New Technology:
MP4 (MPEG-4) Essay
Art, Music
Introduction While the capacity of solid state memory devices like flash and hard disk is growing relative to the size, the compression of audio and video files are also becoming very efficient.
When MP3 compression for audio files became popular, the availability of legal and illegal MP3 files that can be downloaded from the web increased dramatically. Recently, a new technology called MP4 or short for MPEG-4 has started appearing in the market. This provides compression for both video and audio files at much higher compression ratios than its
predecessors.Analysis of Features History MP4, a short for MPEG-4, was defined by Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), the same group who defined the now widely used MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video compression
standards. “Hundreds of researchers around the world contributed to MPEG- 4, which was finalized in 1998 and became an international standard in 2000 and included in QuickTime in 2002” (Apple, 2006). MP4 should not be
confused with the MP4 Global Music Outlet proprietary standard which is a form of executable file that includes the player and the music in one file.
“MPEG-4 is an open standard for media delivery, while MP4 is GMO’s proprietary technology” (Hu, 1999).
In this document when we say MP4, we mean the MPEG-4 compression format for audio and video. How it Works? MP4 is an advance video
compression that is similar to MP3 (MPEG-1, layer III) for audio compression.
Although it is more complex, it involves not only converting picture color to frequency domain and symbolizing the more frequent colors with shorter codes, but also involves motion estimation to further reduce the codes
in compressed files and decompression occurs when these files are played.
This form of compression and decompression are performed by software referred to as codec. MP4 Players which are the hardware that actually plays the video and audio recording will have these complex codec inside it and the user will simply have to deal with storing and playing audio or video files.
Advantages Compared to its early predecessors called the MPEG-2 video compression, it offers far more compression ratio at DVD quality output.
It therefore compresses a very large video file into a very small handy file.
Although the degree of compression will vary from one video to another depending on the complexity of information but it is guaranteed to have much better compression ratios than MPEG-2. The compression is
comparable to MP3 for audio files but it applies to both video and audio recording. Since files are smaller, MP4’s can be played at lower data rate. It is said that MP4 would allow users to watch real time DVD quality movies from the internet at the connection rate of less than 1Mbps. This is very useful for digital broadcasters because they can offer more channels at a given bandwidth. In addition to the compression ratio, the MP4 allows codec versatility in controlling data rates to insure proper playback at the available mechanism for transmission.
For example, if the data rate available is 1Mbps, the coded can be set to compress audio and video for this specific data rate to allow proper playback at the receiving end. Aside from this, MP4 codec allows the use of a single pass variable bit rate so that compressed files can be set for maximum quality or maximum speed of transmission through smaller but lesser video
quality files. These versatility in MP4s makes it more advantageous than its predecessors.
Another very important advantage of MP4 technology is that it is built from open standards to insure interoperability with a wide selection of
manufacturers who opted to support this technology. “To ensure that different products that use MPEG-4 each implement the standard in the same way, Apple, together with Cisco, IBM, Kasenna, Philips and Sun
Microsystems, formed the Internet Streaming Media Alliance” (Apple, 2006).
Recently the standard is already being supported by AOL, Dolby Laboratories, Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi, and many other companies. These companies insure that their standards are interoperable thus MP4
compressed files using one player can be played on another player from another manufacturer. Disadvantages Like MP3, MP4 compressed files will be susceptible to piracy considering that the smaller files can easily be posted on the web. Files posted can be downloaded anywhere around the world without regard to the music and movie industries copyrights.
Large pirated copies of movies in the internet can be converted to MP4
format through free converters available in the web. These MP4 files can now be transported much easily from one point to another.Although MP4 files are generally more compressed, it would still take some time to download it over the internet. This would therefore add more traffic to the ever growing
internet bandwidth demand.Effects of MP4s to Industry Music Recording and Movie Production Industries Like the prevalence of MP3, the flexibility of moving MP4 files from one point to another will boost the market of music
and movie industries. They will be able to sell in a much larger population through the internet without the need to make printed copies in DVD or Audio CD formats. The movie industries will be able to sell more movies through a single DVD providing larger opportunity for sales. Its increasing popularity would also mean bigger opportunity for sales for the music and movie industries.
Despite these immeasurable capacity for sales is the drawback of piracy.
Piracy will always strive considering that there are countries that are very poor and would rather opt to buy pirated copies than legal but expensive ones. This would probably cause a balance in the overall revenues of movie and music industries, or even worsen their revenues if piracy is not
controlled. Music and video recording companies who will use proprietary compression formats will be overshadowed by the spread of open standards like MP4 and this were piracy will also result in a much greater loss for music and video recording companies. On the other hand, like the effects of DVD, movie theaters will be affected by the growth of MP4. Many people will have the chance to see the movie directly in their players instead of going to movie theaters. Although it will not also be the case where people will no longer watch movies in theaters but rather they will only experience a slight reduction in movie goers. This is because large screen and surround sound offered by movie theaters still offers the best viewing experience.
MP4 Player Industry The MP4 player industry will greatly benefit from this technology. More and more people would buy not just because of its growing popularity but because of the practically of being able to carry handy movies
and music within your pocket. Like the iPod Video of Apple and Zune players by Microsoft, these gadgets are becoming more popular each day.
Competition around the world will begin to take its course, like in China there is now a rapid growth of cheap MP4 players. Soon movies will be watched everywhere in the streets through handy MP4 players. The increasing capacity relative to size and price for solid state non-volatile memories like flash memory will help boost the MP4 player industry.
This will also put more pressure on memory manufacturers to come up with much higher capacities. References Unknown. (2006). History of MP4
Technology . Retrieved from the Sourcingmap.
com (by Apple) website: http://www.sourcingmap.com/blog/?p=8, on March 12, 2007Hu, J. (1999). MP4 hits the music download scene. Retrieved from the CNET.com website:
http://news.com.com/MP4+hits+the+music+download+scene/2100-1023_3- 220233.html, on March 12, 2007
