VCEG
Encyclopedia
The Video Coding Experts Group or Visual Coding Experts Group (VCEG) is the informal name of Question 6 (Visual coding) of Working Party 3 (Media coding) of Study Group 16 (Multimedia coding, systems and applications) of the ITU-T
. Its abbreviated title is ITU-T Q.6/SG 16. It is responsible for standardization of the "H.26x" line of video coding standards, the "T.8xx" line of image coding standards, and related technologies.
As of late 2006, VCEG has also become responsible for the ITU-T work on still image coding standards including JPEG
(ITU-T T.80, T.81, T.83, T.84, and T.86), JBIG-1
(ITU-T T.80, T.82 and T.85), JBIG-2
(ITU-T T.88 and T.89), JPEG-LS
(ITU-T T.87 and T.870), JPEG 2000
(ITU-T T.800 through T.812), the JPEG-like ITU-T T.851, and JPEG XR (ITU-T T.832, T.833, T.834, T.835, and T.Sup2). VCEG works on most of these standards jointly with ISO/IEC
JTC 1/SC 29/WG 1 (Joint Photographic Experts Group
/Joint Bi-level Image experts Group
).
Study Group 16 is responsible for studies relating to multimedia service capabilities, and application capabilities (including those supported for NGN
). This encompasses multimedia terminals, systems (e.g., network signal processing equipment, multipoint conference units, gateways, gatekeepers, modems, and facsimile), protocols and signal processing (media coding).
The goal of Question 6 is to produce Recommendations (international standards) for video coding and image coding methods appropriate for conversational (e.g. videoconferencing and video telephony) and non-conversational (e.g., streaming, broadcast, file download, media storage/playback, or digital cinema) audio/visual services. This Question focuses on the maintenance and extension of existing video coding Recommendations, and laying the ground for new Recommendations using advanced techniques to significantly improve the trade-offs between bit rate, quality, delay, and algorithm complexity. Video coding standards will be developed with sufficient flexibility to accommodate a diverse number of transport types (Internet, LAN
, Mobile, ISDN, GSTN, H.222.0, NGN, etc.).
. The first meeting of this group was held Dec. 11-14, 1984 in Tokyo, Japan. In 1994, Richard Shaphorst (Delta Information Systems) took over new video codec development in ITU-T with the launch of the project for developing H.324
. Schaphorst appointed Karel Rijkse (KPN Research) to chair the development of the H.263
codec standard as part of that project. In 1996, Schaphorst then appointed Gary Sullivan
(PictureTel, since 1999 Microsoft
) to launch the subsequent "H.263+" enhancement project, which was completed in 1998. In 1998, Sullivan was made rapporteur (chairman) of the question (group) for video coding in the ITU-T that is now called VCEG. After the H.263+ project, the group then completed an "H.263++" effort, produced H.263 Appendix III and H.263 Annex X, and launched the "H.26L" project with a call for proposals issued in January 1998 and a first draft design adopted in August 1999. In 2000, Thomas Wiegand
(Fraunhofer HHI) was appointed as an associated rapporteur (vice-chairman) of VCEG. Sullivan and Wiegand led the H.26L project as it progressed to eventually become the H.264 standard after formation of a Joint Video Team (JVT) with MPEG for the completion of the work in 2003. (In MPEG, the H.264 standard is known as MPEG-4
part 10.) Since 2003, VCEG and the JVT have developed several substantial extensions of H.264, produced H.271, and conducted exploration work toward the potential creation of a future new "H.265". In January 2010, the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) was created as a group of video coding experts from ITU-T Study Group 16 (VCEG) and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 (MPEG) to develop a new generation video coding standard.
In July 2006, the video coding work of the ITU-T
led by VCEG was voted as the most influential area of the standardization work of the CCITT and ITU-T in their 50-year history. The image coding work that is now in the domain of VCEG was also highly ranked in the voting, placing third overall.
For further information about the image coding work now in the domain of VCEG, see the Joint Photographic Experts Group
article.
ITU-T
The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector is one of the three sectors of the International Telecommunication Union ; it coordinates standards for telecommunications....
