The MPEG Handbook: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4

A complete professional `bible’ on all aspects of audio and video compression using MPEG technology. The MPEG Handbook is both a theoretical and practical treatment of the subject. Fundamental knowledge is provided alongside practical guidance eg how to avoid quality loss or the creation of MPEG elementary streams and their multiplexing into transport streams (including the problems involved in synchronizing all of the signals in a multiplex). The clarity of explanation and depth of technical detail combine to make this book an essential and definitive reference work. Gives a comprehensive treatment of significant extensions made available by MPEG4, such as object coding, mesh coding and animation.


Previously titled MPEG2, the book has now been extensively revised to cover the all the latest standards, including a description of the MPEG4 standard and the latest applications of the technology, such as the delivery of compressed audio, video, graphics and interactive capability over the internet and broadband networks. It gives a comprehensive treatment of significant extensions made available by MPEG4, such as object coding, mesh coding and animation.

John Watkinson is an international consultant in audio, video and data recording. He is a Fellow of the AES, a member of the British Computer Society and a chartered information systems practitioner. He presents lectures, seminars, conference papers and training courses worldwide. He is the author of many other Focal Press books, including: the Kraszna-Krausz award winning MPEG-2; The Art of Digital Audio; An Introduction to Digital Video; The Art of Sound Reproduction; An Introduction to Digital Audio; TV Fundamentals and Audio for Television. He is also co-author, with Francis Rumsey, of The Digital Interface Handbook, and contributor to the Loudspeaker and Headphone Handbook, 3rd edition.

Table of Contents

Introduction to compression: What is MPEG?; Why compression is necessary; mPEG-1, 2 and 4 contrasted; Some applications of MPEG; Lossless and perceptive coding; Compression principles; Audio compression, sub-band coding, transform coding, predictive coding; Video compression, spatial compression, temporal compression, introduction to motion compensation, film-originated video compression; Introduction to MPEG-1; MPEG-2 profiles and levels MPEG-4; MPEG bitstreams; Drawbacks of compression; Compression pre-processing; Some guidelines. Fundamentals: What is an audio signal?; What is a video signal?; Types of video; What is a digital signal?; Types of video; What is a digital signal?; Introduction to conversion; Sampling and aliasing; Reconstruction; Filter design; Sampling clock jitter; Choice of audio sampling rate; Video sampling structures; The phase locked loop; Quantizing; Quantizing error; Dither; Binary codes for audio; Binary codes for component video; Introduction to digital processes; Logic elements; Storage elements; Binary adding; Gain control by multiplication; Multiplexing principles; Packets; Statistical multiplexing. Processing for compression: Filters; Downsampling filters; The quadrature mirror filter; Filtering for video noise reduction; Transforms; The Fourier transform; The Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT); The wavelet transform; Motion compensation; Motion estimation techniques, block matching, gradient matching, phase correlation. Audio compression: Introduction; The ear; The cochlea; Level and loudness; Frequency discrimination; Critical bands; Beats; Codec level calibration; Quality measurement; The limits; Compression applications; History of MPEG audio coding; MPEG audio compression tools; Transform coding; MPEG layer 1 audio coding; MPEG layer 2 audio coding; MPEG layer 3 audio coding; MPEG-2 AAC – Advanced audio coding; Dolby AC-3; Compression in surround sound; Compression quality. MPEG video compression: The eye; Dynamic resolution; Contrast; Colour vision; Colour difference signals; Progressive or Interlaced scan?; Spatial and temporal redundancy in MPEG; I and P coding; Spatial compression; Scanning and run length/variable length coding; Slices; MPEG-1 compression; An MPEG-1 coder; The MPEG-1 elementary stream; An MPEG-1 decoder; Bi-directional coding; Coding applications; A bi-directional coder; The MPEG-2 elementary stream; An MPEG decoder; Handling interlaced pictures; MPEG-4; Coding artefacts; Processing compressed data; MPEG and concatenation. Program and Transport: Introduction; Packets and time stamps; Transport streams; Clock references; Program Specific Information (PSI); Multiplexing; Remultiplexing. Uses of MPEG; Introduction; Video phones; CD Video and DVD; Internet video: MPEG and TCP/IP; MPEG and ATM.