MPEG-2
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.
Formats
There are separate articles for these formats:
- AAC
- M2TS
- MP3
- MPEG Audio Layer I (MP1)
- MPEG Audio Layer II (MP2)
- MPEG Elementary Stream
- MPEG Program Stream
- MPEG Transport Stream
- Packetized Elementary Stream
- VOB
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
