A Key feature of MPEG-4 is its ability to manage separate media components within image frames. These media objects can be independently controlled and compressed more efficiently. MPEG-4 can model media components into 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional scenes. It has the ability to sense and adjust the delivery of media dependent on the media channel type such as fairly reliable broadcast or unreliable Internet.

The overall structure and operation of the MPEG-4 system is described in Part 1. Part 2 defines the original video compression codec that was used in the MPEG-4 system. While this video codec offered an improvement in compression (a small amount) over the MPEG-2 video compression process, it was a relatively small improvement. Part 3 contains a set of audio codecs along with speech coding tools.

Part 4 defines the testing and conformance processes that are used to ensure devices meet the MPEG specifications. Part 5 contains reference software that can be used to demonstrate or test the operation of the MPEG-4 system.

Part 6 provides the delivery multimedia integration framework (DMIF) structure that allows a multimedia system (such as MPEG) to identify the sources of media and the transmission characters for that media source (such as from a high bandwidth low error rate DVD or through a limited bandwidth mobile telephone system). The use of DMIF allows the playback system to become independent from the sources and their transmission limitations.

Part 7 contains reference software that can be used to optimize MPEG systems. Part 8 describes how to send MPEG signals through IP networks. Part 9 provides reference hardware designs that can be used to demonstrate how to implement MPEG solutions.

Part 10 is the advanced video coding/H.264 part that provides substantial compression improvements over the MPEG-2 video compression system. Part 11 contains the binary format for scenes as part of the MPEG-4 standard, which deals with synchronizing video and audio. Part 12 describes the file format that can be used for storing the media components of a program.

Part 13 contains the intellectual property management and protection is a protocol that is used in the MPEG system to enable digital rights management (DRM). Part 14 defines the container file format that can be used for MPEG-4 files. Part 15 defines the file format that can be used to store video that is compressed using the advanced video coder (AVC).