Convert MPEG to MP3
Old .mpeg and .mpg files from camcorders, Video CDs, TV recorders and home-made DVDs usually hold MP2 or AC-3 sound. Extract it here as an MP3 and the audio plays on any phone or music app without a legacy video player.
Video to Audio
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.
Keep the source rate unless a device or app asks for one. 44.1 kHz is CD standard, 16 kHz is enough for speech recognition.
Mono halves the size of lossless files and is fine for speech.
16-bit is CD quality. Choose 24-bit only if you will edit or master the audio.
Videos with several languages or a commentary have more than one track. 1 is the main track.
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.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the MPEG files
Add up to 20 .mpeg, .mpg or .vob files of up to 95 MB each. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files are both accepted.
- 2
Keep 192 kbps or adjust
192 kbps matches the quality of a typical MP2 soundtrack. Under Advanced settings, turn on Normalize volume for quiet camcorder recordings.
- 3
Extract to MP3
Press Extract to MP3 and download the files. Long tapes can be cut down with Start at and End at before you convert.
What sound is inside an MPEG file
The Moving Picture Experts Group finished MPEG-1 in 1993 as ISO/IEC 11172. It was built for roughly CD-rate video, and the Video CD format launched the same year used it with MPEG-1 Audio Layer II, better known as MP2, at 224 kbps. MPEG-2 followed as ISO/IEC 13818 and became the basis of DVD-Video and digital television.
So a .mpeg file on your drive can be many things: a VCD rip with MP2 sound, a DVD camcorder clip with AC-3 (Dolby Digital) audio, or a recording from a TV tuner card or a European DVB broadcast, which typically carries MP2. Uncompressed LPCM appears on some DVDs too. Every one of these is decoded and encoded again as MP3, so you do not need to know which one you have.
How much smaller the MP3 is
5-minute MPEG-1 clip at Video CD rates
≈ 52 MB
1.15 Mbps video + 224 kbps MP2 audio
Same 5 minutes as MP3
≈ 7.2 MB
192 kbps, video removed
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)
MP3
MP3 audio
MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III) is a lossy audio format developed largely at the Fraunhofer Institute and standardised by MPEG in 1993. It removes sounds the ear is unlikely to notice, shrinking music to about a tenth of CD size at 128–320 kbps. All patents have expired, and every phone, car stereo, browser and media player supports it. Quality loss is audible at low bitrates and accumulates with re-encoding.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 1993 · Fraunhofer IIS / MPEG
People convert MPEG to MP3 to rescue the sound of decades-old camcorder tapes, Video CDs and TV recordings from a file type that many phones and current media apps no longer open.
Convert MPEG to MP3: what the converter does
Separate the streams
The program stream is split into its MPEG video and its audio track; the video is set aside.
Decode the sound
MP2, AC-3 or LPCM is decoded to plain audio; 5.1 DVD sound is mixed to stereo.
Encode the MP3
The audio is written as an MP3 at your bitrate, trimmed and normalized if you asked.
Digitized tapes often come as one long MPEG file per cassette. Instead of extracting an hour of audio, note the times of the part you want and fill in Start at and End at, for example 12:40 and 18:05. If the MPEG is too large to upload in one piece, split it first with Trim Video.
Home recordings from the early 2000s are often in mono or have hiss. The MP3 keeps the channel layout of the source, so a mono camcorder track stays mono and takes half the space. Our guide to converting video to MP3 covers bitrate choices for speech and music.
MPEG to MP3 questions
What is the difference between MP2 and MP3?
Both come from the same 1993 MPEG-1 audio standard: MP2 is Layer II and MP3 is Layer III. Layer III uses a more complex encoder, so it reaches similar quality at a lower bitrate. MP2 lived on in broadcasting and Video CDs, while MP3 won on computers and portable players.
Is a .mpg file the same as .mpeg?
Yes. Both extensions name the same MPEG program stream, a file that interleaves MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video with audio. Windows-era software favored the three-letter .mpg; the content is identical and both are accepted here.
Can I get MP3 audio from the VOB files on a DVD?
Yes, if the VOB files are copied from an unencrypted disc, such as one you burned from a camcorder. A VOB is an MPEG-2 program stream with extra DVD data, so it is handled like any other MPEG file. Commercial movie discs are usually encrypted and will not convert.
Which MP3 bitrate matches a 224 kbps MP2 soundtrack?
About 192 kbps. MP3 needs fewer bits than MP2 for the same perceived quality, so going higher only makes a bigger file. For speech-only footage such as a family interview, 128 kbps is plenty.
The sound on my old camcorder MPEG is very quiet. Can it be louder?
Yes. Open Advanced settings and tick Normalize volume. It raises the whole recording to a standard loudness, so voices recorded from across the room become easier to hear without manual editing.
Can I convert the whole MPEG file to MP4 instead of extracting the sound?
Yes, MPEG to MP4 keeps the picture and re-encodes it as H.264 with AAC sound, which plays on phones and smart TVs. Use this page only when the audio is all you need.
