What is MP4 Technology?

What is an MP4?

Just like MP3s work by compressing music and audio files without affecting the audio quality, MP4 files are compressed video files. MP4 is also known as MPEG-4 AVC, or advanced video coding. This new technology is going to make video files decrease in size so that they are easier to work with and support. What used to be massive video files of motion and audio are now compressed versions of the same material, called MP4s.

How MP4 Technology Works

MP4 files work through compression; similar to how MP3 audio files are compressed, except these are more complex. The way these videos are compressed into very small files without affecting the quality is through dealing with specific coding issues, minimizing certain aspects, such temporal and spatial redundancies, transforming motion estimation and intra estimation into the frequency domain, and generally through compression and decompression, commonly referred to as codec.

The MP4 player works in a very simple manner. You simply purchase the “sold separately” electronic device (such as an iPod, Zune or iPhone) and attach it to your computer, notebook, or TV. It’s that easy.

Advantages of MP4 Technology

MP4s produce videos of DVD-quality at less than 1 Mbps through a broadband connection. This means that with an MP4 player, you can retrieve videos through an Internet connection and watch them with your MP4 player. MP4 players can also play lower MP versions, such as audio MP3s.

Although MP4 files are much smaller than regular video files, they will still take time to download with a broadband connection because they are still generally large files.

History of MP4

MP4 is short for Moving Picture Expert Group-4. First published in 1998, MPEG-4 or MP4 was designed to encompass all the features that were part of earlier releases of MPEG files, and add a few more that would prove helpful with the advancing online technology of the day. As a standardized group of video and perceptual coding formats, MP in general quickly became a hit with the average Internet user. The introduction of MP4 made it possible for the audience to continue growing by providing quicker, faster, and higher quality broadcast media for the average user.

So great was the success of MP4 that by 1999, it was considered the gold standard for all types of streaming and broadcast applications online. The functionality of the format was such that programmers were able to easily make use of MP4 on web sites and in various other applications. Businesses found it to be a great sales and marketing tool, and residential users also had a great time viewing, swapping, and even creating their own streaming media in the MP4 format.

Because MP4 was a reliable application that required a relatively low amount of bandwidth, just about everyone could take advantage of using the tool. This was especially true as technology made it possible to create more powerful desktop and laptop systems that had a larger hard drive and could command more power. The enhancement of the speed of various types of Internet connections also helped to make MP4 more accessible to a greater audience.

The source of this information is BroadBandInfo.com & tech-faq.com.