Background on content based indexing and retrievalMPEG-2 has been very successful in delivering high quality video content to users. Its use in DVDs, Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), Cable, Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) systems as well as the recent U.S. transition to digital TV (ATSC) ensures that MPEG-2 will remain in use for many years given the large installed base of MPEG-2 decoders.The emergence of IPTV systems, which promise to offer several hundred channels to consumers, has accelerated the deployment of H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC in set-top applications, while it had already been gaining ground on the Internet and personal media player applications. IPTV as well as next generation IP enabled Cable and DBS set top boxes and televisions have motivated the establishment of home networks that allow users to view personal media on a wide range of consumer electronics devices. Widely adopted standards are essential for these systems and devices to function seamlessly, not only at the video codec and transport level, but also with respect to metadata for program descriptions so that users can find the content they want. MPEG standards play a key role in meeting this need for coding and transport, but also at the metadata 10/01/09