. Its abbreviated title is ITU-T Q.6/SG 16. It is responsible for standardization of the "H.26x" line of video coding standards, the "T.8xx" line of image coding standards, and related technologies.
As of late 2006, VCEG has also become responsible for the ITU-T work on still image coding standards including JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
(ITU-T T.80, T.81, T.83, T.84, and T.86), JBIG-1
JBIG
JBIG is a lossless image compression standard from the Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group, standardized as ISO/IEC standard 11544 and as ITU-T recommendation T.82. It is widely implemented in fax machines. Now that the newer bi-level image compression standard JBIG2 has been released, JBIG is also...
(ITU-T T.80, T.82 and T.85), JBIG-2
JBIG2
JBIG2 is an image compression standard for bi-level images, developed by the Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group. It is suitable for both lossless and lossy compression...
(ITU-T T.88 and T.89), JPEG-LS
JPEG-LS
Lossless JPEG refers to a 1993 addition to JPEG standard by the Joint Photographic Experts Group to enable lossless compression. However, it might be used as an umbrella term to refer to all lossless compression schemes developed by the Joint Photographic Expert group...
(ITU-T T.87 and T.870), JPEG 2000
JPEG 2000
JPEG 2000 is an image compression standard and coding system. It was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group committee in 2000 with the intention of superseding their original discrete cosine transform-based JPEG standard with a newly designed, wavelet-based method...
(ITU-T T.800 through T.812), the JPEG-like ITU-T T.851, and JPEG XR (ITU-T T.832, T.833, T.834, T.835, and T.Sup2). VCEG works on most of these standards jointly with ISO/IEC
International Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
JTC 1/SC 29/WG 1 (Joint Photographic Experts Group
Joint Photographic Experts Group
The Joint Photographic Experts Group is the joint committee between ISO/IEC JTC1 and ITU-T that created the JPEG, JPEG 2000, and JPEG XR standards. It is one of two sub-groups of ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 29, Working Group 1 - titled as Coding of still pictures...
/Joint Bi-level Image experts Group
Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group
The Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group is a group of experts nominated by national standards bodies and major companies to work to produce standards for bi-level image coding. The 'joint' refers to its status as a committee working on both ISO and ITU-T standards...
).
Study Group 16 is responsible for studies relating to multimedia service capabilities, and application capabilities (including those supported for NGN
Next Generation Networking
Next-generation network is a broad term used to describe key architectural evolutions in telecommunication core and access networks. The general idea behind the NGN is that one network transports all information and services by encapsulating these into packets, similar to those used on the...
). This encompasses multimedia terminals, systems (e.g., network signal processing equipment, multipoint conference units, gateways, gatekeepers, modems, and facsimile), protocols and signal processing (media coding).
The goal of Question 6 is to produce Recommendations (international standards) for video coding and image coding methods appropriate for conversational (e.g. videoconferencing and video telephony) and non-conversational (e.g., streaming, broadcast, file download, media storage/playback, or digital cinema) audio/visual services. This Question focuses on the maintenance and extension of existing video coding Recommendations, and laying the ground for new Recommendations using advanced techniques to significantly improve the trade-offs between bit rate, quality, delay, and algorithm complexity. Video coding standards will be developed with sufficient flexibility to accommodate a diverse number of transport types (Internet, LAN
Län
Län and lääni refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Finland. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010....
, Mobile, ISDN, GSTN, H.222.0, NGN, etc.).
History
VCEG was preceded in the ITU-T (which was called the CCITT at the time) by the "Specialists Group on Coding for Visual Telephony" chaired by Sakae Okubo (NTT) which developed H.261H.261
H.261 is a ITU-T video coding standard, ratified in November 1988. It is the first member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group , and was the first video codec that was useful in practical terms.H.261 was originally designed for...
. The first meeting of this group was held Dec. 11-14, 1984 in Tokyo, Japan. In 1994, Richard Shaphorst (Delta Information Systems) took over new video codec development in ITU-T with the launch of the project for developing H.324
H.324
H.324 is an ITU-T recommendation for voice, video and data transmission over regular analog phone lines. It uses a regular 33,600 bit/s modem for transmission, the H.263 codec for video encoding and G.723.1 for audio....
