Part 3 of the MPEG-2 standard (formally known as ISO/IEC 13818-3, also known as MPEG-2 Audio or MPEG-2 BC) defines audio coding:
MPEG Multichannel - It enhances MPEG-1's audio by allowing the coding of audio programs with more than two channels, up to 5.1 multichannel. This method is backwards-compatible (also known as MPEG-2 BC[1][2][3][4]), allowing MPEG-1 audio decoders to decode the two main stereo components of the presentation.[5]
The MPEG-2 Part 3 should not be confused with MPEG-2 Part 7: AAC a.k.a. MPEG-2 NBC (Non-Backward Compatible) - the MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding with support for multichannel encoding (up to 48 channels).[1][2]
Overview
MPEG-2 Part 3 introduced new audio encoding methods compared to MPEG-1 Part 3:[7] MPEG-2 BC (backward compatible with MPEG-1 audio formats)[1][2][5]
^ISO (2004-10-15), ISO/IEC 13818-7, Third edition, Part 7 - Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-13, retrieved 2009-10-19
^ a bWerner Oomen; Leon van de Kerkhof. "MPEG-2 Audio Layer I/II". chiariglione.org. Retrieved 2009-12-29.
^Predrag Supurovic, MPEG Audio Frame Header, Retrieved on 2009-07-11
^D. Thom, H. Purnhagen, and the MPEG Audio Subgroup (October 1998). "MPEG Audio FAQ Version 9 - MPEG Audio". Retrieved 2009-10-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)