The MPEG2 vs MPEG4 comparison made here will discuss specific differences in these two compressions formats related to quality and other features. The ‘MPEG’ in both the formats is short form for ‘Moving Picture Experts Group’. Both these video/audio compression standards were released in parts which improved and added new features with every stage. Let us understand both these formats and compare their features.
MPEG2 vs MPEG4 Comparison
MPEG2 and MPEG4 are two versions of bunched coding technologies, used to compress audio and video data files, so that their transmission and usage is simpler. These coding techniques, which are a collection of patented data compression programs, are aimed at converting the audio/video data, so that data transmission time is reduced and it falls within the storage and handling capacities of transmission media. While compressing, care is taken that audio and video quality is not compromised. Let us begin our comparison between the two coding formats.
MPEG2 vs MPEG4 – Quality
MPEG-2 is the industry standard and the videos you watch on DVD and digital television are encoded by the MPEG-2 standard. The quality of MPEG-2 is impeccable, but this format is not made for multimedia network applications. It is not made for streaming videos on the phone or for broadcast applications. So the quality of a video compressed in MPEG-2 format, if streamed online, will be compromised.
On the other hand, the MPEG-4 format has been developed for multimedia streaming applications on the Internet. So a video encoded in the MPEG-4 format will give a better quality video or audio when streamed online, as it’s designed for such a network or multimedia application. With MPEG-4 format, video conferencing is possible!
MPEG2 vs MPEG4 – File Size
Compared to MPEG-2 files, MPEG-4 files take up less memory size. This is because MPEG-4 compression algorithm is designed to create files, which can be transported over the Internet, and streamed on multiple network platforms.
MPEG2 vs MPEG4 – Compression
Video or audio compression is all about maintaining the same quality of audio or video but using lesser memory size. MPEG-4 compression is an improvement over MPEG-2 format.
If a studio quality audio or data file of a movie is released without compression, it will take at least 20 DVDs! Whereas if it’s compressed using MPEG format, the same movie can be carried on a single DVD! How does the MPEG-2 format achieve this? It achieves this by removing certain redundant parts from a frame which are repeated in the later ones. That is, parts of the picture frame that remain static are stored only once! Only the differences between successive frames will be stored later. The bit rate is also controlled accordingly. There are many other tricks involved which reduce the size of the file while encoding. This way the video file is encoded in the MPEG-2 format and the size of the video file is substantially reduced. So when you play such an encoded file, your video player has to have the MPEG-2 decoder to render back the original frames from the compressed form.
The MPEG-4 compression is quite complicated compared to the MPEG-2 compression as it is designed to achieve high quality videos for multimedia applications at a relatively low bit rate. To put it simply, the MPEG-4 compression removes redundant bits by comparing many more frames at a time, compared to MPEG-2, by adjusting the bit rate accordingly. Compared to MPEG-2, MPEG-4 is far more versatile encoding format.
MPEG2 vs MPEG4 – Bitrate
MPEG-2 format encoded files have a bitrate ranging from 4 to 9 MB per second, while the MPEG-4 files have a bit rate which is substantially lower (some Kilobytes per second) than that. This is because the format is designed for network applications.
MPEG2 vs MPEG4 – Bandwidth
If you make the MPEG-2 vs MPEG-4 bandwidth comparison, you will find a substantial difference as they are formats designed for different platforms. While MPEG-2 has a bandwidth of up to 40 MB per second, MPEG-4 has bandwidth of around 64 kbps.
Both formats are in use today for different applications. MPEG-2 is still used in DVD encoding and TV broadcast while the Internet and videophone platform, belongs to the MPEG-4 format. Hope this MPEG-2 vs MPEG-4 comparison has given you a rough idea about both the formats.
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