A fully revised and substantially updated 2nd edition of the best-selling title: "An Introduction to Standard Codecs", (IEE 1999, best book of the year 2000 by IEE) this book discusses the growth of digital television technology and the revolution in image and video compression (such as JPEG2000, broadcast TV, video phone), highlighting the need for standardisation in processing static and moving images and their exchange between computer systems.ITU and ISO/IEC standards are now widely accepted in the picture/video coding field.This book gives an authoritative explanation of picture and video coding algorithms, working from basic principles through to the advanced video-compression systems now being developed. One of its main objectives is to describe the reasons behind the introduction of a standard codec for a specific application and its chosen parameter. This book will enable readers to appreciate the fundamentals needed to design a video codec for any given application and should prove to be a valuable resource for engineers working in this field.