CHAPTER 12 MPEG-4 part 2 Video Codec
This chapter is about the original MPEG-4 part 2 video codec (also known as just “MPEG-4,” “DivX,” “Xvid,” or “ASP”). The MPEG-4 part 10 codec (better known as H.264) is covered in Chapter 14. As influential as MPEG-4 has been as a format, we have to admit that its first attempt at a video codec was something of a failure, something of a speed bump between the towering successes of MPEG-2 and H.264. So, what happened?
In the end, I’d suggest it was a mix of technical limitations and timing. On the technical side, part 2 simply wasn’t enough of an improvement over MPEG-2 to justify the switching costs. While software players on a PC are easy to update, replacing hundreds of millions of cable boxes and other ...
Get Compression for Great Video and Audio, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
