MPEG-2 Part 2

MPEG-2 Part-2 (formally, ISO/IEC 13818-2) or H.262, is a video compression standard developed in a joint partnership between the ITU-T and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group organizations.It was approved in 1994 but in 1996 it was extended and was added another profile.

Overview

MPEG-2 Video is similar to MPEG-1, but also provides support for interlaced video (the format used by analog broadcast TV systems). MPEG-2 video is not optimized for low bit-rates (less than 1 Mbit/s), but outperforms MPEG-1 at 3 Mbit/s and above. All standards-conforming MPEG-2 Video decoders are fully capable of playing back MPEG-1 Video streams.

Features

Profiles and Levels

Applications

DVD

The DVD standard uses MPEG-2 video, but imposes some restrictions:
* Allowed Resolutions
** 720 × 480, 704 × 480, 352 × 480, 352 × 240 pixel (NTSC)
** 720 × 576, 704 × 576, 352 × 576, 352 × 288 pixel (PAL)
* Allowed Aspect ratio (image) (Display AR)
** 4:3
** 16:9
** (1.85:1 and 2.35:1, among others, are often listed as valid DVD aspect ratios, but are actually just a 16:9 image with the top and bottom of the frame masked in black)
* Allowed Frame rates
** 29.97 frame/s (NTSC)
** 25 frame/s (PAL)
** 23.976 frame/s through use of 3:2 pulldown (FILM)
* Audio+video bitrate
** Video peak 9.8 Mbit/s
** Total peak 10.08 Mbit/s
** Minimum 300 kbit/s
*
* GOP structure
** Sequence header must be present at the beginning of every GOP
** Maximum frames per GOP: 18 (NTSC) / 15 (PAL), i.e. 0.6 seconds both
** Closed GOP required for multiple-angle DVDs

HD DVD & Blu-ray

The HD DVD and Blu-ray Standarts use mpeg-2 video along with H.264/AVC and VC1 video standards.