A method, protocol and apparatus for transporting Advanced Video Coding (AVC) content, e.g., using MPEG-2 systems is disclosed. Specifically, the present method is related to the carriage of various flavors of AVC streams in a uniform fashion over MPEG-2 systems (e.g., both transport and program streams). The method includes generating the AVC content from an input stream, and thereafter transporting the AVC content in a transport stream or a program stream over MPEG-2. The AVC content is generated in accordance with at least one constraint that is associated with the transport stream or the program stream.