Looking 4 general info on M2V files

[obas]

What does it stand 4 Movies to video?
How compressed is it?
What is it equal to mpeg2, divx...yada yada..etc
can I burn this image?
can i compress this image or file again, if so what program?


thanks

[SaSi]

This is what this site is mostly about.

Try the articles, links and glossary links to the left.

Additionally, try the following links:

http://viswiz.gmd.de/DVP/Public/deliv/deliv.211/mpeg/mpeghome.htm

http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/frame/research/mpeg/mpeg2faq.html

www.mpeg.org

The first two links provide wide coverage on MPEG-2
The third one has very interesting links to get you going.

The quick answer to your questions is:
.m2v stands for MPEG2 video stream. Although the extension is not the one one possible - another frequently used is .mpv), the important thing about it is that it contains video only.

The .mpg (or .mpeg) extension is normally used for video+audio multiplexed streams.

And .mpa (or .mp2) extensions are used for MPEG1 Layer II audio streams. So, in simple arithmetic, .m2v + .mp2 make .mpg 8)

The .m2v video streams are compressed "to the MPEG-2 compression standard", which means compression is not fixed. Whoever encoded the video decided both the frame size to use and also the compression level which can be constant throughout the movie (CBR) or variable (VBR).

You can re-feed this video stream either directly or after converting it to AVI to most encoding s/w applications (like Tmpgenc). You can further compress it to your heart's desire, however the more you compress the more quality goes away.

You don't want to produce a VCD/SVCD or DVD with an .m2v file, as it contains no audio. You can't create a DVD with it because DVD has a specific structure that the video/audio/subpicture/control information must be further multiplexed and additional marking information stored in additional files.

If you have an .mpg file that contains both audio and video, you can feed this to Nero in a VCD project and create a Video CD.

You can rename the .m2v file to .mpg and all players will continue to play it as before (with no sound).

Of if the file contains audio and was given this extension in violation of normal conventions, you can rename it to .mpg and still be playable

Hopefully, the above introduction will get you going after visiting the links mentioned.

Happy adventures.