The visual profiles corresponding to different natural visual content which are supported in MPEG-4 Version 1 are outlined below:
Simple Visual Profile. Provides efficient error resistant coding of rectangular video objects suitable for applications on mobile networks. It uses simple coding tools, based on I (Intra) and P (Predicted) VOPs (Video Object Planes). VOPs are the MPEG-4 term for frames.
Simple Scalable Visual Profile. Adds temporal and spatial coded objects suitable for different bit-rate or decoder resource quality levels, such as the Internet. The enhancement layer is still rectangular.
Core Visual Profile. Adds support for coding arbitrary-shaped and temporally scaled objects to the Simple Visual Profile. It is useful for interactive multimedia applications. It gives better quality through the use of bi-directional interpolation (B-VOPS) and has binary shape, which can include constant transparency, but excludes variable transparency offered by grey-scale shape coding.
Main Visual Profile. This profile adds support for coding of interlaced, semi-transparent and sprite objects to the Core profile. This is appropriate for interactive and entertainment-quality broadcast and DVD applications
N-Bit Visual Profile. This adds support for coding video objects of different pixel depths ranging from 4 to 12 bits per pixel, for the Core profile. It is suitable for surveillance applications. The luminance and chrominance planes can both have variable pixel depths.
Version 2 of the standard (approved in December, 1999) added the following profiles for natural video:-
Advanced Real-Time Simple (ARTS) Visual Profile. This provides more sophisticated error protection of rectangular video objects with a back-channel and improved temporal resolution stability with a low buffering delay. It is suitable for real-time coding applications such as videophone, tele-conferencing and remote observation.
Core Scalable Visual Profile. This adds to the Core profile object based SNR and spatial/temporal scalability for regions or objects of interest.
Advanced Coding Efficiency (ACE) Visual Profile. This profile provides improved coding for rectangular and arbitrary shaped objects. It is suitable for applications such as mobile broadcast reception and acquisition of image sequences (e.g. Camcorders)
Studio Profile.
A new studio profile is in the pipeline. This profile will support transmission rates up-to 600 Mb/sec for HDTV. The sampling supported include 4:0:0, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4. Trans-coding between MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 will be supported, as well as binary and gray-scale shape coding.