ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 and ITU

ITU-T Recommendation H.264
Advanced video coding for generic audiovisual services
0 Introduction
This clause does not form an integral part of this Recommendation | International Standard.
0.1 Prologue
This subclause does not form an integral part of this Recommendation | International Standard.
As the costs for both processing power and memory have reduced, network support for coded video data has
diversified, and advances in video coding technology have progressed, the need has arisen for an industry standard for
compressed video representation with substantially increased coding efficiency and enhanced robustness to network
environments. Toward these ends the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture
Experts Group (MPEG) formed a Joint Video Team (JVT) in 2001 for development of a new
Recommendation | International Standard.
0.2 Purpose
This subclause does not form an integral part of this Recommendation | International Standard.
This Recommendation | International Standard was developed in response to the growing need for higher compression
of moving pictures for various applications such as videoconferencing, digital storage media, television broadcasting,
internet streaming, and communication. It is also designed to enable the use of the coded video representation in a
flexible manner for a wide variety of network environments. The use of this Recommendation | International Standard
allows motion video to be manipulated as a form of computer data and to be stored on various storage media,
transmitted and received over existing and future networks and distributed on existing and future broadcasting channels.