The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is a working group of experts that was formed by ISO and IEC to set standards for audio and video compression and transmission. It was established in 1988 and its first meeting was in May 1988 in Ottawa, Canada.As of late 2005, MPEG has grown to include approximately 350 members per meeting from various industries, universities, and research institutions. MPEG's official designation is ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29 WG11 - Coding of moving pictures and audio (ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 29, Working Group 11).

MPEG algorithms compress data to form small bits that can be easily transmitted and then decompressed. MPEG achieves its high compression rate by storing only the changes from one frame to another, instead of each entire frame. The video information is then encoded using a technique called Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). MPEG uses a type of lossy compression, since some data is removed. But the diminishment of data is generally imperceptible to the human eye.

MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to 1.5 Mbit/s (26:1 and 6:1 compression ratios respectively) without excessive quality loss, making video CDs, digital cable/satellite TV and digital audio broadcasting (DAB) possible.

MPEG-2 is widely used as the format of digital television signals that are broadcast by terrestrial, cable, and direct broadcast satellite TV systems. It also specifies the format of movies and other programs that are distributed on DVD and similar discs. As such, TV stations, TV receivers, DVD players, and other equipment are often designed to this standard.

MPEG-2 was the second of several standards developed by the Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) and is an international standard. Parts 1 and 2 of MPEG-2 were developed in a joint collaborative team with ITU-T, and they have a respective catalog number in the ITU-T Recommendation Series.

What's the difference between MPEG1 and MPEG2?

1. MPEG2 succeeded the MPEG1 to address some of the older standard's weaknesses.
2. MPEG2 has better quality than MPEG1.
3. MPEG1 is used for VCD while MPEG2 is used for DVD.
4. One may consider MPEG2 as MPEG1 that supports higher resolutions and capable of using higher and variable bitrates.
5. MPEG1 is older than MPEG2 but the former is arguably better in lower bitrates.
6. MPEG2 has a more complex encoding algorithm.

What's the difference between MPEG2 and DVD's VOB file?

A VOB file is not a video file per se. It is a container file that adds extra information to the MPEG2 files within the container. The reason for this is part of the DVD standard. If you look at the files within a DVD you will also find ifo and bup files.

The ifo files (InFOrmation) and bup (BackUP) tell the device reading the DVD where everything is, where to find it and what the device should do. Part of these instructions involve the data of the VOB files hence the file offset data and the time code data.

MPEG2 files are just video. Most editing software, when you import from either the DVD or VOB files you have, read through the vob file and simply extract the underlying MPEG2s. This function is described variously in many editing programs but it is usually something like "Import from DVD."

Released Free to Try Software

Sog DVD to iPhone/iPod/Apple-TV Ripper : is an all-in-one solution for converting or rippint DVD to iPod iPhone and Apple-TV video format, or extracting DVD audio to mp3 music files so that you can play it on your iPod iPhone and Apple-TV.

Sog Video Converter : built-in more than 210 video/audio codecs, it is perfect for MKV Video Converting, multi-functions as HD Video Converter, DVD Burner and Website Video Downloader. Without any third-party codec, it support Multi-track HD M2TS, MKV, AVCHD and MPEG-TS video.

Sog DVD Ripper : all-in-one software for ripping DVD on Windows . It is designed to make perfect 1:1 DVD copy to hard drive and rip your DVD movies to AVI, MOV, MP4, FLV, and support outputing other video formats..

Sog Video Converter Platinum : is an all-in-one solution for converting all most video formats file to avi DivX Xvid MPEG1/2 MPEG-4 wmv flv (flash video) , video to iPod / iPhone / AppleTV , video to PSP, video to mobile phone (3GP), or extracting audio to mp3 music files so that you can play it on PC, iPod, iPhone, Apple-TV, MP4-Player, PSP, Mobile Phone, Zune, PDA.Fast and easy to use.