Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)-4

General Information

Technologies must be operated and maintained in accordance with Federal and Department security and privacy policies and guidelines. More information on the proper use of the TRM can be found on the TRM Proper Use Tab/Section.

Website:	Go to site
Description:	Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG-4) is a standard that specifies system-level functionalities for the communication of interactive audio-visual (AV) scenes. Uses of this standard include compression of AV data for web (streaming media) and compact disc (CD) distribution, voice (telephone, videophone), and broadcast television applications. This standard is published as International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 14496.
Technology/Standard Usage Requirements:	Users must ensure their use of this technology/standard is consistent with VA policies and standards, including, but not limited to, VA Handbooks 6102 and 6500; VA Directives 6004, 6513, and 6517; and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards, including Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). Users must ensure sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. Prior to use of this technology, users should check with their supervisor, Information Security Officer (ISO), Facility Chief Information Officer (CIO), or local Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) representative to ensure that all actions are consistent with current VA policies and procedures prior to implementation.
Section 508 Information:
Decision:	View Decisions

Decision Source:	TRM Mgmt Group
Decision Process:	One-VA TRM v22.11
Decision Date:	11/01/2022 at 15:15:03 UTC
Introduced By:	TRMSP
Standards Body:	ISO

Vendor Release Information

The Vendor Release table provides the known releases for the TRM Industry Standard, obtained from the vendor (or from the release source).

Version	Release Date	Vendor End of Life Date	Vendor Desupport Date
2000 - part 6	12/21/2000
2001 - part 5	12/15/2001
2003 - part 14	11/24/2003
2004 - parts 2,4,7,8,13,18,19	12/13/2004
2004 - parts 1,15,26
2005 - part 11	12/05/2005
2006 - parts 17,21	03/23/2006
2008 - parts 12,20,23,24	10/21/2008
2009 - parts 3,9,10,16,22,25,27	08/26/2009
2010 - parts 1,15,26	05/20/2010
2011 - Parts 1,15,26	03/02/2011
2012 Parts 10, 12
2014 Part 10, 15, 30	09/01/2014
2015 prt 11,12,22,29	12/15/2015
2017 (Part 17)	02/01/2017
2019 (Parts 15, 22)	01/01/2019

Current Decision Matrix (10/17/2022)

Users must ensure their use of this technology/standard is consistent with VA policies and standards, including, but not limited to, VA Handbooks 6102 and 6500; VA Directives 6004, 6513, and 6517; and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards, including Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). Users must ensure sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. Prior to use of this technology, users should check with their supervisor, Information Security Officer (ISO), Facility Chief Information Officer (CIO), or local Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) representative to ensure that all actions are consistent with current VA policies and procedures prior to implementation.

The VA Decision Matrix displays the current and future VA IT position regarding different releases of a TRM entry. These decisions are based upon the best information available as of the most current date. The consumer of this information has the responsibility to consult the organizations responsible for the desktop, testing, and/or production environments to ensure that the target version of the technology will be supported. Any major.minor version that is not listed in the VA Decision Matrix is considered unapproved for use.

Legend:

White	Approved: The technology/standard has been approved for use.
Yellow	Approved w/Constraints: The technology/standard can be used within the specified constraints located below the decision matrix in the footnote[1] and on the General tab.
Gray	Unapproved: This technology or standard can be used only if a POA&M review is conducted and signed by the Authorizing Official Designated Representative (AODR) as designated by the Authorizing Official (AO) or designee and based upon a recommendation from the POA&M Compliance Enforcement, has been granted to the project team or organization that wishes to use the technology.
Orange	Divest: VA has decided to divest itself on the use of the technology/standard. As a result, all projects currently utilizing the technology/standard must plan to eliminate their use of the technology/standard. Additional information on when the entry is projected to become unapproved may be found on the Decision tab for the specific entry.
Black	Prohibited: The technology/standard is not (currently) permitted to be used under any circumstances.
Blue	Planning/Evaluation Constraint:The period of time this technology is currently being evaluated, reviewed, and tested in controlled environments. Use of this technology is strictly controlled and not available for use within the general population. If a customer would like to use this technology, please work with your local or Regional OI&T office and contact the appropriate evaluation office displayed in the notes below the decision matrix. The Local or Regional OI&T office should submit an inquiry to the TRM if they require further assistance or if the evaluating office is not listed in the notes below.

Release/Version Information:

VA decisions for specific versions may include a ‘.x’ wildcard, which denotes a decision that pertains to a range of multiple versions.

For example, a technology approved with a decision for 7.x would cover any version of 7.(Anything) - 7.(Anything). However, a 7.4.x decision would cover any version of 7.4.(Anything), but would not cover any version of 7.5.x or 7.6.x on the TRM.

VA decisions for specific versions may include ‘+’ symbols; which denotes that the decision for the version specified also includes versions greater than what is specified but is not to exceed or affect previous decimal places.

