MPEG-4 AVC (H.264)

For information on how DirectX VA version 1.0 decodes MPEG-4 AVC, download DirectX Video Acceleration Specification for H.264/AVC Decoding.

MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also known as ITU-T H.264, is a standard for video compression that can provide good video quality at substantially lower bit rates than previous standards (for example, half or less the bit rate of MPEG-2, H.263, or MPEG-4). MPEG-4 AVC provides this video quality without having to increase the design complexity so much, which can make MPEG-4 implementation impractical or excessively expensive. MPEG-4 AVC can be applied to a wide variety of applications on a wide variety of networks and systems, including low and high bit rates, low and high resolution video, broadcast, DVD storage, RTP and IP packet networks, and ITU-T multimedia telephony systems.