La maggior parte delle caratteristiche dell'MPEG-4 sono opzionali e quindi la loro implementazione è lasciata alla discrezione dello sviluppatore. Questo implica che parte dei lettori multimediali di file MPEG-4 non saranno magari in grado di gestire tutte le caratteristiche del formato. Per permettere un'elevata interoperabilità, nel formato sono stati inclusi i concetti di profilo e di livello, quindi i vari lettori MPEG-4 potranno essere suddivisi a seconda dei profili e livelli supportati.
MPEG-4 parts[2][3]
| Part |
Number |
First public release date (First edition) |
Latest public release date (edition) |
Latest amend- ment |
Title |
Description |
| Part 1 |
ISO/IEC 14496-1 |
1999 |
2004[4] (2010[5]) |
2007 (2010[6]) |
Systems |
Describes synchronization and multiplexing of video and audio. For example the MPEG-4 file format version 1 (obsoleted by version 2 defined in MPEG-4 Part 14). The functionality of a transport protocol stack for transmitting and/or storing content complying with ISO/IEC 14496 is not within the scope of 14496-1 and only the interface to this layer is considered (DMIF). Information about transport of MPEG-4 content is defined e.g. in MPEG-2 Transport Stream, RTP Audio Video Profiles and others.[7][8][9][10][11] |
| Part 2 |
ISO/IEC 14496-2 |
1999 |
2004[12] |
2009 |
Visual |
A compression codec for visual data (video, still textures, synthetic images, etc.). One of the many "profiles" in Part 2 is the Advanced Simple Profile (ASP). |
| Part 3 |
ISO/IEC 14496-3 |
1999 |
2009[13] |
2009[14] (2010[15]) |
Audio |
A set of compression codecs for perceptual coding of audio signals, including some variations of Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) as well as other audio/speech coding formats and tools (such as Audio Lossless Coding (ALS), Scalable Lossless Coding (SLS), Structured Audio, Text-To-Speech Interface (TTSI), HVXC, CELP and others) |
| Part 4 |
ISO/IEC 14496-4 |
2000 |
2004[16] |
2009 (2010) |
Conformance testing |
Describes procedures for testing conformance to other parts of the standard. |
| Part 5 |
ISO/IEC 14496-5 |
2000 |
2001[17] |
2009 (2010) |
Reference software |
Provides reference software for demonstrating and clarifying the other parts of the standard. |
| Part 6 |
ISO/IEC 14496-6 |
1999 |
2000[18] |
|
Delivery Multimedia Integration Framework (DMIF). |
|
| Part 7 |
ISO/IEC TR 14496-7 |
2002 |
2004[19] |
|
Optimized reference software for coding of audio-visual objects |
Provides examples of how to make improved implementations (e.g., in relation to Part 5). |
| Part 8 |
ISO/IEC 14496-8 |
2004 |
2004[20] |
|
Carriage of ISO/IEC 14496 contents over IP networks |
Specifies a method to carry MPEG-4 content on IP networks. |
| Part 9 |
ISO/IEC TR 14496-9 |
2004 |
2009[21] |
|
Reference hardware description |
Provides hardware designs for demonstrating how to implement the other parts of the standard. |
| Part 10 |
ISO/IEC 14496-10 |
2003 |
2009[22] |
(2010[23]) |
Advanced Video Coding (AVC) |
A codec for video signals which is technically identical to the ITU-T H.264 standard. |
| Part 11 |
ISO/IEC 14496-11 |
2005 |
2005[24] |
2009 |
Scene description and application engine |
Can be used for rich, interactive content with multiple profiles, including 2D and 3D versions. MPEG-4 Part 11 revised MPEG-4 Part 1 - ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001 and two amendments to MPEG-4 Part 1. It describes a system level description of an application engine (delivery, lifecycle, format and behaviour of dowloadable Java byte code applications) and the Binary Format for Scene (BIFS) and the Extensible MPEG-4 Textual (XMT) format - a textual representation of the MPEG-4 multimedia content using XML, etc.[24] (It is also known as BIFS, XMT, MPEG-J.[25] MPEG-J was defined in MPEG-4 Part 21) |