For example, a technology approved with a decision for 12.6.4+ would cover any version that is greater than 12.6.4, but would not exceed the .6 decimal ie: 12.6.401 is ok, 12.6.5 is ok, 12.6.9 is ok, however 12.7.0 or 13.0 is not.

<Past

CY2023

CY2024

CY2025

Future>

Release

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

2000 - part 6

Unapproved

2001 - part 5

Unapproved

2003 - part 14

Unapproved

2004 - parts 2,4,7,8,13,18,19

Unapproved

2004 - parts 1,15,26

Unapproved

2005 - part 11

Unapproved

2006 - parts 17,21

Unapproved

2008 - parts 12,20,23,24

Unapproved

2009 - parts 3,9,10,16,22,25,27

Unapproved

2010 - parts 1,15,26

Unapproved

2011 - Parts 1,15,26

Unapproved

2012 Parts 10, 12

Unapproved

2014 Part 10, 15, 30

Unapproved

2015 prt 11,12,22,29

Unapproved

2017 (Part 17)

Unapproved

2019 (Parts 15, 22)

Approved w/Constraints
[2]

Decision Constraints


[1]	Due to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) identified security vulnerabilities, extra vigilance should be applied to ensure the versions remain properly patched to mitigate known and future vulnerabilities. The local ISO can provide assistance in reviewing the NIST vulnerabilities.

[2]	Due to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) identified security vulnerabilities, extra vigilance should be applied to ensure the versions remain properly patched to mitigate known and future vulnerabilities. The local ISSO (Information System Security Officer) can provide assistance in reviewing the NIST vulnerabilities.

Note:

At the time of writing, version 2019 (Parts 15 and 22) is the most current version, released 01/01/2019.

References

The following reference(s) are associated with this entry:
Type	Name	Source	Description
There are no references identified for this entry.

Standard Components

Note: This list may not be complete. No component, listed or unlisted, may be used outside of the technology in which it is released. The usage decision for a component is found in the Decision and Decision Constraints.
Source	Name	Description
ISO/IEC 14496-1	Part 1: Systems	This document specifies system level functionalities for the communication of interactive AV scenes.
ISO/IEC 14496-10	Part 10: Advanced Video Coding (AVC)	This document specifies AVC for coding of AV objects.
ISO/IEC 14496-11	Part 11: Scene description and application engine	This document specifies a format for representing multimedia scenes and its application engine.
ISO/IEC 14496-12	Part 12: ISO base media file format	This document specifies the ISO base media file format, which is a general format forming the basis for a number of other more specific file formats. This format contains the timing, structure, and media information for timed sequences of media data, such as AV presentations.
ISO/IEC 14496-13	Part 13: Intellectual Property Management and Protection (IPMP) extensions	This document specifies an IPMP mechanism extending the basic MPEG-4 mechanism.
ISO/IEC 14496-14	Part 14: MPEG Layer-4 Audio (MP4) file format	This document specifies a file format for MPEG-4 data.
ISO/IEC 14496-15	Part 15: Carriage of network abstraction layer (NAL) unit structured video in the ISO base media file format	This document specifies a File Format for AVC.
ISO/IEC 14496-16	Part 16: Animation Framework eXtension (AFX)	This document specifies MPEG-4 AFX model for representing and encoding three-dimensional (3D) graphics assets to be used standalone or integrated in interactive multimedia presentations (the latter when combined with other parts of MPEG-4). Within this model, MPEG-4 is extended with higher-level synthetic objects for geometry, texture, and animation as well as dedicated compressed representations.
ISO/IEC 14496-17	Part 17: Streaming text format	This document specifies a text stream as a concatenation of text access units. A text access unit contains text information of a specific format. For each text stream, the format of the text information within the text access units is signaled. Each text access unit within a text stream is intended to be displayed at a specific instance in time. Note that this document signals the format of the text contained in text access units, but that it does not contain any text format specification.
ISO/IEC 14496-18	Part 18: Font compression and streaming	This document specifies font data representation, compression, and streaming, providing an efficient mechanism to embed font data in MPEG-4 encoded presentations. It also defines MPEG-4 Text profiles and levels.
ISO/IEC 14496-19	Part 19: Synthesized texture stream	This document specifies the transmission of synthesized texture data as part of the MPEG-4 encoded AV presentation.
ISO/IEC 14496-2	Part 2: Visual	This document contains definitions of the bitstream syntax, bitstream semantics, and the related decoding process. It does not specify the encoders, which can be optimized in different implementations.
ISO/IEC 14496-20	Part 20: Lightweight Application Scene Representation (LASeR) and Simple Aggregation Format (SAF)	This document defines a scene description format (LASeR) and an aggregation format (SAF) respectively suitable for representing and delivering rich-media services to resource-constrained devices such as mobile phones.
ISO/IEC 14496-21	Part 21: MPEG-J Graphics Framework eXtensions (GFX)	This document describes a lightweight programmatic environment for advanced interactive multimedia applications. Designed for limited resources devices such as mobile phones, GFX offers a framework that marries a subset of the MPEG standard Java application environment (MPEG-J) with a Java application programming interface (API) for accessing 3D renderers, and with other standard Java APIs from a selected profile. The framework enables developers to create applications that combine MPEG audio and video streams, with 3D graphics rendering and user interaction. Applications can use advanced special effects in the graphics presentation such as mapping video as a texture.
ISO/IEC 14496-22	Part 22: Open Font Format (OFF)	This document specifies a font format based on OpenType.
ISO/IEC 14496-23	Part 23: Symbolic Music Representation	This document specifies SMR, a digital representation of music notation and associated information.
ISO/IEC 14496-24	Part 24: Audio and systems interaction	This document describes the desired joint behavior of MPEG-4 Systems (MPEG-4 File Format) and MPEG-4 Audio codecs.
ISO/IEC 14496-25	Part 25: 3D Graphics Compression Model	This document describes a model for 3D graphics compression.
ISO/IEC 14496-26	Part 26: Audio conformance	This document specifies how tests can be designed to verify whether compressed data and decoders meet requirements specified by part 3.
ISO/IEC 14496-27	Part 27: 3D Graphics conformance	This document specifies the 3D graphics conformance testing suites and methodologies.
ISO/IEC 14496-28	Part 28: Composite font representation	This document specifies a composite font format.
ISO/IEC 14496-29	Part 29: Web video coding	This document specifies web video coding for coding of AV objects.
ISO/IEC 14496-3	Part 3: Audio	This document specifies a compression format for audio objects.
ISO/IEC 14496-30	Part 30: Timed text and other visual overlays in ISO base media file format	This document specifies timed text and other visual overlays in the ISO base media file format.
ISO/IEC 14496-4	Part 4: Conformance Testing	This document specifies how tests can be designed to verify whether bitstreams and decoders meet requirements specified in parts 1, 2, 3, and 6. It specifies how tests can be designed for bitstream delivery over various delivery technologies in an interoperable transparent manner to parts 1, 2 and 3.
ISO/IEC 14496-5	Part 5: Reference Software	This document provides reference software for demonstrating and clarifying the other parts of the standard.
ISO/IEC 14496-6	Part 6: Delivery Multimedia Integration Framework (DMIF)	This document specifies an Integration Framework for DMIF.
ISO/IEC 14496-7	Part 7: Optimized reference software for coding of AV objects	This document specifies an optimized version of reference software for video.
ISO/IEC 14496-8	Part 8: Carriage of MPEG-4 contents over Internet Protocol (IP) networks	This document specifies a framework for transmission of MPEG-4 media on IP networks.
ISO/IEC 14496-9	Part 9: Reference hardware description	This document specifies a reference implementation of MPEG-4 decoders using hardware oriented-language.

