MPEG
is short for Motion Picture Experts Group. It's a standard for both a variety of
video and audio formats, and for compressing those formats. In fact, the array
of formats that use MPEG compression can be confusing.
There are different versions of the MPEG format (often called levels)
which help contribute to this confusion. The three MPEG levels that you're
likely to encounter are MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4.
What's the difference between all of them? MPEG-1 is the oldest of these. It was
first used in video CDs (the precursor to the DVD), where space was at a
premium. MPEG-2 tackled (and still does) the transmission of digital and high
definition over digital networks, satellite TV, and (later) the Internet. In
fact, MPEG-2 is so efficient that it pretty much killed off MPEG-3 -- it handles
high definition video just as well as its descendant. MPEG-4 does pretty much
everything MPEG-2 does, but with better quality and compression. MPEG-4 adds
another twist to the mix: it supports
Digital Rights Management (DRM), which enables content producers to prevent
copying of their content.
Note: An upcoming TechTip will look at DRM and its
implications.
If you run into any video files with the extension .mpg or .mp4 you have an MPEG
file on your hands. It's a popular format because it provides a good tradeoff
between file size and quality. Just about every media player supports MPEG,
although some players support the format better than others. I've found that
it's a rare MPEG file that won't play on the various media players that I use in
Linux or on Windows.
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