MP2, also known as Musicam, is a short form of MPEG Audio Layer II, and it is also used as a file extension for files containing audio data of this type. While it has largely been superseded by MP3 for PC and Internet applications, it remains a dominant standard for audio broadcasting as part of the DAB digital radio and DVB digital television standards. It is also used internally within the radio industry, for example in NPR's PRSS Content Depot programming distribution system. The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is a working group of ISO/IEC charged with the development of video and audio encoding standards. ... A filename extension or filename suffix is an extra set of (usually) alphanumeric characters that is appended to the end of a filename to allow computer users (as well as various pieces of software on the computer system) to quickly determine the type of data stored in the file. ... MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format invented in 1987 by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits in Erlangen, Germany. ... The tower of a personal computer. ... Digital audio broadcasting or DAB is a developing technology for broadcasting audio programming in digital form. ... Digital radio describes radio technologies which carry information as a digital signal. ... DVB, short for Digital Video Broadcasting, is a suite of internationally accepted, open standards for digital television maintained by the DVB Project, an industry consortium with more than 300 members, and published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC... Digital television (DTV) uses digital modulation and compression to broadcast video, audio and data signals to television sets. ... NPR logo For other meanings of NPR see NPR (disambiguation) National Public Radio (NPR) is a private, not-for-profit corporation that sells programming to member radio stations; together they are a loosely organized public radio network in the United States. ...

For details and a short historic introduction to MP2, see MP3. MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format invented in 1987 by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits in Erlangen, Germany. ...

How the Musicam (MP2) Codec works

Musicam is less efficient than MP3, because it is a much earlier standard. However, Musicam as a psychoacoustic codec is still very well designed and very robust in its coding of audio.

Use in DVD-Video

All DVD-Video players in PAL countries contain stereo MP2 decoders, making MP2 a possible competitor to Dolby Digital in these markets. While some DVD recorders record in MP2 and many consumer-authored DVDs use the format, as of 2005 mass produced discs with MP2 soundtracks are very rare. DVD is an optical disc storage media format that is used for playback of movies with high video and sound quality and for storing data. ... PAL, short for phase-alternating line, phase alternation by line or for phase alternation line, is a colour encoding used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. ... // Description Dolby Digital is the trademarked marketing name for Dolby Laboratories lossy AC-3 codec. ... A DVD recorder is a consumer electronics device that records analog or digital audio/visual (A/V) signals in a digital format onto a digital video disc (DVD). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Naming confusion

The term and file extension MP2 usually refer to data in the MPEG-1 Audio Layer II format, but can also refer to MPEG-2 BC Audio Layer II, a backwards compatible extension which adds support for multi-channel sound and lower sampling rates. MP2 should not be confused with MPEG-2 video or MPEG-2 AAC audio formats. Multichannel audio refers to the use of multiple sound sources to create a richer, or live music experience. ... MPEG-2 (1994) is the designation for a group of audio and video coding standards agreed upon by MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group), and published as the ISO/IEC 13818 international standard. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

External links

• MPEG Audio FAQ
• MPEG Audio Resources and Software