MPEG Compression Standard
The current standard for video compression was created by the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG). The MPEG organization has come up with several compression standards for video, Internet, sound, and others. You are probably familiar with their compression standard for sound. The MP standard, as it is frequently referred to, is frequently used for computer music files.
The compression standards for video are called MPEG 2. They include both spatial and temporal compression methods to make the most efficient use of bandwidth. The designers of this standard realized that consumers couldn't go out and buy a new decoder every time advances were made in the technology. So they set up MPEG as a protocol. As long as the compressed material fit the protocol, it could be decoded by the MPEG decoder no matter what algorithm was used to compress the video. This allowed more complex compression algorithms to be developed and higher compression ratios to be established without the need to change the equipment on the consumer's end of the chain.
An example is the home satellite systems. When they first came on the market, MPEG 2 allowed them to compress movies at a 4:1 ratio. Within a few years they were compressing movies at an 8:1 ratio with no change in the consumer's receivers. MPEG is pretty much the standard for quality video compression in the broadcast world.
