Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)

MPEG Video
Webpage
The content of this page has been collected and updated to provide an
overview on MPEG video group activities. It will give you, among
others, information on past and recent activities in the MPEG video
group, provide pointers to relevant web pages and some recent
literature in the field. As MPEG in general is a dynamic and fast moving
standardization body, some documents and related information may
be outdated quickly. We will make every effort to keep up with the
MPEG pace - however, keep in mind that this Webpage may not
always contain the newest information.

Visit also the MPEG Home Page

Contact to MPEG-Video Group Activities

visitors accessed this web site since March 1 1997.

 MPEG in General
 The MPEG Video Group
 How the MPEG Video Group
works
 MPEG-1
 MPEG-2
 MPEG-4
 MPEG-7
 FAQ
 MPEG-4 Video Verification Model
 Links to other MPEG Resources
 Contact to Video Group
Activities

MPEG in General
The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is a working group under
ISO/IEC in charge of the development of international standards for
compression, decompression, processing and coded representation of
moving pictures, audio and their combination. So far MPEG has
produced

MPEG-1: A standard for storage and retrieval of moving pictures and

associated audio on storage media

MPEG-2: A standard for digital television

Two more standards are currently under development:

MPEG-4: A standard for multimedia applications

MPEG-7: A content representation standard for information search

MPEG usually holds three meetings a year. These comprise plenary

meetings and subgroup meetings on Requirements, Systems, Video,
Audio, SNHC, Test, Implementation, DSM and Liason. MPEG meetings
are attended by some 300 experts from some 20 countries.

Link to MPEG Home Page

Links to other MPEG Activities

The MPEG Video Group

Within MPEG the MPEG Video Group is the largest working group and
has the mandate to develop and standardize video coding tools and
algorithms. The MPEG video group meetings are usually attended by
appr. 100-150 video experts from appr. 20 countries (Asia, Australia,
North America, Europe). The MPEG video group has successfully
completed and released the MPEG-1 video coding standard in 1992
and MPEG-2 video coding standard in 1994 and is currently in the
process of finalizing the MPEG-4 video standard. The release of the
MPEG-4 video coding international standard is targeted for July 1998.

How does the MPEG Video Group Work?

The Core Experiment Process - Verification Model
Philosophy

Within the MPEG video group the video coding standards are
developed based on a Verification Model (or Test Model) and an
associated "Core Experiment" process.

The purpose of a Verification Model (VM) within MPEG is to describe

completely defined encoding and decoding "Common Core" algorithms,
such that collaborative experiments performed by multiple
independent parties can produce identical results and will allow the
conduction of "Core Experiments" under controlled conditions in a
common environment.

A Verification Model (in MPEG-2 phase this was called "Test Model") is
established at the beginning of a standardization phase based on the
assessment of individual proposals submitted to the MPEG video
group. It specifies the input and output formats for the uncoded data
and the format of the bitstream containing the coded data. It specifies
the algorithm for encoding and decoding, including the support for one
or more functionalities. For the development of a MPEG Video standard
the MPEG Video group establishes a number of "Core Experiments" to
improve the efficiency of the MPEG-4 VM between meetings with
respect to the functionalities already supported - and to identify new
coding techniques that allow provisions for functionalities not yet
supported by the VM. A Core Experiment is defined with respect to the
Verification Model, which is considered as the Common Core algorithm.
A Core Experiment proposal describes a potential algorithmic
improvement to the VM, i.e. a motion compensation technique
different to the one defined by the VM. Furthermore the full description
of encoder and decoder implementation of the algorithm and the
specification of experimental conditions (bit rates, test sequences,
etc.) to compare the proposed Core Experiment technique against the
performance of the VM are provided. A Core Experiment is being
established by the MPEG Video group if two independent parties are
committed to perform the experiment. If a Core Experiment is
successful in improving on techniques described in the VM - i.e. in
terms of coding efficiency, provisions for functionalities not supported
by the VM and implementation complexity - the successful technique
will be incorporated into the newest version of the VM. The technique
will either replace an existing technique or supplement the algorithms
supported by the VM.

