedia application format (MPEG-A). (ISO/IEC 23000) (e.g., Purpose for multimedia application formats, MPEG music player application format, MPEG photo player application format and others)
MPEG-B (2006): MPEG systems technologies. (ISO/IEC 23001) (e.g., Binary MPEG format for XML, Fragment Request Units, Bitstream Syntax Description Language (BSDL) and others)
MPEG-C (2006): MPEG video technologies. (ISO/IEC 23002) (e.g., Accuracy requirements for implementation of integer-output 8x8 inverse discrete cosine transform and others)
MPEG-D (2007): MPEG audio technologies. (ISO/IEC 23003) (e.g., MPEG Surround, SAOC-Spatial Audio Object Coding and USAC-Unified Speech and Audio Coding)
MPEG-E (2007): Multimedia Middleware. (ISO/IEC 23004) (a.k.a. M3W) (e.g., Architecture, Multimedia application programming interface (API), Component model and others)
Supplemental media technologies (2008). (ISO/IEC 29116) Part 1: Media streaming application format protocols will be revised in MPEG-M; Part 4 – MPEG extensible middleware (MXM) protocols.
MPEG-V (2011): Media context and control. (ISO/IEC 23005) (a.k.a. Information exchange with Virtual Worlds) (e.g., Avatar characteristics, Sensor information, Architecture and others)
MPEG-M (2010): MPEG eXtensible Middleware (MXM). (ISO/IEC 23006) (e.g., MXM architecture and technologies, API, MPEG extensible middleware (MXM) protocols)
MPEG-U (2010): Rich media user interfaces. (ISO/IEC 23007) (e.g., Widgets)
MPEG-H (2013): High Efficiency Coding and Media Delivery in Heterogeneous Environments. (ISO/IEC 23008) Part 1 – MPEG media transport; Part 2 – High Efficiency Video Coding; Part 3 – 3D Audio.
MPEG-DASH (2012): Information technology – Dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH). (ISO/IEC 23009) Part 1 – Media presentation description and segment formats
Standardization process
A standard published by ISO/IEC is the last stage of a long process that starts with the proposal of new work within a committee. Here are some abbreviations used for marking a standard with its status:
PWI – Preliminary Work Item
NP or NWIP – New Proposal / New Work Item Proposal (e.g., ISO/IEC NP 23007)
AWI – Approved new Work Item (e.g., ISO/IEC AWI 15444-14)
WD – Working Draft
CD – Committee Draft (e.g., ISO/IEC CD 23000-5)
FCD – Final Committee Draft (e.g., ISO/IEC FCD 23000-12)
DIS – Draft International Standard
FDIS – Final Draft International Standard
PRF – Proof of a new International Standard
IS – International Standard (e.g., ISO/IEC 13818-1:2007)
CD Amd / PDAmd (PDAM) – Committee Draft Amendment / Proposed Draft Amendment (e.g., ISO/IEC 13818-1:2007/CD Amd 6)
FPDAmd / DAM (DAmd) – Final Proposed Draft Amendment / Draft Amendment (e.g., ISO/IEC 14496-14:2003/FPDAmd 1)
FDAM (FDAmd) – Final Draft Amendment (e.g., ISO/IEC 13818-1:2007/FDAmd 4)
Amd – Amendment (e.g., ISO/IEC 13818-1:2007/Amd 1:2007)
Other abbreviations:
TR – Technical Report (e.g., ISO/IEC TR 13818-5:2005)
TS – Technical Specification
IWA – International Workshop Agreement
Cor – Technical Corrigendum (e.g., ISO/IEC 13818-1:2007/Cor 1:2008)
A proposal of work (New Proposal) is approved at Subcommittee and then at the Technical Committee level (SC29 and JTC1 respectively – in the case of MPEG). When the scope of new work is sufficiently clarified, MPEG usually makes open requests for proposals – known as "Call for proposals". The first document that is produced for audio and video coding standards is called a Verification Model (VM). In the case of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 this was called Simulation and Test Model, respectively. When a sufficient confidence in the stability of the standard under development is reached, a Working Draft (WD) is produced. This is in the form of a standard but is kept internal to MPEG for revision. When a WD is sufficiently solid, becomes Committee Draft (CD) (usually at the planned time). It is then sent to National Bodies (NB) for ballot. The CD becomes Final Committee Draft (FCD) if the number of positive votes is above the quorum. After a review and comments issued by NBs, FCD is again submitted to NBs for the second ballot. If the FCD is approved, it becomes Final Draft International Standard (FDIS). ISO then holds a ballot with National Bodies, where no technical changes are allowed (yes/no ballot). If approved, the document becomes International Standard (IS).
ISO/IEC Directives allow also the so-called "Fast-track procedure". In this procedure a document is submitted directly for approval as a draft International Standard (DIS) to the ISO member bodies or as a final draft International Standard (FDIS) if the document was developed by an international standardizing body recognized by the ISO Council.
