Digital Home Thoughts: Apple gets ready to release next MPEG-4 Part 10

"Apple Computer is currently testing new video compression software that will eventually improve its QuickTime Player. The company said the technology, known as MPEG-4 part 10 or H.264/AVC, is the next-generation video compression technology in the MPEG-4 standard. Already ratified by both the ITU and ISO MPEG, Frank Casanova, Apple Senior Director, QuickTime Product Marketing, told internetnews.com that the company is pole-positioning the improvements as the standard for video encoding for everything from 3G to High Definition (HD) broadcast.

Earlier this year, Apple demonstrated MPEG-4 part 10 showing content encoded at full HD resolution (1920x1080 24 frames progressive) and played back between 6.8 and 8 Mbps on one of Apple's current dual-processor computers. The company suggests that H.264/AVC is the likely successor to MPEG-2, which is still the industry standard."

I have been pretty disappointed with the quality of MPEG-4 so far, but the demos I've seen of MPEG-4 part 10 look really good. It remains to be seen though if QuickTime and MPEG-4 can move beyond a "Movie Trailer" delivery system. 8O