The MPEG Home Page

This is the home page of the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) a working group of ISO/IEC in charge of the development of standards for coded representation of digital audio and video. Established in 1988, the group has produced MPEG-1, the standard on which such products as Video CD and MP3 are based; MPEG-2, the standard on which such products as Digital Television set top boxes and DVD are based; MPEG-4, the standard for multimedia for the fixed and mobile web; MPEG-7, the standard for description and search of audio and visual content;  MPEG-21, the Multimedia Framework; MPEG-A "Multimedia Application Format", the standard providing application-specific formats by integrating multiple MPEG technologies; MPEG-B, MPEG-C and MPEG-D providing Systems, Video and Audio specific standards, respectively; MPEG-E "MPEG Multimedia Middleware" or M3W providing support to download and execution of multimedia applications and ISO/IEC 29116 "Supplemental Media Technologies" collecting other media-related standards.

In addition to those "consolidated" (but still evolving) standards, MPEG has started a number of new standard lines: MPEG eXtensible Middleware (MPEG-M) and Media Context and Control (MPEG-V).

In its 21 years of activity MPEG has developed an impressive portfolio of technologies that have created an industry worth several hundreds billion USD. Read an overview of the achievements and current work by MPEG.

MPEG standards can be purchased directly from ISO by email, from their website or from a National Body. Some MPEG standards are publicly available. The  reference software of all MPEG standards can be freely downloaded from the ISO/ITTF web site. 

In a world where information technology, consumer electronics and telecommunication products converge by incorporating increasingly sophisticated technologies and the need for timely available standards is as strong as ever, MPEG provides a proven mechanism to feed research results into standards that promote industry innovation to the benefit of all.

MPEG is a committee of ISO/IEC that is open to experts duly accredited by an appropriate National Standards Body. On average a meeting is attended by more than 300 experts representing more than 200 companies spanning all industry domains with a stake in digital audio, video and multimedia. On average more than 20 countries are represented at a meeting.