Work on the emerging “Advanced Video Coding” standard now known as ITU-T Recommendation

H.264 and as ISO/IEC 14496 (MPEG-4) Part 10 has dominated the video coding

standardization community for roughly the past three years. The work has been stimulating,

intense, dynamic, and all consuming for those of us most deeply involved in its design. The

time has arrived to see what has been accomplished.

Although not a direct participant, Dr Richardson was able to develop a high-quality,

up-to-date, introductory descr iption and analysis of the new standard. The timeliness of this

book is remarkable, as the standard itself has only just been completed.