Video Compression Standards

If you have no idea what video compression is all about, chances are that you will be lost when it comes to the different standards. In fact, even if you do deal with video compression on a regular basis, the standards can become difficult to deal with. Luckily, once you have some knowledge of video compression standards you should be well on your way to working with success.

Generally speaking, each video compression standard was designed with specific details in mind. This includes everything from bit rate to the application that is being used.

MPEG-1 is made for up to 1.5 Mbit per second. This is the standard for moving audio and/or pictures. When you see videos on the internet, it is safe to say that MPEG-1 is behind them.

MPEG-2 is made for anywhere from 1.5 to 15 Mbit per second. This is where DVD compression comes into play. And as you probably know, this is becoming more popular as each day goes by. MPEG-2 is also the standard for digital television boxes.

MPEG-4 is used primarily for web compression. This is a very high compression format which allows developers to independently control objects within a particular frame. As far as complexity and advanced applications are concerned, it does not get much better than MPEG-4.

At this time, MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 are under development. These are going to bring added benefits to users, but until they are fully developed, it is best to opt for the three options listed above. They are the ones that are used most commonly at this time, and learning about them can be a task in its own right.

Overall, learning these video compression standards, as well as how they work and what they offer can be quite difficult. But of course, you should not let this stop you. Instead, take the time to become familiar with the details, and how you can make them work to your advantage.
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Mediacodecs.eu is a site about multimedia files playback and video compression. The site explains different file types, such as AVI and the types of codecs that are used to encode video as well as audio files. We also have articles about live streaming video and progressive download used for imitating streaming.