MP2 stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer II.
MP2 is an audio codec, and is the dominant standard for audio broadcasting. It is similar to MP3, but MP3 has become the dominant standard for PC and Internet applications.
The codec was originally designed for TV broadcasting and digital radio such as DAB, DMB, DVB and is the standard used on VideoCD discs. The standard was finalized in 1992 at the start of the wide availability of the Internet.
MP2 can have sampling rates of 32, 44.1 and 48 kHz and bitrates of 32, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320 and 384 kbit/s.
An extension of MP2 was created and is known as MPEG-2 Layer II. The extension adds sampling rates of 16, 22.05 and 24 kHz and bitrates of 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 144 and 160 kbit/s.
