Following on from the successful MPEG-2 standard, MPEG-4 Visual is enabling a new wave of multimedia applications from Internet video streaming to mobile video conferencing. The new H.264 ‘Advanced Video Coding’ standard promises impressive compression performance and is gaining support from developers and manufacturers. The first book to cover H.264 in technical detail, this unique resource takes an application-based approach to the two standards and the coding concepts that underpin them. Presents a practical, step-by-step, guide to the MPEG-4 Visual and H.264 standards for video compression. Introduces the basic concepts of digital video and covers essential background material required for an understanding of both standards. Provides side-by-side performance comparisons of MPEG-4 Visual and H.264 and advice on how to approach and interpret them to ensure conformance. Examines the way that the standards have been shaped and developed, discussing the composition and procedures of the VCEG and MPEG standardisation groups. Focussing on compression tools and profiles for practical multimedia applications, this book ‘decodes’ the standards, enabling developers, researchers, engineers and students to rapidly get to grips with both H.264 and MPEG-4 Visual. Dr Iain Richardson leads the Image Communication Technology research group at the Robert Gordon University in Scotland and is the author of over 40 research papers and two previous books on video compression technology.

H.264 Advanced Video Coding or MPEG-4 Part 10 is fundamental to a growing range of markets such as high definition broadcasting, internet video sharing, mobile video and digital surveillance. This book reflects the growing importance and implementation of H.264 video technology. Offering a detailed overview of the system, it explains the syntax, tools and features of H.264 and equips readers with practical advice on how to get the most out of the standard. Packed with clear examples and illustrations to explain H.264 technology in an accessible and practical way. Covers basic video coding concepts, video formats and visual quality. Explains how to measure and optimise the performance of H.264 and how to balance bitrate, computation and video quality. Analyses recent work on scalable and multi-view versions of H.264, case studies of H.264 codecs and new technological developments such as the popular High Profile extensions. An invaluable companion for developers, broadcasters, system integrators, academics and students who want to master this burgeoning state-of-the-art technology. "[This book] unravels the mysteries behind the latest H.264 standard and delves deeper into each of the operations in the codec. The reader can implement (simulate, design, evaluate, optimize) the codec with all profiles and levels. The book ends with extensions and directions (such as SVC and MVC) for further research." Professor K. R. Rao, The University of Texas at Arlington, co-inventor of the Discrete Cosine Transform

This book covers the MPEG H.264 and MS VC-1 video coding standards as well as issues in broadband video delivery over IP networks. This professional reference is designed for industry practitioners, including video engineers, and professionals in consumer electronics, telecommunications and media compression industries. The book is also suitable as a secondary text for advanced-level students in computer science and electrical engineering.

High definition video requires substantial compression in order to be transmitted or stored economically. Advances in video coding standards from MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 to H.264/AVC have provided ever increasing coding efficiency, at the expense of great computational complexity which can only be delivered through massively parallel processing. This book will present VLSI architectural design and chip implementation for high definition H.264/AVC video encoding, using a state-of-the-art video application, with complete VLSI prototype, via FPGA/ASIC. It will serve as an invaluable reference for anyone interested in VLSI design and high-level (EDA) synthesis for video.

CD-ROM contains compression tools, encoders and video clips.

New to the Second Edition: offers the latest developments in standards activities (JPEG-LS, MPEG-4, MPEG-7, and H.263) provides a comprehensive review of recent activities on multimedia enhanced processors, multimedia coprocessors, and dedicated processors, including examples from industry. Image and Video Compression Standards: Algorithms and Architectures, Second Edition presents an introduction to the algorithms and architectures that form the underpinnings of the image and video compressions standards, including JPEG (compression of still-images), H.261 and H.263 (video teleconferencing), and MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 (video storage and broadcasting). The next generation of audiovisual coding standards, such as MPEG-4 and MPEG-7, are also briefly described. In addition, the book covers the MPEG and Dolby AC-3 audio coding standards and emerging techniques for image and video compression, such as those based on wavelets and vector quantization. Image and Video Compression Standards: Algorithms and Architectures, Second Edition emphasizes the foundations of these standards; namely, techniques such as predictive coding, transform-based coding such as the discrete cosine transform (DCT), motion estimation, motion compensation, and entropy coding, as well as how they are applied in the standards. The implementation details of each standard are avoided; however, the book provides all the material necessary to understand the workings of each of the compression standards, including information that can be used by the reader to evaluate the efficiency of various software and hardware implementations conforming to these standards. Particular emphasis is placed on those algorithms and architectures that have been found to be useful in practical software or hardware implementations. Image and Video Compression Standards: Algorithms and Architectures, emSecond Edition uniquely covers all major standards (JPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.261, H.263) in a simple and tutorial manner, while fully addressing the architectural considerations involved when implementing these standards. As such, it serves as a valuable reference for the graduate student, researcher or engineer. The book is also used frequently as a text for courses on the subject, in both academic and professional settings.

