What is MPEG-2?
MPEG-2 is a widely used format for digital video signals that have been compressed. It is used for digital television broadcasting, DVD and computer video files. This format includes support for a connected image system used on many TV sets. It is a panel of experts created by an international organization of standards that oversees standardization in a wide range of products and services. MPEG has developed several video standards that bear its name. The techniques used are very technical and complicated, but an extremely simplified example of the relevant principles would be to imagine a part of the picture showing the blue sky. The signal could say: "Pixel 1 is light blue, Pixel 2 is light blue, Pixel 3 is light blue ..." and so on. In a compressed form, the signal could say "the first 10 pixels are light blue" that carries the same information in a smaller space.
MPEG-2, developed in 1995, has several key changes from the original MPEG-1, developed in 1993. Allows associatedSound track to transmit information for 5.1 spatial sound systems rather than just carry a stereo signal. It also allows signals at higher bitaries, which means more details, but with a higher file height.
Probably the most important development with MPEG-2 is that it adds support for the interlaced video. It is a system that only means half the pixels lines to update the screen every time the screen is restored, although the human eye can not usually detect it. Updating switches between odd lines and even lines on alternative updates. This reduces the amount of details that are needed for any restoration, which makes the signal more efficient.
The interlaced video support was important because it made it possible to be MPEG-2SE for digital television broadcasting. As long as high -resolution TVs have become popular, most viewers could receive and display only forlog signals. Alternative system, progressive scanning, refresh the entire screen simultaneously. Most computer screens use progressive scanning.
MPEG-2 should not be confused with MP2, which is an abbreviation for the MPEG-1 sound layer. The best known of these sound formats is MP3.
There were two following MPEG video formats. MPEG-3 was designed to cope with high-resolution video signals, but later was considered unnecessary and merged into MPEG-2. MPEG-4 includes a higher level of compression, which means that more details can fit into the same size. It can be used in high-resolution DVD formats such as Blu-Ray®.