Which compression standard is commonly used for standard DVDs?

Which compression standard is commonly used for standard DVDs?

• A. MPEG-2
• B. H.264
• C. MPEG-4
• D. MJPEG

Answer: (A)

Standard-definition DVDs rely on MPEG-2 video compression because the DVD-Video specification was built around that format to deliver good picture quality at the disc’s data rates while staying widely compatible with almost all players. MPEG-2 handles interlaced video well and supports the SD resolutions used on DVDs (like 720x480 for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL), which fits how these discs were designed and distributed. Other codecs like H.264 (AVC) and MPEG-4 are more modern and more efficient, which is why they’re common on Blu-ray and streaming, not on standard DVDs where backward compatibility and established hardware support were priorities. MJPEG is simpler but far less data-efficient, so it would require much larger file sizes for feature-length video, making it impractical for typical DVDs.

Standard-definition DVDs rely on MPEG-2 video compression because the DVD-Video specification was built around that format to deliver good picture quality at the disc’s data rates while staying widely compatible with almost all players. MPEG-2 handles interlaced video well and supports the SD resolutions used on DVDs (like 720x480 for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL), which fits how these discs were designed and distributed.

Other codecs like H.264 (AVC) and MPEG-4 are more modern and more efficient, which is why they’re common on Blu-ray and streaming, not on standard DVDs where backward compatibility and established hardware support were priorities. MJPEG is simpler but far less data-efficient, so it would require much larger file sizes for feature-length video, making it impractical for typical DVDs.