What is the MPEG digital audio and video file?
MPEG, simply, is an acronym short for the Moving Picture Experts Group which belongs to the family of ISO/IEC standards (International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Commission). It is a compression technology for digital video and audio signals intended for consumer distribution. Included in the MPEG family are: MPEG-1 (Audio/Video), MP3 or MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (Audio), MPEG-2 (Audio/Video), MPEG-4 (Interactive Multimedia System), MPEG-7 (Multimedia Database & Retrieval).
MPEG technology is defined as a bit-stream representation for synchronized digital audio and digital non-interlaced or interlaced (MPEG-2 includes both) video compressed to fit into a certain bandwidth: MPEG-1 -- 1.5-4-0 Mbps (megabits per second), MPEG-2 -- 4.0-10.0 Mbps.
MPEG is responsible for multiplexing and synchronizing one video stream with a single or multiple audio streams. MPEG-1 was designed to reproduce VHS/VCR quality in a digital format, while the MPEG-2 concept, similar to MPEG-1, is intended to cover a wider range of applications including DVD quality and its primary goal of an all- digital transmission of broadcast TV at coded bitrates between 4 and 9 Mbps.
