MPEG Digital Video Coding Standards

Modern image and video compression techniques today offer the possibility to store or transmit the vast amount of data necessary to represent digital images and video in an efficient and robust way. New audio visual applications in the field of communication, multimedia and broadcasting became possible based on digital video coding technology. As manifold as applications for image coding are today, as manifold are the different approaches and algorithms and were the first hardware implementations and even systems in the commercial field, such as private teleconferencing systems [chen, hal]. However, with the advances in VLSI-technology it became possible to open more application fields to a larger number of users and therefore the necessity for video coding standards arose. Commercially, international standardization of video communication systems and protocols aims to serve two important purposes: interoperability and economy of scale. Interworking between video communication equipment from different vendors is a desirable feature for users and equipment manufactures alike. It increases the attractiveness for buying and using video