The goal of MPEG-4 is to establish a universal and efficient coding for different forms of audio-visual data, called audio-visual objects. Coding tools for audio-visual objects are being developed to support various functionalities, such as object-based interactivity and scalability. The syntax of the audio-visual objects is being developed to allow for description of coded objects and to describe how they were coded. This information can then be down loaded into a decoder.

MPEG-4 is expected to be available by the year 2000.