3. Conclusion

Today, MPEG standards are at different stages of their lives. MPEG-1 enjoyed rapid success in recording products such as CDI. Its scope of use is narrowing in favor of the MPEG-2 standard, which covers both storage (DVD, re-recordable DVD) and digital television, and is enjoying commercial success in Europe and the USA. The final draft (FDIS Final Draft International Standard) of version 1 of the MPEG-4 standard was finalized at the end of 1998, and its use is beginning in multimedia applications such as data transmission over the Internet.

Standardization for audiovisual data compression is now well covered by the MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standards. Adding high-performance tools designed by experts and industrialists specifically for handling audiovisual data to the advantages of digital technology, they open the door to its widespread use in all multimedia and...