Name

• MPG is an abbreviation of "Moving Picture Experts Group," the group that created the file format.
  
  

Pronunciation and Spelling

• MPG is pronounced "em-peg." In fact, on Apple computers, the file extension is commonly represented as MPEG.
  
  

Programs

• In addition to QuickTime and Windows Media Player, MPG files can be opened with Apple iTunes, most Roxio products, Cyberlink video players and many independent video players such as the VLC media player.
  
  

Use

• MPG files were designed as simple ways to compress VHS-quality video and CD-quality audio into a usable audiovisual file format without losing too much quality. However, MPG is still a "lossy" format, meaning that some quality is lost whenever a new MPG file is compressed.
  
  

Family

• MPG is just one of a number of file types created by the Moving Picture Experts Group with its MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 compression standards. Other file formats include MP3, MPA and M1V.