Difference between mpeg2 and mpeg4?

[trueman]

I have studio 10 and noticed that while I can save my movie clips as mpeg2 dvd compatible files I am unable to save them as mpeg4 dvd compatible files unless I purchase a licence key or something liek that.

Im just wondering what the difference is between the two formats anyway?

[Baldrick]

dvd doesn't support mpeg4, only mpeg2 and mpeg1 video.

did it say mpeg4 dvd?

[trueman]

There are two drop down lists.

One says Format and has the options
AVI
DIVX
Mpeg1
Mpeg2
Mpeg4
Real Media
WIndows media

Then the second drop down list says
Preset and has the following options wich depend on what format you choose.

dvd compatible
svcd compatible
HD720p
custom
and a few others to do with HD.

If I choose mpeg 4 a small window comes up asking me to buy an activation key.

The bottom preset options shows whatever it was on previously and doesnt change so I just assumed it was for dvd compatible as that was already there before. Ive noticed if I choose mpeg1 for example the preset will change to video cd compatible.

So whats mpeg 4 used for then?

[edDV]

MPeg4 allows about 2-3x more compression at similar quality to MPeg2 but is not part of the DVD standard. Some DVD players accept some specific kinds of MPeg4 but this is case by case.

Next gen HD/BD DVD players will work with MPeg2 and MPeg4 (H.264 and VC-1) but authoring standards are still premature.

MPeg 4 requires longer encoding times and playback hardware isn't yet good enough for high quality. You can either reduce quality to meet current hardware or wait for better hardware to support MPeg4.

[trueman]

Well I dont want to pay for the activation key for something that I dont really need so will stick with mpeg2.

Thanks for the help.

[thecoalman]

BTW, WMA and Divx are basically MPEG4. You can use either free. Right now only useful if you want to compress to preserve bandwidth. You only want to use them if you're going to be using exclusively on a computer as a single file.

[kschang]

BTW, WMA and Divx are basically MPEG4. You can use either free.

You mean WMV. WMA = audio.

DIVX6 is not free. And it's the only version you can officially download.

[thecoalman]

yes Iknow...wasn't paying attention. But thx for pointing it out.

[edDV]

MPeg4 scales from cell phones up to and beyond HDTV.