Understanding MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.

264,
AVCHD and H.265
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If you’re like me, you might have wondered what the difference is between MPEG-2, MPEG-4,
H.264, AVCHD and H.265, and how they are related.

This article explains exactly this, without going into technicalities. By the end, you will have a
clear idea of which is which, and which ones you should remember. If you’re totally new to all
this, start by reading What is Video Compression?

Exclusive Bonus: Download my free report on the 11 Tools and DIY Hacks I use to create all
my professional-looking videos (PDF file optimized for mobiles and tablets).

We’ll use the following table as reference. Don’t read it just yet, but keep coming back to it as
the article progresses, and everything will be clear. Click on the image to enlarge.
MPEG and ITU-T VCEG
In the beginning there was COST 211 (don’t worry, they don’t exist anymore). They created the
H.120 standard, which basically flopped. But it paved the way for what we have today.

The ITU-T VCEG (Video Coding Expert Group) formed to improve upon H.120, and that’s all
we have to know about that.

MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) formed to find a way to incorporate codecs for
broadcast work. To this day, the two committees – MPEG and VCEG, work side-by-side. MPEG
specializes in broadcast (television), while the ITU (International Telecommunications Union)
focuses on telecommunications (phone, internet).

In today’s world, their goals mostly overlap (because everything is going the way of the
Internet), and this association is likely to continue.
H.120
This started it all, but didn’t do well. It had two versions, one for PAL and the other for NTSC.

H.261 and JPEG

In 1988, H.261 was created by the VCEG, mainly for ISDN/Videoconferencing work. It had a
maximum bit rate of 2 Mbps, but was limited with a chroma sub-sampling of 4:2:0.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) became a popular codec of choice for images right
about that time, and in the same ‘vein’, MPEG was formed to take care of the broadcast
industry’s needs.

MPEG-1
MPEG adopted H.261 and JPEG together to form what is called a ‘Suite’. The specific name for
the first suite is MPEG-1.

It was limited to 1.5 Mbps, 4:2:0 and stereo audio only. At the time, there was PAL, NTSC and
VHS, and that’s all it had to cater to.

Parts and Layers

MPEG suites have sub-divisions, called Parts. Traditionally, Part 1 is always for the ‘System’
(file format). Part 2 is for video, and Part 3 is for audio. Look at the image and you’ll see this
clearly.

MPEG-1 Part 2 is also H.261, for our purposes.

Parts are further sub-divided into Layers. Audio has three or more layers, called Layer I, Layer II
and Layer III and so on.

MP3
It just so happens that MPEG-1 Part 3 Layer III is called MP3. It does NOT stand for MPEG-3,
but the third layer of the third part of the MPEG suite. This version of MP3 was also limited to
stereo (two channels only).

MPEG-2
In 1999, technology had advanced enough to warrant an upgrade of the suite.
Part 1 of the MPEG-2 suite had two major classifications: Program Stream and Transport
Stream.

Part 2, video is also called H.262. It had additional support for interlacing and 4:2:2. The big
change for audio was the addition of 5.1 channels, and MP3 was revised to incorporate this
specification.

Most of broadcast television adopted MPEG-2, and it is still the most widely used codec today
for broadcast. Additionally, DVD incorporated this technology, and was able to include surround
sound as a result.

MPEG-2 also had more than three parts. The most important of these (not shown in the image) is
Part 7, called the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) audio format.

Professional camera codecs that use MPEG-2 include HDV and XDCAM.

MPEG-4
By 2004 the world had suddenly discovered the Internet. MPEG was ready with the third suite,
MPEG-4 (MPEG-3 was not used). This suite incorporates a whole lot of technology from the
beginning of this century till 2012 or so.

Part 2, or technically MPEG-4 Part 2, is also called H.263. It included a new concept called
‘Profiles’ which we’ll look at last. HDCAM SR uses this specific Part.

Part 3 is still audio. AAC has been incorporated into Part 3.

MPEG-4 has about 30 parts, one for each technology. The two parts we are most concerned with
are Parts 10 and 14.

H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10/AVC

Part 10, or technically MPEG-4 Part 10, describes the AVC (Advanced Video Coding) format.
This is H.264. Rather than start a new suite, they decided to add this as a Part.

H.264 is the most widely used codec on earth, even surpassing broadcast MPEG-2, simply due to
the power of the internet. It is used by Youtube, and every other video provider of note.

It is also the codec that drives Blu-ray. Many broadcast pipelines and distribution channels have
adopted H.264 (and MPEG-4 Part 2) as well.

Sony has added the XAVC codec (see the ‘AVC’ in the name?) to its line-up because XDCAM
couldn’t deal with 4K and above.

MP4
Part 14 describes a container format for MPEG-4 codecs, as in *.mp4. That’s all this is.

AVCHD
Sony and Panasonic took the parts they liked about H.264 and called it AVCHD (MPEG-4 Part
10 AVC+HD). The key differences between AVCHD and H.264 is the former supports Dolby
AC-3 encoding in addition to LPCM, and is limited by a total bit rate of 24 Mbps.

Whereas H.264 is designed as a distribution format (all MPEG suites are distribution formats, for
the end user), AVCHD is designed for cameras as an acquisition format as well.

Quality-wise, there’s no difference.

AVCHD 2.0
AVCHD 2.0 keeps up with a newer version of H.264 with better compression and sampling. But
it’s still 4:2:0 and is limited to 28 Mbps. Make no mistake, AVCHD is a consumer codec.

HEVC or H.265
As of 2013, the new kid on the block is MPEG-H. Part 2 (video, of course) is also called H.265
or HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding). There are many vendors already claiming
compatibility with this new format. Here are its key benefits:

 Up to 8K UHDTV (8192×4320 maximum)

 12-bit color bit depth
 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 chroma sub-sampling
 Supports up to 300 fps (earlier versions only supported up to 59.94 fps)
 Data rates of several GB/s
 File size ‘subjectively’ half the size of H.264 with better quality!

