MP4 to MPEG Converter
Plenty of equipment from the DVD era reads MPEG files and nothing newer: a DVD player with a USB port, a classroom media box, an authoring program that burns discs. This page converts MP4 to a .mpeg file at 480p, the frame height those machines were designed around.
Video Converter
or drop MP4, MOV, MKV … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Lower is better quality and a bigger file. 18 looks identical to the source, 23 is the default, 28 and above shows visible softening.
Frames per second. Keep the source rate unless a platform asks for a specific one; 15–20 fps is plenty for GIFs.
Only used for PowerPoint files and single still images: how long each slide or picture stays on screen.
Auto uses AAC for MP4/MOV and Opus for WebM. Copy keeps the original sound untouched when the new format supports it.
192 kbps is transparent for music; 128 kbps is enough for speech.
Width of the animation in pixels; height follows the aspect ratio. 480 px suits chats, 720 px or more gives a high-quality GIF but a much larger file.
GIF holds at most 256 colors. Fewer colors make a smaller file but cause banding on gradients and skin tones.
Mixes palette colors in a fine pattern to hide banding. Sierra gives the smoothest result; none gives the smallest file.
Whether the animation repeats endlessly or plays one time and stops.
Optional. Seconds (e.g. 75) or minutes:seconds (1:15). Leave empty to start at the beginning.
Optional. Same format as the start time. Leave empty to keep everything up to the end.
The converted file will be at or just under this size.
How to use this tool
- 1
Add the MP4 files
Upload up to 20 MP4s, 95 MB each. Phone clips, downloads and exports from editors all work.
- 2
Keep 480p or match the source
Resolution starts at 480p for DVD-class players. Set it to Same as source if the target is a computer or a broadcast system that handles HD MPEG.
- 3
Convert to MPEG
Press Convert to MPEG, then copy the file to a USB stick or load it into your DVD authoring program.
How do I convert MP4 to MPEG?
Upload the MP4 and press Convert to MPEG. The video is re-encoded into an MPEG program stream at 480p, a file that DVD players, authoring software and older media boxes recognize.
MP4
MPEG-4 video
MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) is a multimedia container standardised by ISO/MPEG and based on Apple's QuickTime format. It usually holds H.264 or HEVC video with AAC audio, and can also carry subtitles, chapters and metadata. It is the most compatible video format in the world, playing on phones, browsers, TVs, game consoles and social platforms. The video inside is almost always lossy, so repeated re-encoding gradually reduces quality.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2001 · Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)
MPEG
MPEG video
MPEG (also .mpg) files contain MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video, standards published by the Moving Picture Experts Group from 1993 onward. MPEG-1 was used for Video CDs, and MPEG-2 powers DVDs and digital broadcast television. The codecs are simple and widely supported, but they need much higher bitrates than modern codecs such as H.264 for the same quality. Most desktop players open MPEG, while some phones and web platforms do not.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 1993 · Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)
MP4 steps back to MPEG for DVD-era equipment: authoring programs, USB-equipped disc players and classroom or broadcast systems that decode MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 but never learned H.264.
Why convert MP4 to MPEG today
MPEG-1 was published in 1993 and became the video of the Video CD; MPEG-2 followed and became the video of DVD, launched in 1996 and 1997, and of digital TV broadcasting. A generation of hardware was built with chips that decode exactly those standards and nothing else. Hand such a device an H.264 MP4 and it either hides the file or shows an unsupported-format message.
Typical owners of that hardware: families with a DVD player connected to the TV that has a USB port, schools running older AV carts, churches and event venues with disc-based playback, and anyone authoring a DVD for relatives who will watch it on a player rather than a laptop.
MPEG frame sizes for DVD and Video CD
720 × 480 px
DVD, NTSC (US, Japan)
MPEG-2, shown as 4:3 or widescreen 16:9
720 × 576 px
DVD, PAL (Europe, Australia)
MPEG-2 at 25 fps
352 × 240 px
Video CD, NTSC
MPEG-1 at about 1.15 Mbit/s
352 × 288 px
Video CD, PAL
MPEG-1, the same bitrate
Convert MP4 to MPEG: settings that matter
Before you press Convert
- Resolution sets the height only; a 16:9 clip at 480p comes out 854 × 480, and DVD authoring software rescales it to the 720-pixel DVD frame.
- Lower Quality (CRF) values give a cleaner picture on a big TV at the cost of a larger file.
- Keep Frame rate at the source unless your region's player expects 25 or 30 fps.
- Cut long recordings with Start at and End at so each part stays manageable on a USB stick.
The conversion costs space rather than saving it. MPEG-2 predates the motion prediction tricks of H.264 by a decade, so the same scene needs more bits; plan on a file a few times the size of the MP4 at similar quality. A standard single-layer DVD holds 4.7 GB, which at DVD bitrates is roughly two hours of video.
If you are going the other way, rescuing recordings from a DVD camcorder or a TV tuner, MPEG to MP4 shrinks them to roughly a third of the size, and files copied from a disc's VIDEO_TS folder go through VOB to MP4.
MP4 to MPEG converter questions
How do I convert MP4 to MPEG for a DVD player with a USB port?
Convert with the 480p default, copy the .mpeg file to a USB stick formatted as FAT32, and open it from the player's media menu. Many players from the 2000s and early 2010s list MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and AVI with DivX among supported files but not MP4, which is why the MP4 was invisible before.
Is MPEG the same as MP4?
No, although both come from the Moving Picture Experts Group. MPEG files use the older MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video standards from the early 1990s, while MP4 is the later MPEG-4 container that usually holds H.264. They are separate formats that need separate decoders.
Why is the MPEG file bigger than my MP4?
MPEG-2 needs roughly two to three times the bitrate of H.264 for a similar picture, so the converted file grows even at a lower resolution. Only the upload has to be under 95 MB; the converted file can be larger.
Can I burn the MPEG straight to a DVD that plays in any player?
Not by copying the file onto a disc. A standard DVD needs a VIDEO_TS folder with VOB and IFO files, which DVD authoring software builds from your MPEG along with menus. Copying the .mpeg onto a data disc only works on players that read data discs.
Should I choose .mpeg or .mpg?
The two extensions hold the same kind of stream; .mpg was the three-letter form for old Windows and DOS file names. Pick whichever your device lists. The MP4 to MPG page writes the .mpg extension.