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MPEG2 VS MPEG4 – The Difference between MPEG2 and MPEG4

Author by Lisa

Updated on Feb 21, 2023

Are you still confused about MPEG2 vs MPEG4? Do you want to figure out what’s the difference between MPEG4 and MPEG2? In this article, I will show you the characteristics of MPEG2 and MPEG4 from several aspects.


For unexpected needs, a powerful and easy-to-operate video converter is recommended to accomplish the simple conversion between MPEG2 and MPEG4:

What is MPEG4? What is MPEG2?

MPEG (The Moving Picture Experts Group) was formed by ISO and IEC to set standards for the compression and transmission of audio or video.

MPEG2 was created in 1995 and was widely applied as the format of digital television signals, movies and other programs distributed on DVD or discs. When using MPEG2 in high-definition local videos, you will find the qualities of videos are much better than applying MPEG-2 to online and device-based streaming.

MPEG4 was developed in 1998 to achieve higher compression and its file size can be reduced in half and lower bandwidth will be consumed without losing picture quality. In brief, to create MPEG4 is to gain better quality with smaller file size. Next, I will show the detailed information on MPEG2 vs MPEG4.

The Detailed Explanations on the Difference between MPEG4 and MPEG2

1. MPEG2 vs MPEG4 – Application

The two encoder formats are used this time for various applications. MPEG2 is mainly applied for DVDs and television broadcast, while MPEG4 coding standard mostly for portable devices and Internet streaming. In our daily life, we meet many files encoded by MPEG2 or MPEG4. For example, files with the filename extensions: .mpg, .mpeg, .m2v, .mp2, mp3 are encoded by MPEG4, and .mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .m4r, .m4v for MPEG4.


2. MPEG2 vs MPEG4 - Compression and File Size

The number of bits mainly determines the compression rate of video or audio. Using superior compression algorithm, MPEG4 is much more compressed than MPEG2 while guaranteeing the quality of video. The number of bits also affect the size of file. Thus, the file encoded by MPEG2 is much smaller than that encoded by MPEG4. For instance, a full-length movie file produced by MPEG2 is five times larger than that produced by MPEG4.


3. MPEG2 vs MPEG4 – Quality

MPEG2 less compressing video and audio produces the better quality compared to MPEG4. However, as mentioned above, MPEG2 has larger size than MPEG4, which makes MPEG2 impractical for portable devices or network streaming. Therefore, when you want to stream online, MPEG4 can provide better quality for streaming.


4. MPEG4 vs MPEG2 – Bit Rate & Bandwidth

The bitrate for files encoded by MPEG2 ranges from 50 to 80 Mbits/sec, while MPEG4 has low bitrate video transmission. When you want to stream a video, you will find the video encoded by MPEG2 requires more bandwidth than the MPEG4 video.

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The Easy-to-Operate and Powerful Converter for MPEG2 MPEG4 or MPEG4 MPEG2 Conversion

Here, I will show a practical tool for MPEG2 MPEG4 conversion after the introduction on the comparison between MPEG2 and MPEG4. WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro is exactly the right converter for you to convert MPEG2 to MPEG4 and vice versa. Moreover, it can accomplish the conversion with a fast speed with GPU acceleration and the lightning mode, which saves your time. Moreover, it is more than a video converter. It is a video editor and you can use it to edit video with ease.


Free downloadFree download this handy app. Next, I will show you the detailed guide on the MPEG4 MPEG2 conversion.

The Detailed Guide on How to Convert MPEG4 to MPEG2

Click the “Converter” icon and input the file

Before start, please free downloadfree download and install the software. And the steps of any formats conversion are similar. Thus, I will take the example of converting MPEG4 (MP4) to MPEG2 (MPG).

Step 1. Click the “Converter” Icon and Input the File

Launch the software and hit “Converter” icon in the main interface. After that, in the new “Converter” popup window, you can opt to add your single MPEG4 file by clicking “Add Files” button, or click “Add Video Folder” to add a whole folder into the program. In addition, you can easily input your single MPEG4 file or a whole folder by directly dragging and dropping it to the software.

Choose the format - MPG

Step 2. Choose the “MPG” as the Output Format

After the step above, click the format icon on the right of the interface. Then, a new interface will appear, in which you can select the “MPG” format under the video format. Then you will be back to the previous interface. Similarly, you can also convert MPEG2 to MPEG4.

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Start the conversion

Step 3. Start the MPEG4 MPEG2 Conversion

Set the output destination by clicking the inverted triangle icon and then click “Run” button to start the conversion. Moreover, you can opt to click the alarm clock icon to set the complete actions including “Do nothing”, “Open output folder”, “Exit program”, “Restart computer” and “Shutdown”.

At last...

I hope this article can remove your doubts on MPEG2 vs MPEG4 as well as what is MPEG2 and what is MPEG4. Besides, I highly recommend WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro to you. It not only helps you to sort out the problem on various formats conversion, but also has many wonderful features like recording live streaming video, extracting subtitle from MP4, and so on.

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The Best ISO to Video Ripper to Convert ISO File to any Formats

WonderFox DVD Ripper Pro

If you want to convert ISO to video, WonderFox DVD Ripper Pro is the best choice for you. It provides the easiest and quickest solution to copy your large ISO files to MP4 and other formats. Besides, the versatile program allows you to copy all your DVD videos to various devices in a few clicks. You can easily bypass CSS, region code, Sony ARccOS, UOPs, APS, RCE, Disney X-project DRM, etc. using it.

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