MPEG-4
MPEG-4 (MP4) is a video and audio standard (type). Movies in MPEG-4 need less space on a computer. At the same time, they still have DVD quality. MPEG means Moving Picture Experts Group. Many researchers and engineers all over the world worked to develop MPEG-4. The work on this standard ended in 1998. MPEG-4 became a standard all over the world.
Movies that use MPEG-4 standard are high quality and take up less computer memory. Older standards were MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. Compared to these older versions, MPEG-4 has more features. For example, it has a way to fix problems, lots of quality and size choices, and a better picture quality.
MPEG-4 is designed for the special needs of computers, television areas and telecommunications. It is able to be individual objects in a certain area, besides rectangular pieces of computer information. For example, this could be a car driving in front of a background. The background does not change. The car can be treated as separate thing, because it is not a fixed background. This is because MPEG-4 can be many rectangular images at the same time.
Patent status
[change | change source]Patents for the earliest versions of MPEG-4 have expired, making it free for anyone to use or implement. This includes MPEG-4 Part 2 (MPEG-4 Visual; commonly known as Xvid) and the Low Complexity profile of AAC. The majority of patents related to MPEG-4 Part 10 (Advanced Video Coding, also known as h.264) have expired, but some are still active, such as those for the High and Main Profiles. The patents for the Main profile without CABAC are expected to expire in 2027. The patents for CABAC and the High Profile are expected to expire in 2030. It is unclear whether patents for the Baseline Profile have expired yet.
Related pages
[change | change source]Other websites
[change | change source]- MPEG-4 Archived 2007-10-09 at the Wayback Machine - Additional information on the format for more advanced users