H.264 / AVC

H.264 is a joint ITU-T and MPEG video compression standard that allows better than a 2:1 compression on average over the widely deployed MPEG2 video compression—whithout degrading the quality. It accomplished this by improving the intra- and inter-frame prediction algorithms, adaptive coding, and the types of transforms used. It also improves significantly the robustness to data errors and frame losses, further enabling it for operation across a wide range of networks and applications: from Digital Cinema and High-Definition DVDs to videoconferencing equipment to third-generation mobile phones.

Resources: Overview of H.264, ITU-T Recommendation H.264, Emerging H.264/AVC Standard, Wikipedia Article, H.264 Brochure

See Also: CODEC, Voice over IP (VoIP), Videoconferencing (VC)