Preface

This book adds some material to the first edition which in turn completely revised the earlier book entitled MPEG-2. It is an interesting reflection on the rate at which this technology progresses that these frequent revisions are necessary. Perhaps after H.264 one could say that all the key work has been done and thereafter progress will be incremental. H.264, also known as AVC, is, of course, the impetus for this edition. The opportunity has also been taken to incorporate some improved explanations.

The approach of the book has not changed in the slightest. Compression is an arcane subject with its own library of specialist terminology that is generally accompanied by a substantial amount of mathematics. I have always argued that mathematics is only a form of shorthand, itself a compression technique! Mathematics describes but does not explain, whereas this book explains principles and then describes actual examples.

A chapter of fundamentals is included to make the main chapters easier to follow. Also included are some guidelines that have practically been found useful in getting the best out of compression systems. The reader who has endured this book will be in a good position to tackle the MPEG standards documents themselves, although these are not for the faint-hearted, especially the MPEG-4 and H.264 documents which are huge and impenetrable.