CR2 to MPG Converter

CR2 to MPG: Which MPEG Should You Write?

An .mpg file is an MPEG program stream — the container standardised alongside MPEG-1 as ISO/IEC 11172-1 and extended for MPEG-2 as ISO/IEC 13818-1, better known to broadcast engineers as ITU-T H.222.0. Turning a Canon raw into one means rendering the photograph and holding it on screen as video. The only real decision on this page is which codec goes inside: MPEG-2, which is preselected and is what DVDs and digital broadcasting use, or MPEG-1, which is older, simpler and decodable by almost anything that ever played video.

MPEG-1 vs MPEG-2 Inside an MPG File

When to Pick MPEG-2

• The file is headed for DVD authoring software, a broadcast ingest system or any hardware built around digital television.
• You want the most efficient of the two options, which matters as soon as the raster gets larger than the small sizes MPEG-1 was designed for.
• Something downstream named "MPEG-2" or "H.262" explicitly in its requirements.
• You have no particular constraint at all — it is the preselected choice for good reason, and every MPEG-2 decoder handles MPEG-1 as well.

When to Pick MPEG-1

• You are feeding genuinely old software or an embedded device with an MPEG-1-only decoder.
• You are producing something Video CD-shaped, where MPEG-1 at SIF resolution is the native format.
• Absolute breadth of playback matters more to you than efficiency, and the picture is small enough that the efficiency gap does not show.

How to Convert CR2 to MPG

1. Upload Your CR2 File: Drag your .cr2 onto the page or click "+ Add Files". With several files queued, Merge strategy decides between one combined clip ("Merge images") and one file per photograph ("Video per image").
2. Choose the Video Codec: Video Codec offers MPEG-2, which is preselected, and MPEG-1. Audio Codec lists MP2, MP3, AC3 and DTS, though nothing is encoded from a photograph.
3. Set Duration, Resolution and Quality: Image Duration holds the picture for anything from 1/60 of a second to 10 seconds, starting at 5. Video resolution starts on "Keep original" — switch to Fixed Resolutions or Width x Height in Pixels for an exact raster, and Background Color (white by default) fills any bars that leaves. File Compression starts on the "Very High (Recommended)" Quality Preset.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert and save the .mpg. It is uploaded over an encrypted connection, converted on our servers and deleted automatically a few hours later — no sign-up, no watermark.

MPG Compared With the Other Containers Here

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly is an MPEG program stream?

A container that multiplexes one programme's audio and video into a single stream with variable-size records and very little framing overhead. It was designed for reliable storage media such as discs, which is why it does not carry the error resilience that transport streams use for broadcasting. You will see it as .mpg and .mpeg, occasionally .m2p or .ps, and as .vob on a DVD, where it is the same structure under a different name.

Why does the video run at one frame per second?

Because there is nothing moving. A photograph is encoded once and looped for the duration you choose, so a five-second clip is five identical frames. Any editor or authoring tool will re-time it to 25 or 29.97 frames per second when it needs to, and re-encoding identical frames is close to free. If your target is a DVD, expect the authoring software to re-encode regardless, since disc video is specified around 720 x 480 at 29.97 interlaced frames per second for NTSC and 720 x 576 at 25 for PAL.

Why is there no audio track?

A still image has no sound to encode, so no audio stream is written. The Audio Codec list still shows what this container accepts — MP2, MP3, AC3 and DTS, with MP2 as the default and the codec MPEG program streams have historically been paired with. If you add music later in an editor, MP2 or AC3 are the choices a DVD or broadcast chain will expect.

Is MPG the same as MPEG2 on this site?

The bytes are the same; the filename differs. CR2 to MPEG2 writes the identical MPEG program stream with a .mpeg2 extension, which is a codec name rather than a container name and which some software does not recognise. Unless a system has specifically asked you for .mpeg2, .mpg is the better filename because far more applications know what to do with it on sight.

Will this file play on my phone or in a browser?

Probably not, and that is a container problem rather than a quality problem. Phones and browsers expect MP4 or WebM; MPEG program streams belong to the disc and broadcast world. Desktop media players handle them without complaint. If the clip needs to travel, CR2 to MP4 produces something that plays essentially everywhere, and MPG to MP4 converts one you already have.

How large will the picture be in the video?

The photograph's own dimensions unless you choose otherwise, capped at 4096 pixels on the long edge — the frame is prepared at that ceiling before encoding, so a modern high-resolution raw is scaled down to fit. When the destination expects a specific raster, set it yourself with Fixed Resolutions or Width x Height in Pixels rather than leaving it to the source, because disc and broadcast equipment is strict about raster sizes.

What causes the white bars, and can I change their colour?

They appear when the raster you selected has a different aspect ratio from the photograph. The picture is scaled to fit inside the frame and the leftover area is filled with Background Color, which defaults to white and offers two dozen alternatives. You can also avoid the bars entirely by leaving Video resolution on "Keep original", which uses the photograph's own shape.

Can I turn a set of Canon raws into a slideshow this way?

Up to a point. Upload them together, leave Merge strategy on "Merge images", and each is held for the Image Duration you set, in upload order, in a single clip. What you cannot do here is give individual photographs different durations, add transitions or lay music underneath — that is editing work. For a straight sequence of stills at a fixed interval, though, this is the whole job in one pass.