| Part 12 |
ISO/IEC 14496-12 |
2004 |
2008[26] |
2009[27] (2010[2]) |
ISO base media file format |
A file format for storing time-based media content. It is a general format forming the basis for a number of other more specific file formats (e.g. 3GP, Motion JPEG 2000, MPEG-4 Part 14). It is technically identical to ISO/IEC 15444-12 (JPEG 2000 image coding system - Part 12). |
| Part 13 |
ISO/IEC 14496-13 |
2004 |
2004[28] |
|
Intellectual Property Management and Protection (IPMP) Extensions. |
MPEG-4 Part 13 revised an amendment to MPEG-4 Part 1 - ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001/Amd 3:2004. |
| Part 14 |
ISO/IEC 14496-14 |
2003 |
2003[29] |
(2010[30]) |
MP4 file format |
It is also known as "MPEG-4 file format version 2". The designated container file format for MPEG-4 content, which is based on Part 12. It revises and completely replaces Clause 13 of ISO/IEC 14496-1 (MPEG-4 Part 1: Systems), in which the MPEG-4 file format was previously specified. |
| Part 15 |
ISO/IEC 14496-15 |
2004 |
2004[31] |
2008 (2010[32]) |
Advanced Video Coding (AVC) file format |
For storage of Part 10 video. File format is based on Part 12, but also allows storage in other file formats. |
| Part 16 |
ISO/IEC 14496-16 |
2004 |
2009[33] |
(2010[34]) |
Animation Framework eXtension (AFX). |
It specifies MPEG-4 Animation Framework eXtension (AFX) model for representing 3D Graphics content. MPEG-4 is extended with higher-level synthetic objects for specifying geometry, texture, animation and dedicated compression algorithms. |
| Part 17 |
ISO/IEC 14496-17 |
2006 |
2006[35] |
|
Streaming text format |
Timed Text subtitle format |
| Part 18 |
ISO/IEC 14496-18 |
2004 |
2004[36] |
|
Font compression and streaming |
(for OpenType fonts). |
| Part 19 |
ISO/IEC 14496-19 |
2004 |
2004[37] |
|
Synthesized texture stream |
Synthesized texture streams are used for creation of very low bitrate synthetic video clips. |
| Part 20 |
ISO/IEC 14496-20 |
2006 |
2008[38] |
2009 |
Lightweight Application Scene Representation (LASeR) and Simple Aggregation Format (SAF). |
LASeR requirements (compression efficiency, code and memory footprint) are fulfilled by building upon the existing the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format defined by the World Wide Web Consortium.[39] |
| Part 21 |
ISO/IEC 14496-21 |
2006 |
2006[40] |
|
MPEG-J Graphics Framework eXtensions (GFX) |
describes a lightweight programmatic environment for advanced interactive multimedia applications - a framework that marries a subset of the MPEG standard Java application environment (MPEG-J) with a Java API.[40][41][42][43] (at "FCD" stage in July 2005, FDIS January 2006, published as ISO standard on 2006-11-22). |
| Part 22 |
ISO/IEC 14496-22 |
2007 |
2009[44] |
|
Open Font Format |
(OFFS) is based on the OpenType version 1.4 font format specification, and is technically equivalent to that specification.[45][46] (reached "CD" stage in July 2005, published as ISO standard in 2007) |
| Part 23 |
ISO/IEC 14496-23 |
2008 |
2008[47] |
|
Symbolic Music Representation (SMR) |
(reached "FCD" stage in October 2006, published as ISO standard in 2008-01-28) |
| Part 24 |
ISO/IEC TR 14496-24 |
2008 |
2008[48] |
|
Audio and systems interaction |
It describes the desired joint behavior of MPEG-4 File Format and MPEG-4 Audio. |
| Part 25 |
ISO/IEC 14496-25 |
2009 |
2009[49] |
|
3D Graphics Compression Model |
Defines a model for connecting 3D Graphics Compression tools defined in MPEG-4 standards to graphics primitives defined in any other standard or specification. |
| Part 26 |
ISO/IEC 14496-26 |
(under development in 2009 [1]) |
|
|
Audio Conformance |
|
| Part 27 |
ISO/IEC 14496-27 |
2009[50] |
|
(2010[51]) |
3D Graphics conformance |
|