11

down vote
accepted
H264 (NAL) Byte Stream
Is used mainly to be sent directly to the decoder on a single PC, and not to be
transmitted over network. It has simple format rules:
Each frame starts with same 3 byte start code 0x000001
Byte stream must start with Sequence Parameter Sets frame, followed by Picture P
arameter Sets frame, then other frames (I, P, B) can follow
All frames in it are whole frames - if IDR frame is 10MB in size, it will be 10M
B in size from its 0x000001 start code, to the next frame's 0x000001 start code
H264 Packetized Stream
It is used only to be transmited over TCP on a limited MTU network. Each network
has MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) that can be sent at a time through TCP. Usu
ally it is around 1500 bytes. So, if you want to send 10 MB IDR frame over TCP,
you will have to break it apart so the parts fit the MTU. H264 Stream that is ad
opted in this way is called Packetized Stream.
In order to decode this stream, you must reconstruct whole frames on the receivi
ng side, and you usually then want to make H264 NAL Byte Stream out of it, so yo
u can send it to a decoder...
Rules of packetization can be found here: http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3984.
txt