[M4IF Technotes] RFI: differences between MPEG4 and 13818-x?

[John Michael Zorko]

Hello, all ...
I'm a streaming media developer, and i've studied ISO / IEC 13818-x 
since 1999 (and still only really understand certain parts, it's huge) 
and would like to get some information on how MPEG4 differs, from a 
higher level as well as technical perspective.  Specifically:
1. how does MPEG4 achieve the higher compression ratios, yet higher 
quality, than MPEG2?
2. how does MPEG4 implement streams scalable from low to high bitrates?
3. how is AAC different than MP3 i.e. frames, bitrate tables, etc.?
4. how to identify a stream / file as MPEG4 vs. MPEG 1/2 i.e. sequence 
header?
5. how the graphics / scene stuff works i.e. is this another elementary 
stream, which requires a splitter to be aware of it?
Alas, I would gladly go to ansi.org and purchase the MPEG4 specs, but 
currently i'm unable to.  Still, i'm very interested in MPEG4 and how I 
can adapt my streaming media skills to encompass it i.e. how to 
identify MPEG4, start codes, demux the streams, find timestamps, 
mapping into RTP or some other streaming protocol, etc.
I hope everyone is well.
Regards,
John
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