Multimedia applications of today commonly use the MPEG format, which are also known as audio/video compression formats differing in quality and size with each new version of MPEG format that is released these days.
There are two of these formats that are normally used, and are normally referred to as the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 versions, and so here is a comparison of both types of formats.
#1: Quality
Since the MPEG-2 is normally used for DVD and digital television technology, its use is compromised when it comes to multimedia network applications. This is why the MPEG-4 format has been designed for this very purpose, especially for the internet.
#2: File Size
This one is simple. Between the compression formats, the MPEG-4 format takes up very less memory in terms of the size of a file. This is because the MPEG-4 format has been designed for the internet which needs to be smaller in size so that it can be transferred over the internet. MPEG-2 does not need to work within the same limitations and is thus larger in size.
#3: Bit rate
While the bit rate for MPEG-2 files is about 4 to 9 MB/s, there is a big difference between these values and those of the MPEG-4 format which is merely a few Kilobytes per second. And yet again the reason for this is because the MPEG format has been designed for network applications that will not be able to support the bit rates of the MPEG-2 format.