MPEG-2

Latest revision as of 15:25, 28 December 2023

MPEG-2 is an extended version of the MPEG-1 standard for video and audio streams. It is used in digital TV broadcasts and DVDs. The ISO/IEC 13818 group of standards specify the details of the standard.

A number of patents relate to various aspects of the format, but they are starting to expire as of 2012, with most expired by 2015 (but a few hanging on a little longer). As long as any of the patents are in effect, a licensing body with control over the entire patent pool demands royalties from everybody producing anything using the format.

The popular MP3 audio format is based on layer 3 of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2.

The AAC audio format is based on MPEG-2 Part 7.

Data within an MPEG-2 stream is divided into packets in the Packetized Elementary Stream format.

[edit] Formats

There are separate articles for these formats:

• AAC
• MP3
• MPEG Audio Layer I (MP1)
• MPEG Audio Layer II (MP2)
• MPEG Elementary Stream
• MPEG Program Stream
• MPEG Transport Stream
• Packetized Elementary Stream

Other formats based on MPEG-2:

• Enhanced VOB
• M2TS
• VOB

[edit] Specifications

These documents are not free to download. This is not a complete list of the MPEG-2 Parts and Amendments.

• ISO/IEC 13818-1:2013 - Part 1: Systems
  • Part 1 is also published as ITU-T Rec. H.222.0
• ISO/IEC 13818-2:2013 - Part 2: Video
  • Part 2 is also published as ITU-T Rec. H.262
• ISO/IEC 13818-3:1998 - Part 3: Audio
• ISO/IEC 13818-7:2006 - Part 7: Advanced Audio Coding

[edit] Sample files

• dexvert samples — video/mpeg2

[edit] Links

• Wikipedia article
• MPEG official website
• Official page on MPEG-2
• Forthcoming changes to MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 variants in next PRONOM/DROID signature release