This paper provides a technical overview of MPEG++, a robust video compression and transport system for digital HDTV. MPEG++ forms the basis of ‘Advanced Digital Television’ (ADTV), the all-digital terrestrial simulcast system currently under development by the Advanced Television Research Consortium (ATRC). ADTV incorporates an efficient MPEG-compatible compression algorithm at its central core, with application-specific data prioritization and transport features added as separable layers. The compression process is based on a 1440×960 (1050-line 2: 1 interlaced) HDTV format, producing a selectable bit-rate in the region of 15–20 Mbit/s. The data priorization layer of MPEG++ achieves robust delivery over an appropriate two-tier modem by separating compressed video data into high- and standard-priority bitstreams with appropriate bit-rates. This priorized data is then formatted into fixed length ‘cells’ (packets) with appropriate data-link level and service-specific adaptation level headers, designed to provide capabilities such as flexible service multiplexing, priority handling, efficient cell packing, error detection and graceful recovery from errors. An outline of each of the above MPEG++ elements (i.e., compression, prioritization and transport) is given, and is followed by a description of a software model for the system. Simulation model based performance results which illustrate MPEG++ image quality and robustness are briefly reported.