The MPEG Home Page

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This is the home page of the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) a working group of ISO/IEC in charge of the development of standards for coded representation of digital audio and video. Established in 1988, the group has produced MPEG-1, the standard on which such products as Video CD and MP3 are based, MPEG-2, the standard on which such products as Digital Television set top boxes and DVD are based, MPEG-4, the standard for multimedia for the fixed and mobile web and MPEG-7, the standard for description and search of audio and visual content. Work on the new standard MPEG-21 "Multimedia Framework" has started in June 2000. So far a Technical Report and two standards have been produced and three more parts of the standard are at different stages of development. Several Calls for Proposals have already been issued.

Read Rob Koenen's paper "From MPEG-1 to MPEG-21: Creating an Interoperable Multimedia Infrastructure" to have a full exposure to the range of standard technologies produced by MPEG in its 15 years of activity

Besides standards strictly related to bit-efficient representation of audio-visual content, MPEG has produced and is currently producing other standards that relate to the practical use of those standards. An example is given by Intellectual Property Management and Protection (IPMP). An overview is provided.

An overview of the achievements and current work by MPEG can be found here.

MPEG standards have created an industry worth several tens of billion USD. MPEG standard can be purchased directly from ISO (sales@iso.ch) or from a National Body. Some of the standards are publicly available (including reference software). 

In a world where information technology, consumer electronics and telecommunication products incorporate increasingly sophisticated technologies and the need for timely available standards is as strong as ever, MPEG provides a proven mechanism to feed research results into standards that promote industry innovation.

MPEG is a committee of ISO/IEC that is open to experts duly accredited by an appropriate National Standards Body. On average a meeting is attended by more than 300 experts representing more than 200 companies spanning all industry domains with a stake in digital audio, video and multimedia. On average more than 20 countries are represented at a meeting.