An MPEG Layer II Compressed Audio File has the file extension of an MP2 file. In the worlds of digital radio and television broadcasts, this kind of file is still quite common. However, MP3 files are used considerably more frequently by a lot of people. Many (but not all) portable audio players can play MP2 files. To play on some devices, some MP2 files might need to be converted to MP3s. Nota Bene: An MPEG-2 video file is not the same as an MP2 file format. MPG is frequently used as the file extension for MPEG-2 video files. MP2 files are also occasionally referred to as “musicam,” however this is incorrect.
The history of MP files may be traced back to the 1980s, when the ISO’s Moving Picture Experts Group (also known as MPEG) set out to standardise digital audio and video encoding. The MP1 file type’s initial release included the audio file’s three distinct layers. MP2 was created in the middle of the 1990s and is still widely used for digital radio and television broadcasts today. The widely used lossy compression algorithm is used in the MP3 file format. The goal of the development of the MP3 file format was to further reduce the file while maintaining the highest quality audio fidelity possible.
list of programs that can open MP2 documents:
- Apple iTunes (Windows, Mac)
- Microsoft Windows Media Player (Windows)
- RealNetworks RealPlayer Cloud (Windows, Mac, Linux)
- VideoLAN VLC Media Player (Windows, Mac, Linux)
- PeonySoft MP2 Converter (Windows)
- Adobe Audition (Windows, Mac)