VA Categories View the VA Categorization Framework

Domain Area	Category	Customer Guidance	Category Locked By ELT Date
Collaboration and Electronic Workplace Productivity Software	Multimedia Software

Technologies/Standards Relationships

Implemented By/Verified With:

No technologies have been identified with this standard.

Comparable Standards:

Associated Standards:

No standards have been associated with this standard.

General Analysis

Adoption Benefits

This is a mature standard.
This is a well-documented standard.
This standard provides compression of multimedia content at low bitrates and contains a large toolbox of compression techniques for graphics and interactivity as well as audio and video of interactive AV scenes.
This standard provides Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) support for 3D rendering, object-oriented composite files (including audio, video, and VRML objects), support for externally specified Digital Rights Management, and various types of interactivity.
This standard is efficient across a variety of bitrates, ranging from a few kilobits per second to tens of megabits per second.
This standard absorbs many of the features of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and other related standards.
This standard enables different software and hardware developers to create multimedia objects possessing better abilities of adaptability and flexibility to improve the quality of such services and technologies as digital television, animation graphics, the web, and their extensions.

Adoption Risks

This standard is still evolving and is divided into over thirty parts. Companies promoting MPEG-4 compatibility do not always clearly state which `part` level compatibility they are referring to.
Most of the features included in this standard are left to individual developers to decide whether or not to implement. This means that there are probably no complete implementations of the entire MPEG-4 set of standards. To deal with this, the standard includes the concept of `profiles` and `levels`, allowing a specific set of capabilities to be defined in a manner appropriate for a subset of applications.
There are known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) associated with this standard. Please see https://nvd.NIST.gov/vuln/search for more details.

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VA Technical Reference Model v 24.7

General Information

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Decision Constraints

References

Standard Components

VA Categories View the VA Categorization Framework

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Implemented By/Verified With:

Comparable Standards:

Associated Standards:

General Analysis

Adoption Benefits

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