MPEG-2 Profiles and Levels - A Practical Guide to Video and Audio Compression - page 662

F.3 MPEG-2 Levels

Table F-2 lists the level that are defined for MPEG-2:

F-2 MPEG-2 Levels

Level Size

Low (LL) 352 × 288 pixels

Main (ML) 720 × 576 pixels (approx)

High 1440 (H14) 1440 × 1152 pixels (normal aspect ratio)

High (HL) 1920 × 1152 pixels (wide aspect ratio)

Note:

The SNR, Spatial, High, and Multi-view profiles are not relevant to video pro-
duction and therefore you will not encounter them very often when compressing
video.

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MPEG-2 is not very useful for Internet delivery.

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Within these profiles, the levels define raster sizes.

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F.4 Profiles and Levels Combined

A shorthand notation is used to describe these combinations. The abbreviated names for
profile and level are separated by an @ character. Of the 24 possible combinations, only the
following ones are defined as ueable at present:

F-3 Profiles and Levels

Level Simple Main SNR Spatial High 4:2:2

Low MP@LL SNR@LL

Main SP@ML MP@ML SNR@ML HP@ML 422P@ML

High 1440 MP@H14 SPT@H14 HP@H14

High MP@HL HP@HL 422P@HL

Mapping these together we get raster sizes and bit rates, as described in Table F-4.