1. MPEG's aims and objectives

1.1 What for? What for? Who is it for?

MPEG-4 was developed in the wake of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2:

• MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 are compression standards that do not offer sufficiently efficient bitrate reduction (advances in techniques and algorithms having been made in the meantime, and faster processing circuits being available);

• The range of data rates achieved did not cover either low data rates, for cell phone networks for example, with sufficient perceived quality (see MPEG-1 images on CD-ROM, VHS cassette quality), or high data rates for High Definition video production among others;

• the structure of the transport formats (e.g. MPEG-2 Transport Stream, designed for broadcasting...