. Schaphorst appointed Karel Rijkse (KPN Research) to chair the development of the H.263
H.263
H.263 is a video compression standard originally designed as a low-bitrate compressed format for videoconferencing. It was developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group in a project ending in 1995/1996 as one member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T.H.263...
codec standard as part of that project. In 1996, Schaphorst then appointed Gary Sullivan
Gary Sullivan (engineer)
Gary J. Sullivan is an American electrical engineer who led the development of the H.264/AVC video coding standard and created the DirectX Video Acceleration API/DDI video decoding feature of the Microsoft Windows operating system platform...
(PictureTel, since 1999 Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
) to launch the subsequent "H.263+" enhancement project, which was completed in 1998. In 1998, Sullivan was made rapporteur (chairman) of the question (group) for video coding in the ITU-T that is now called VCEG. After the H.263+ project, the group then completed an "H.263++" effort, produced H.263 Appendix III and H.263 Annex X, and launched the "H.26L" project with a call for proposals issued in January 1998 and a first draft design adopted in August 1999. In 2000, Thomas Wiegand
Thomas Wiegand
Thomas Wiegand is a German electrical engineer who actively participated in the creation of the H.264/AVC video coding standard. He was one of the chairmen of the Joint Video Team standardization committee that created the standard and was the editor of the standard itself...
(Fraunhofer HHI) was appointed as an associated rapporteur (vice-chairman) of VCEG. Sullivan and Wiegand led the H.26L project as it progressed to eventually become the H.264 standard after formation of a Joint Video Team (JVT) with MPEG for the completion of the work in 2003. (In MPEG, the H.264 standard is known as MPEG-4
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...
part 10.) Since 2003, VCEG and the JVT have developed several substantial extensions of H.264, produced H.271, and conducted exploration work toward the potential creation of a future new "H.265". In January 2010, the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) was created as a group of video coding experts from ITU-T Study Group 16 (VCEG) and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 (MPEG) to develop a new generation video coding standard.
In July 2006, the video coding work of the ITU-T
ITU-T
The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector is one of the three sectors of the International Telecommunication Union ; it coordinates standards for telecommunications....
led by VCEG was voted as the most influential area of the standardization work of the CCITT and ITU-T in their 50-year history. The image coding work that is now in the domain of VCEG was also highly ranked in the voting, placing third overall.
Standards
The organization now known as VCEG has standardized (and is responsible for the maintenance of) the following video compression formats and ancillary standards:- H.120H.120H.120 was the first digital video encoding standard. It was developed by COST 211 and published by the CCITT in 1984, with a revision in 1988 that included contributions proposed by other organizations...
: the first digital video coding standard. v1 (1984) featured conditional replenishment, differential PCM, scalar quantization, variable-length coding and a switch for quincunx sampling. v2 (1988) added motion compensationMotion compensationMotion compensation is an algorithmic technique employed in the encoding of video data for video compression, for example in the generation of MPEG-2 files. Motion compensation describes a picture in terms of the transformation of a reference picture to the current picture. The reference picture...
and background prediction. This standard was little-used and no codecs exist.
- H.261H.261H.261 is a ITU-T video coding standard, ratified in November 1988. It is the first member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group , and was the first video codec that was useful in practical terms.H.261 was originally designed for...
: was the first practical digital video coding standard (late 1990). This design was a pioneering effort, and all subsequent international video coding standards have been based closely on its design.
- H.262H.262H.262 or MPEG-2 Part 2 is a digital video compression and encoding standard developed and maintained jointly by ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group and ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group . It is the second part of the ISO/IEC MPEG-2 standard...
: it is identical in content to the video part of the ISO/IECInternational Electrotechnical CommissionThe International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
MPEG-2MPEG-2MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
standard (ISO/IEC 13818-2). This standard was developed in a joint partnership between VCEG and MPEG, and thus it became published as a standard of both organizations. ITU-T Recommendation H.262 and ISO/IEC 13818-2 were developed and published as "common text" international standards. As a result, the two documents are completely identical in all aspects.