This is clearly the future. However, don’t bet on H.264 going away anytime soon. Who’s going
to transcode the billions of H.264 videos already online?

Profiles
The new reality of the MPEG suite, beginning with MPEG-4, is the concept of Profiles and
Levels – in addition to Parts and Layers. Profiles are like presets, specific variants of the
specification to be used for specific applications.

After all, the MPEG-4 specification with its thirty parts is quite large. Why would an encoder or
software need to comply with all of it, if its chosen function is only for a specific need?
Profiles are unfortunately a necessary evil. Technology is moving too fast for committees to keep
up, and many vendors don’t have to comply to the broadcast model anymore. Internet means
freedom, and anyone can create a new variant of a codec (after paying the right licenses) and
stream his or her videos in that proprietary format. Hell, you could even invent a completely new
format, or encode your videos in H.120 if you like!

Exclusive Bonus: Download my free report on the 11 Tools and DIY Hacks I use to create all
my professional-looking videos (PDF file optimized for mobiles and tablets).

Related Articles

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3. The Sony Vegas Pro Export Guide (Part One): Internal Workflows
4. Understanding the limits of Data Rates and Transmission
5. The Edius Pro Crash Course for Beginners (Part Three): Importing

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Comments

1. Krish Mehkarkar says

September 6, 2018 at 11:46 pm

Superb article

2. Joshua says

April 12, 2018 at 8:33 pm

Thank you very much, I think am beginning to understand all this formats now. well
explained

3. Carlos says

January 10, 2018 at 1:38 am

I’m thinking of buying the Sony PXW-Z90. It comes with the video formats XAVC
QFHD: MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 4:2:0 Long profile, XAVC HD: MPEG-4 AVC/H.264
4:2:2 Long profile
XAVC Proxy: MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 4:2:0 Long profile. Are these high quality formats?
 They sell a license for MPEG HD422 (CBKZ-SLMP required): MPEG-2 422P at HL
4:2:2 Long profile, MPEG HD420 (CBKZ-SLMP required): MPEG-2 MP at HL 4:2:0
Long profile
MPEG HD Proxy (CBKZ-SLMP required): and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 4:2:0 Long profile

Are the XAVC and MPEG formats that this camera come with very good or am I going
to have to purchase the licensed formats to get good quality. I shoot a lot of stuff that
goes on the net and sometimes gets projected at events. I also want to start shooting 4K
stock footage. Your advice would be appreciated.
Los

o Krish Mehkarkar says

July 8, 2018 at 7:16 pm

Superb info i wd like to recive regular updates on HEVC Advance

4. Scott says

August 15, 2017 at 10:05 pm

Great article, thank you for the information

5. mahdi says

June 4, 2017 at 3:24 pm

i want to write one article for [Link] my university about h.265 and and i find
this artice very good

6. Chris says

March 24, 2017 at 6:38 am

Hi there, queostion, Coming out of Premiere CC and I want to burn Blu Rays for festival
submissions an possibly festival playback.
Mpeg2-Blu Ray or H264BluRay ?

Please let me know

o Sareesh says

March 24, 2017 at 7:39 am

Follow the guidelines of the festival.

  Chris says

March 24, 2017 at 6:37 pm

Thanks, that’s what I’m going to do but all festivals are different and that
doesn’t really answer my question.

I guess my question is, which format is better for the highest quality
playback?

 Sareesh says

March 24, 2017 at 7:31 pm

I’ve got an article on Blu-ray, check it out.

 Chris says

March 24, 2017 at 7:54 pm

Please post a link.

If you were going to burn a Blu ray, what format out of CC

would you export it?

7. Simmons says

March 18, 2017 at 5:43 pm

Thank you so much, quite useful!

8. Apostle Samuel Aisa says

March 4, 2017 at 2:20 pm

thanks for the info

9. karthikeyan says

December 30, 2016 at 1:37 pm

hi.. its very much useful for beginners like me .. I hope its very good valuable
information …Thank U

o Sareesh says
 December 31, 2016 at 7:39 am

You’re welcome!

10. Peter says

December 17, 2016 at 10:28 pm

now I know what to do. thanks

11. Thomas says

August 1, 2016 at 7:59 pm

Thank you

12. PhilosoScience says

January 8, 2014 at 10:16 am

It is higher bit rate and I read people say also lower compression, so h.263 would be
logical.

13. PhilosoScience says

January 8, 2014 at 10:15 am

It is higher bit rate 35 Mbps instead of 24, also I’ve read it is lower compression so I
think it is h.263.

14. Sareesh Sudhakaran says

January 8, 2014 at 8:50 am

PhilosoScienceI haven’t touched a camcorder in a long time, but I think it’s more likely
h.264 in an MP4 container.

15. EdwardHeldmanIII says

January 8, 2014 at 12:41 am

PhilosoScience I don’t have any camcorders but mp4 supports so many video codecs that
is misleading as it could be anything as listed in wiki: MPEG-2 Part 2, MPEG-4 ASP,
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.263, VC-1, Dirac, others

16. PhilosoScience says

 January 7, 2014 at 10:30 pm

When camcorders say they can record “MP4” instead of AVCHD I think that is h.263.
MP4 is just the container, so it isn’t clear. That is a good consumer question.

17. Sareesh Sudhakaran says

December 19, 2013 at 8:46 am

EdwardHeldmanIIIYou’re welcome!

18. EdwardHeldmanIII says

December 17, 2013 at 3:38 pm

This is the most helpful and easy to understand way of explaining it. Thank you very
much

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