MPEG-1
Writablevideo
MPEG Audio Stream Layer II is a lossy audio compression format defined by ISO/IEC 11172-3 standard. The format was initiated by the Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) project financed by the European Union as a part of the EUREKA research program in the late 1980s. The format first appeared in early 1990s, with its encoding derived from the MUSICAM (Masking pattern adapted Universal Subband Integrated Coding And Multiplexing) audio codec, chosen for its simplicity and error resistance. It is a predecessor to MPEG 1/2 Audio Layer III and often referred to as MP2.
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| Extensions | .mpg.mpeg.mp1.mp2.mp3.m1v.m1a.m2a.mpa.mpv.mpw |
|---|---|
| MIME types | audio/mpegvideo/mpegaudio/mpavideo/mpgvideo/x-mpegvideo/x-mpeg2a |
| Signatures | fffc at byte 0 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (protected))fffd at byte 0 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (unprotected))fff4 at byte 0 (MPEG-2 Audio Layer II (protected))fff5 at byte 0 (MPEG-2 Audio Layer II (unprotected))494433 at byte 0 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer II with ID3v2 Metadata Tag (protected)) |
| PRONOM | x-fmt/385fmt/649fmt/198 |
| Wikidata | Q336284Q592654 |
| Library of Congress | fdd000035fdd000012fdd000338 |
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- CuttermaranOpen source
- Q191782Open source
- TooLAMEOpen source
- EasyTAGOpen source
- Q117725Open source
- Q3898244Open source
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0Versions and variants (2)
- MPEG 1/2 Audio Layer 3Writable
- MPEG-1 Elementary StreamUnknown
Sources
From Just Solve the File Format Problem (File Formats Wiki), PRONOM, Wikidata. Updated 2026-10-24.