Core Experiments are being performed between two MPEG Video group
meetings. At each MPEG Video group meeting the results of the Core
Experiments are being reviewed and the VM is updated depending on
the outcome of the experiment and a new version of the VM is being
released. Thus the VM progresses from one meeting to the next. The
last version of the MPEG-2 Verification Model was Test Model 5 (TM 5)
which formed the basis for the MPEG-2 video standard.

MPEG-4 Video Verification Model

MPEG-1
In 1988 the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) was founded under
ISO/SC2 with the charter to standardize a video coding algorithm
targeted for digital storage media and bit rates at up to about 1.5
Mbits/s. Its official denotation is now ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC29/WG11. The
first Draft I international Standard (DIS) released by the committee,
ISO 11172 (MPEG-1), was drafted in 1991 and finally issued as IS in
1992. MPEG-1 is intended to be generic (although the initial target
applications envisaged and applications parameters defined were
constrained to digital storage media). Generic means, that the
standard is independent of a particular application and therefore
comprises mainly a toolbox. It is up to the user to decide, which tools
to select to suit the particular applications envisaged. This implies, that
only the coding syntax is defined and therefore mainly the decoding
scheme is standardized. MPEG-1 defines a hybrid DCT/DPCM coding
scheme with motion compensation similar to the H.261 and CCIR Rec.
723 coding standards. Further refinements in prediction and
subsequent processing were introduced to provide the functionality
required for random access in digital storage media.

MPEG-1 Overview

More on MPEG-1 and -2 / Postscript Version

MPEG-1 References:
MPEG-2
Studies on MPEG-2 started in 1990 with the initial target to issue a
standard for coding of TV-pictures with CCIR Rec. 601 resolution at
data rates below 10 Mbit/s. In 1992 the scope of MPEG-2 was enlarged
to suit coding of HDTV - thus making an initially planned MPEG-3
phase superfluous. The DIS for MPEG-2 video was issued in early
1994.

The video coding scheme used in MPEG-2 is again generic and similar
to the one of MPEG-1, however with further refinements and special
consideration of interlaced sources. Furthermore many functionalities
such as "scalability" were introduced. In order to keep implementation
complexity low for products not requiring the full video input formats
supported by the standard (e.g. SIF to HDTV resolutions), so called
"Profiles", describing functionalities, and "Levels", describing
resolutions, were introduced to provide separate MPEG-2 conformance
levels.

MPEG-2 Overview

More on MPEG-1 and -2 / Postscript Version

MPEG-2 References:

The MPEG-4 Video Coding Standard

Anticipating the rapid convergence of telecommunications industries,
computer and TV/film industries, the MPEG group officially initiated a
new MPEG-4 standardization phase in 1994 - with the mandate to
standardize algorithms and tools for coding and flexible representation
of audio-visual data to meet the challenges of future Multimedia
applications and applications requirements. In particular MPEG-4
addresses the need for

• Universal accessibility and robustness in error prone

environments - Multimedia audio-visual data need to be
transmitted and accessed in heterogeneous network
environments, possibly under severe error conditions (e.g.
mobile channels). Although the MPEG-4 standards will be
network (physical-layer) independent in nature, the algorithms
 and tools for coding audio-visual data need to be designed with
awareness of network peculiarities.

• High interactive functionality - Future Multimedia applications

will call for extended interactive functionalities to assist the
user's needs. In particular the flexible, highly interactive access
to and manipulation of audio-visual data will be of prime
importance. It is envisioned that - in addition to conventional
playback of audio and video sequences - the user need to access
"content" of audio-visual data to present and manipulate/store
the data in a highly flexible way.

• Coding of natural and synthetic data - Next generation graphics

processors will enable Multimedia terminals to present both pixel
based audio and video data together with synthetic audio/speech
and video in a highly flexible way. MPEG-4 will assist the efficient
and flexible coding and representation of both natural (pixel
based) as well as synthetic data.

