Apple Computer has announced that the H.264/Advanced Video Codec (AVC) will be incorporated in its QuickTime software in an upcoming release next year.
The DVD Forum for use in the HD DVD format has ratified the video technology; that was jointly developed by the Motion Picture Expert’s Group (MPEG) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and has been ratified into the MPEG-4 specification.
At NAB2004, Apple demonstrated H.264 capabilities with a codec that can scale from 3G smartphones to HDTV. The company showed H.264 video playing on Power Mac G5 systems in full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 24p) at rates between running from 6.8 to 8MB/s — about half the data rate of current MPEG-2, for DVDs.
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