Video has been an important media for communications and entertainment for many

decades. Initially video was captured and transmitted in analog form. The advent of digital

integrated circuits and computers led to the digitization of video, and digital video enabled

a revolution in the compression and communication of video. Video compression became

an important area of research in the late 1980’s and 1990’s and enabled a variety of

applications including video storage on DVD’s and Video-CD’s, video broadcast over

digital cable, satellite and terrestrial (over-the-air) digital television (DTV), and video

conferencing and videophone over circuit-switched networks. The growth and popularity

of the Internet in the mid-1990’s motivated video communication over best-effort packet

networks.