H.264 and MPEG-4 Video Compression: Video Coding for Next-generation Multimedia

By Iain E.G. Richardson

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470848375
• ISBN13: 9780470848371
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 1.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 0.9" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A good starting point

This book feels a gap between high level tutorials that do not get into any kind of technical details and the actual specification documents that can be overwhelming at first sight. The first part of the book is an overview of video coding and provide a technical description of important tool used in video coding such as DCT transform, motion estimation, motion compensation etc. The second part of the book focus on the specifics of MPEG-4 and H.264. More focus on the H.264 part would have been welcome.

Totally solid, and still the only book out there

I almost didn't get this book because some of the other reviews are pretty bad. I'm glad I got it! This isn't a standard. So you won't find every table that's part of h.264, but you'll find enough that the standard will be accessible after you read this book. And given that the goal is conversational instead of documentary, Richardson has done a terrific job of simultaneously describing a host of relatively difficult concepts, explaining how they fit together, and explaining their places in the MPEG4 and H.264 standards. This is probably not a first book on video compression; for that, you might try Digital Video Compression (with CD-ROM). If you get that other book, though, only read the first half. (The second half is absurdly dated and not very helpful.) I think it's reasonable to read the first half of that book, then this one, and then jump right into the standard itself (for whatever purposes you want to do that).