MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) support in DirectX VA

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) is also known as H.264 (ITU-T H.264). It's a standard for video compression that can provide good video quality at substantially lower bit rates than previous standards; for example, at 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
  • ITU-T multimedia telephony systems