OGV to MP4 Converter
OGV is the Ogg container with Theora video, the open codec of the early HTML5 web and of Linux screen recorders. Apple devices and most editors never learned to read it; an H.264 MP4 plays and imports everywhere.
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
Upload the .ogv files
Drop up to 20 OGV files, 95 MB each. Downloads from Wikimedia Commons and recordMyDesktop captures are typical sources.
- 2
Keep H.264 and AAC
Video codec is set to H.264 and Audio codec to AAC. For a dark screen recording with text, lower Quality (CRF) to 20 so small letters stay sharp.
- 3
Convert and download
Press Convert to MP4 and save each MP4 or the whole batch as a ZIP.
Upload the OGV and press Convert to MP4. Theora video becomes H.264 and Vorbis audio becomes AAC, the pair that Safari, iPhones, Windows apps and every editing suite open.
What is inside an OGV file
An .ogv file is the Ogg container from the Xiph.Org Foundation carrying Theora video and, almost always, Vorbis audio. Theora began as VP3, a codec On2 Technologies released under an open license in 2001; Xiph built on it and shipped Theora 1.0 in November 2008. Its appeal was legal rather than technical: it was free of the patent licensing that H.264 required.
That made it the default for projects that refuse patented formats, which is why Wikimedia Commons still hosts large amounts of Ogg Theora video and why Linux recorders such as recordMyDesktop write .ogv by default.
OGV
Ogg video
OGV is a video file in the Ogg container from the Xiph.Org Foundation, usually holding Theora video and Vorbis audio. It was one of the first royalty-free formats for HTML5 video and is still used by Wikimedia projects. Theora compresses much less efficiently than modern codecs, and Safari and iPhones do not play OGV. Most desktop players such as VLC open it.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- Xiph.Org Foundation
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)
OGV is converted to MP4 when footage from the open-source side of the web, a Wikimedia download or a Linux screen capture, has to play on an iPhone, upload to a mainstream site or go into a commercial editor that never supported Theora.
OGV not playing on iPhone, Mac or in an editor
| from ↓ · to → | Safari and iPhone | Premiere Pro | iMovie and Final Cut Pro | VLC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OGV (Theora + Vorbis) | – OGV (Theora + Vorbis) to Safari and iPhone: no | – OGV (Theora + Vorbis) to Premiere Pro: no | – OGV (Theora + Vorbis) to iMovie and Final Cut Pro: no | OGV (Theora + Vorbis) to VLC: yes |
| MP4 (H.264 + AAC) | MP4 (H.264 + AAC) to Safari and iPhone: yes | MP4 (H.264 + AAC) to Premiere Pro: yes | MP4 (H.264 + AAC) to iMovie and Final Cut Pro: yes | MP4 (H.264 + AAC) to VLC: yes |
How Theora rose and faded on the web
2001
VP3 opened
On2 releases VP3 under an open license; Xiph adopts it as the basis of Theora.
2008
Theora 1.0
The first stable release ships in November; RFC 5334 defines the .ogv extension.
2009
Firefox 3.5
The HTML5 video element arrives in Firefox with Ogg Theora as its codec.
2010
WebM appears
Google opens VP8 in the WebM container, and new open web video moves there.
2024
Chrome steps back
Chromium developers announce the removal of Theora decoding from Chrome.
With browser support shrinking, an OGV that played inline on a page ten years ago may now only download. Converting it to MP4 is the durable fix for anything you want to keep watching; if the clip has to stay in an open format for a wiki or a free-software project, choose WebM under Convert to instead; the MP4 to WebM page explains which settings suit web playback.
Browser screen recordings face the same problem in a newer codec; WebM to MP4 covers VP9 and Opus files from Chrome and Firefox. Every option of this tool is explained on the video converter page.
OGV to MP4 questions
Where do OGV files usually come from?
Three places, mostly: video downloaded from Wikimedia Commons, which serves free formats, screen captures from Linux tools such as recordMyDesktop, and demo or course material published during the early HTML5 years around 2009 and 2010.
Is .ogv the same as .ogg?
Both are the Ogg container. RFC 5334 from 2008 assigned .ogv to Ogg files with video, .oga to audio-only Ogg and .ogx to everything else, while .ogg stayed in use for Vorbis audio. Programs that mislabel a video as .ogg can be fixed by renaming it to .ogv before you upload.
Why does my OGV open in VLC but not in Premiere Pro?
VLC carries its own Theora and Vorbis decoders. Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, iMovie and DaVinci Resolve build on the codecs used in production, and Theora was never one of them, so the import fails or shows only the audio waveform.
What happens to the Vorbis soundtrack?
It is decoded and re-encoded as AAC, the audio codec that MP4 players expect. At the default 192 kbps the difference is inaudible for speech and music recorded with a typical microphone; pick 128 kbps for a lecture to save a little space.
Will the MP4 be smaller than the OGV?
Usually yes, or about the same size with a cleaner picture. H.264 is a more efficient codec than Theora, so at the default Quality (CRF) of 23 it typically needs fewer bits to keep the same detail, especially in motion.
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