H.264 Advanced Video Coding or MPEG-4 Part 10 is fundamental to a growing range of markets such as high definition broadcasting, internet video sharing, mobile video and digital surveillance. This book reflects the growing importance and implementation of H.264 video technology. Offering a detailed overview of the system, it explains the syntax, tools and features of H.264 and equips readers with practical advice on how to get the most out of the standard. Packed with clear examples and illustrations to explain H.264 technology in an accessible and practical way. Covers basic video coding concepts, video formats and visual quality. Explains how to measure and optimise the performance of H.264 and how to balance bitrate, computation and video quality. Analyses recent work on scalable and multi-view versions of H.264, case studies of H.264 codecs and new technological developments such as the popular High Profile extensions. An invaluable companion for developers, broadcasters, system integrators, academics and students who want to master this burgeoning state-of-the-art technology. "[This book] unravels the mysteries behind the latest H.264 standard and delves deeper into each of the operations in the codec. The reader can implement (simulate, design, evaluate, optimize) the codec with all profiles and levels. The book ends with extensions and directions (such as SVC and MVC) for further research." Professor K.R. Rao, The University of Texas at Arlington, co-inventor of the Discrete Cosine Transform.

Since the publication of Wireless Video Communications five years ago, the area of video compression and wireless transceivers has evolved even further. This new edition addresses a range of recent developments in these areas, giving cognizance to the associated transmission aspects and issues of error resilience. Video Compression and Communications has been updated and condensed yet remains all-encompassing, giving a comprehensive overview of the subject. Covering compression issues, coding delay, implementational complexity and bitrate, the book also looks at the historical perspective to video communication. New edition of successful and informative text, Wireless Video Communications Substantial new material has been added on areas such as H.264, MPEG4 coding and transceivers Clear presentation and broad scope make it essential for anyone interested in wireless communications Systematically converts the lessons of Shannon's information theory into design principles applicable to practical wireless systems. This book is ideal for postgraduates and researchers in communication systems but will also be a valuable reference to undergraduates, development and systems engineers of video compression applications as well as industrialists, managers and visual communications practitioners.

Video Encoding by the Numbers helps readers optimize the quality and efficiency of their streaming video by objectively detailing the impact of critical configuration options with industry-standard quality metrics like PSNR and SSIMplus. This takes the guesswork out of most encoding decisions and allows readers to achieve the optimal quality/data rate tradeoff. In addition, readers learn how to use tools like the Moscow University Video Quality Measurement tool, SSIMWave Quality of Experience Monitor, and FFmpeg to perform similar quality tests on their own videos. Because all videos encode differently, the tests detailed in the book involve eight different videos, including movie footage, animations, talking head footage, a music video, and Powerpoint and Camtasia-based videos. Readers first learn how to determine the ideal data rate for their videos at different resolutions. Then the book covers configuration options like bitrate control (CBR, VBR) that impacts quality and deliverability, and I-Frame, B-Frame, and reference frame decisions that impact quality and encoding time. The next three chapters focus on codec-specific configurations like Profile and preset for H.264 and HEVC, and the various configuration options available for Google's VP9. Next the book details how to choose an adaptive bitrate (ABR) technology, how to create an encoding ladder, and the most efficient ways to encode and package video into different ABR formats. Working off the groundbreaking work by Netflix and YouTube, the final chapter teaches the reader how a use per-title encoding with their own videos to create the ideal encoding ladder for each video in their library. Each chapter concludes with a section detailing how to configure the options discussed with FFmpeg, a preferred tool for high-volume video producers, including packaging into HLS and DASH formats (the latter with MP4Box). Overall readers learn how to optimally configure their encoding ladders and how to produce their videos with FFmpeg.

This book initiates a new digital multimedia standards series. The purpose of the series is to make information about digital multimedia standards readilyavailable. Both tutorial and advanced topics will be covered in the series, often in one book. Our hope is that users will find the series helpful in deciding what standards to support and use while implementors will d- cover a wealth of technical details that help them implement those standards correctly. In today's global economy standards are increasingly important. Yet until a standard is widely used, most of the benefits of standardization are not realized. We hope that standards committee chairpeople will organize and encourage a book in this series devoted to their new standard. This can be a forum to share and preserve some ofthe “why” and “how” that went into the development of the standard and, in the process, assist in the rapid adoption of the standard. Already in production for this series are books titled Digital Video: - troduction to MPEG-2 and Data Compression in Digital Systems.