The H.264 Video Coding Standard

Since 1990, the Video Coding Expert Group (VCEG) and the Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) have focused their research in video coding techniques for different applications. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) and the MPEG groups joined in a single group to form the Joint Video Team (JVT) and worked together on a new video standard called H.264, H.264/AVC Advanced Video Coding, or MPEG-4 part 10, which achieves more coding efficiency with simpler syntax specifications than the previous standards, more integration with all network protocols, and multiplex architectures. The H.264 is the state-ofthe-art codec and covers a wide range of applications with excellent results such as videoconferencing, video streaming, and video transmission over fixed and wireless networks with different transport protocols among others.