• Compression efficiency - For the storage and transmission of

audio-visual data a high coding efficiency, meaning a good
quality of the reconstructed data, is required. Improved coding
efficiency, in particular at very low bit rates below 64 kbits/s,
continues to be an important functionality to be supported by the
MPEG-4 video standard.

Bit rates targeted for the MPEG-4 video standard are between 5-64
kbits/s for mobile or PSTN video applications and up to 2 Mbits/s for
TV/film applications. Seven new (with respect to existing or emerging
standards) key video coding functionalities have been defined which
support the MPEG-4 focus and which provide the main requirements
for the work in the MPEG video group. The requirements cover the
main topics related to "Content-Based Interactivity”, "Compression”
and "Universal Access”. The release of the MPEG-4 International
Standard is targeted for July 1998.

More on MPEG-4 Video

• MPEG-4 Overview
• Requirements for the MPEG-4 Video Standard
• MPEG-4 Video Standard for Multimedia Applications
• MPEG-4 Very Low Bit Rate Video
• MPEG-4 Video Verification Model
 • MPEG-4 References
• MPEG-4 Compositor Demo

MPEG-7
• MPEG-7: Context and Objectives
• MPEG-7 Seminar
• MPEG-7 Seminar Proceedings

MPEG-1 References:
J.L.Mitchell, W.B.Pennebaker, C.E.Fogg and D.J.LeGall, "MPEG Video
Compression Standard", in Digital Multimedia Standards
Series,Chapman & Hall, New York, NY, 1997.

D.J. Le Gall, "The MPEG Video Compression Algorithm", Signal

Processing: Image Communication 4, No. 2, pp. 129-140, 1992

MPEG-2 References:
J.L.Mitchell, W.B.Pennebaker, C.E.Fogg and D.J.LeGall, "MPEG Video
Compression Standard", in Digital Multimedia Standards
Series,Chapman & Hall, New York, NY, 1997.

B. G. Haskell, A. Puri and A. N. Netravali, "Digital Video: An

Introduction to MPEG-2," ISBN: 0-412-08411-2, Chapman & Hall,
1997.

Multifunctional Ad hoc Group, "Core experiments Description," ISO/IEC

JTC1/SC29/WG11 N1266, March 1996.

Stereoscopic Video Coding

A. Puri, R. V. Kollarits and B. G. Haskell, "Basics of Stereo scopic

Video, New Compression Results with MPEG-2 and a Proposal for
MPEG-4," accepted for pub, Signal Processing: Image
Communications.

A. Puri, R. V. Kollarits and B. G. Haskell, "Stereoscopic Video

Compression Using Temporal Scalability," Proc. SPIE Visual
Communications and Image Processing'95, Taiwan, May 1995.
A. Shigenaga and T. Homma, "Experimental Results of Coding of
Stereo Sequences with Temporal Scalability," ISO/IEC
JTC1/SC29/WG11 Doc. MPEG95/254, July 1995.

A. Puri and B. G. Haskell, "A Revised Proposal for Multiview Coding and
Multiview Profile" ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 MPEG95/249, July 1995.

A. Luthra and X. Chen, "MPEG-2 Multiview Profile for MPEG-2," to

appear Proc. SPIE/IS&T Multimedia Hardware Architectures, EI'97,
Feb. 1997.

MPEG-4 References:
L.Chiariglione, "MPEG and Multimedia Communications", IEEE Trans.
CSVT, Vol.7, No.1, Feb.1997.

T.Sikora, "The MPEG-4 Video Standard Verification Model", IEEE Trans.

CSVT, Vol.7, No.1, Feb.1997. (HTML-Version / PS-Version)

T.Sikora, "MPEG-4 Very Low Bit Rate Video ", Proc. IEEE ISCAS
Conference, Hongkong, June 1997. (HTML-Version /