MPEG‐1 Systems: Laying the MPEG‐2 Foundation

This chapter discusses the objectives and requirements of moving picture experts group‐1 (MPEG‐1) system. An MPEG‐1 system stream carries one or more elementary streams, multiplexed together. The chapter presents an example of the MPEG‐1 system stream data structure. The MPEG‐1 system target decoder (STD) defines two decoding branches, one for MPEG‐1 video and the other for MPEG‐1 audio elementary streams. The chapter details the data structure and design considerations of the MPEG‐1 system stream. Each MPEG‐1 system stream consists of a concatenation of one or more packs; to conclude the MPEG‐1 system stream, the last pack is followed by an ‘End of MPEG‐1 system stream’ start code. MPEG‐1 proves the feasibility of video and audio compression for many applications, and develops various system approaches essential for the success of MPEG‐2 in the market.