- H.263H.263H.263 is a video compression standard originally designed as a low-bitrate compressed format for videoconferencing. It was developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group in a project ending in 1995/1996 as one member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T.H.263...
: was developed as an evolutionary improvement based on experience from H.261, and the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 standards. Its first version was completed in 1995 and provided a suitable replacement for H.261 at all bitrates.
- H.263v2: also known as H.263+ or as the 1998 version of H.263, is the informal name of the second edition of the H.263international video coding standard. It retains the entire technical content of the original version of the standard, but enhances H.263 capabilities by adding several annexes which substantially improve encoding efficiency and provide other capabilities (such as enhanced robustness against data loss in the transmission channel). The H.263+ project was completed in late 1997 or early 1998, and was then followed by an "H.263++" project that added a few more enhancements in late 2000.
- H.264H.264/MPEG-4 AVCH.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video...
: Advanced Video Coding (AVCH.264/MPEG-4 AVCH.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video...
) is the newest entry in the series of international video coding standards. It is currently the most powerful and state-of-the-art standard, and was developed by a Joint Video Team (JVT) consisting of experts from ITU-T’s Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and ISO/IEC’s Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) created in 2001. The ITU-T H.264 standard and the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 Part 10 standard (formally, ISO/IEC 14496-10) are technically identical. The final drafting work on the first version of the standard was completed in May 2003. As has been the case with past standards, its design provides the most current balance between the coding efficiency, implementation complexity, and cost based on state of VLSIVery-large-scale integrationVery-large-scale integration is the process of creating integrated circuits by combining thousands of transistors into a single chip. VLSI began in the 1970s when complex semiconductor and communication technologies were being developed. The microprocessor is a VLSI device.The first semiconductor...
design technology (CPUs, DSPsDigital signal processorA digital signal processor is a specialized microprocessor with an architecture optimized for the fast operational needs of digital signal processing.-Typical characteristics:...
, ASICASICASIC may refer to:* Application-specific integrated circuit, an integrated circuit developed for a particular use, as opposed to a customised general-purpose device.* ASIC programming language, a dialect of BASIC...
s, FPGAs, etc).- H.264.1: Conformance testingConformance testingConformance testing or type testing is testing to determine whether a product or system meets some specified standard that has been developed for efficiency or interoperability....
for H.264 - H.264.2: Reference software for H.264
- H.264.1: Conformance testing
- H.265: Not yet developed; expected 2012 or later.
- H.271: Video back channel messages for conveyance of status information and requests from a video receiver to a video sender
For further information about the image coding work now in the domain of VCEG, see the Joint Photographic Experts Group
Joint Photographic Experts Group
The Joint Photographic Experts Group is the joint committee between ISO/IEC JTC1 and ITU-T that created the JPEG, JPEG 2000, and JPEG XR standards. It is one of two sub-groups of ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 29, Working Group 1 - titled as Coding of still pictures...
article.
See also
- ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector
- Joint Photographic Experts GroupJoint Photographic Experts GroupThe Joint Photographic Experts Group is the joint committee between ISO/IEC JTC1 and ITU-T that created the JPEG, JPEG 2000, and JPEG XR standards. It is one of two sub-groups of ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 29, Working Group 1 - titled as Coding of still pictures...
(JPEG) - Moving Picture Experts GroupMoving Picture Experts GroupThe Moving Picture Experts Group is a working group of experts that was formed by ISO and IEC to set standards for audio and video compression and transmission. It was established in 1988 by the initiative of Hiroshi Yasuda and Leonardo Chiariglione, who has been from the beginning the Chairman...
(MPEG) - High Efficiency Video CodingHigh Efficiency Video CodingHigh Efficiency Video Coding is a draft video compression standard, a successor to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC , currently under joint development by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group and ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group . MPEG and VCEG have established a Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding to...
(HEVC) - Video codecVideo codecA video codec is a device or software that enables video compression and/or decompression for digital video. The compression usually employs lossy data compression. Historically, video was stored as an analog signal on magnetic tape...
- Video compression
- Video qualityVideo qualityVideo quality is a characteristic of a video passed through a video transmission/processing system, a formal or informal measure of perceived video degradation...
