Advanced Video Coding (AVC) is a type of standard for the compression of digital video. AVC helps to set the standard syntax for video formats such as Blu-Ray, mobile TV and teleconferencing.
AVC is also known as H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10.
In terms of its origin, AVC was developed jointly by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-T) and the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), which is a project of the ISO/IEC and familiar to many users because of popular and accessible MPEG file formats, like .mpg.
Experts point out that AVC is a prominent alternative to an MP4 format. When comparing AVC to MP4, it’s important to consider that AVC has a bigger compression ratio and longer encoding than MP4, and that more central processing power is needed. However, experts also point out that the storage efficiency of AVC is greater than those of some previous MPEG formats.
The actual methodology used to encode and decode video with AVC involves three distinct phases labeled "predict", "transform" and "encode." The mechanics of AVC break video down into a kind of machine language that can be easily stored and accessed by a range of technologies.