Advanced video coding

Advanced video coding techniques will allow broadcasters to improve the efficiency offered by MPEG-2 digital TV systems by up to 75%. The opportunity for significant improvements in MPEG-2 performance is now very limited. MPEG-2 solutions are likely to become more dense, lower power and inexpensive, but they are not going to produce much lower bit rates. It is fortunate that, also during the last ten years, Moore's Law - which states that semiconductor/computer processing power increases by a factor of two every eighteen months - has also progressed relentlessly. More processing power at a lower price has enabled a whole new generation of compression technology. Both set-top boxes and headend equipment are now capable of much more complex calculations at commercially acceptable prices than were possible at the time of MPEG-2 standardisation. The two most significant algorithms/systems proposed currently are Windows Media 9 Series, from Microsoft, and MPEG-4 part 10, an open standards algorithm from the ITU/MPEG Joint Video Team. Both these systems draw heavily on the experience of MPEG-2, but add extra tools to improve the coding efficiency - particularly at low bit rates.