MPEG Industry Forum

M4IF's 11th meeting will be held on Fri 13 and Sat 14 Dec 2023 on Awaji Island, Japan. Updated Agenda and Logistics are here. Members should register now. Non-members wishing to sample a meeting can contact M4IF's Executive Director, Paul Ritchie.

Below goes last week's news digest. ;Up-to-date news, and there is much news this week, e.g. from Comdex, can always be found at M4IF's Website

Best Regards,

Rob Koenen
President, M4IF

MPEG-4 News

A late find is New Audio Format Could Be a Windows Media Killer [Online Reporter, 25 Oct 02] - which covers the upcoming High Efficiency AAC extension to MPEG-4 AAC. This extension, ready early next year but already being deployed by Coding Technologies, provides truly amazing audio quality at a mere 48 kbits/s. The extension is forward and backward compatible, which means that old streams will play in new decoders, and enhanced content will play in existing decoders (without the enhancement layer of course). Independent tests by the European Broadcasting Union have shown High Efficiency AAC clearly to be the best codec among many popular ones. This great article on how the underlying Spectral Band Replication technology works, by CT's Martin Dietz and Stefan Meltzer.

The 'new' news is centered around mobile applications and interoperable media in the home. In both areas, MPEG-4 is being adopted rapidly:

True global roaming from Qualcomm [InfoSync, 15 Nov 02] - One of the many news items covering Qualcomm's announcements of new chips for handhelds, with MPEG-4 support.
electronica: Analog Devices Happy with DSP Right Now [ElectronicNews, 15 Nov 02] - Analog devices has optimized its 'Blackfin' instruction set for MPEG-4 encoding
Video hits [smh, 15 Nov 02] - covers the recent releases of digital camcorder with MPEG-4 support. Now mainly for lower bitrates, but of course MPEG-4 covers the whole quality/bitrate range.
Fujitsu, Toshiba extend partnership to SoC IP [EE Times, 13 Nov 02] - a future-oriented cooperation, which includes optimizing their MPEG-4 core.
DoCoMo launches 3D imaging phone [ENN, 13 Nov 02] - The coolest stuff right now happens in Japan.
Watch PC movies on TV [Star Online, 13 Nov 02] - The Maestro DVX-1201 "will be among the first DivX/MPEG-4-compatible players available anywhere ..."
Low Power MPEG4 Encoder Solutions For 3G Phones [3G, 11 Nov 02] - covers Amphion's MPEG-4 solutions
WinDVD Pushes PC DVD Boundaries [PC World, 11 Nov 02] - this popular program now supports MPEG-4 in its DivX incarnation. (Is DivX MPEG-4? Well, DivXNetworks just joined M4IF's Interoperability tests.)

Did you find an interesting article on MPEG-4? Register it for inclusion on M4IF's Website!

MPEG-4 Press Releases

Also the Press Release section shows the mounting support for MPEG-4 in the mobile arena and home entertainment

Sumitomo Electric Networks selects Vweb's MPEG-1,2&4 chip for Video over Broadband [VWeb, 14 Nov 02]
Sigma Designs, Vweb Introduce First MPEG-4 Personal Video Recorder Ref. Design [Sigma Designs, 14 Nov 02]
Lite-On IT Selects Sigma DVD Decoder Chip for New Line of Advanced DVD Players [Sigma Designs, 13 Nov 02]
QUALCOMM's WCDMA/GSM/GPRS Multimode Solution Features Integration ... [Qualcomm, 12 Nov 02]
QUALCOMM's MSM6500 Multimedia Single-Chip Solution Enables High-Performance ... [Qualcomm, 12 Nov 02]

Do you have a relevant Press Release related to MPEG-4? Register it for inclusion on M4IF's Website!

MPEG-4 Events

03-05 Dec 02 Streaming Media Europe - Special MPEG-4 sessions and 10% M4IF member discount
03-06 Dec 02 BroadbandPlus, Anaheim, US - Attention to MPEG-4 at the renewed Cable Western show; 10% M4IF member discount
13-14 Dec 02 M4IF Meeting Awaji Island Japan - Register now!!!
07-08 Jan 03 Storage Visions, Las Vegas, US - What is MPEG-4's role in the home media hubs? Find out at Storage Visions. Discount for M4IF members applies .
27-31 Jan 03 MPEG-4 Seminar Series by KNK Seminars
30 Jan-01 Feb 03 NY Digital Video Show - with MPEG-4 session including showcase. 20% discount for M4IF members.