FLV to MPEG Converter

Convert FLV to MPEG: What This Tutorial Covers

This walks you through turning an old Flash Video file into an MPEG program stream — the .mpeg / .mpg format from the VCD, DVD, and digital-television era, which unlike a bare elementary stream carries the video and the audio together in one file. Both formats are legacy, so here is the honest framing before you start: this is a rescue out of a dead Flash workflow into a 1990s codec, not an upgrade. It is the right move when a DVD-authoring pipeline or an older piece of hardware specifically wants .mpeg, and the wrong move if you just want something that plays on a phone.

How to Convert FLV to MPEG

1. Upload Your FLV File: Drag and drop your .flv onto the page or click "Add Files" to browse. Old video-site downloads, recorded webinars, and Flash-era e-learning captures all work, and several files can be queued in one batch.
2. Choose the Video Codec and Audio Codec: Open Advanced Options. Video Codec offers MPEG-2 (the default, and the DVD codec) and MPEG-1 (the VCD codec). Audio Codec offers MP2 as the default, plus MP3, AC3, and DTS.
3. Set Quality, Resolution, and Trim (Optional): Under File Compression, Quality Preset starts on "Very High (Recommended)", with Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, and Specific file size available when you need an exact target. Video resolution starts on "Keep original" and takes a percentage, a preset, or an exact Width x Height — use 720x480 or 720x576 for a DVD. Trim exports one segment by start time and duration.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert and save your .mpeg. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.

Walk-through: Matching the Settings to Your Target

The container is the same MPEG program stream whether the file is named .mpeg or .mpg, so this page and FLV to MPG behave identically. What actually changes the outcome is the codec pair, the frame size, and the bitrate.

A few notes that save a second attempt. DVD-Video caps video at 9.8 Mbit/s, so keep any manual bitrate below that if the file is disc-bound. The output here is a general MPEG program stream rather than a finished disc image — authoring software still has to re-multiplex it into the VOB and IFO structure a DVD player expects, and it will do that happily as long as the codec, frame size, and frame rate are right. And because MPEG-2 is roughly half as efficient as H.264, an old standard-definition FLV converted at matched quality frequently comes out larger than the source.

The MPEG-2 Bitrate Floor

MPEG-2 degrades badly below a certain bitrate for a given frame size, so our encoder enforces a minimum and raises any target that falls beneath it rather than producing an unwatchable file. This is the single most common surprise on this page: asking for a small .mpeg from a standard-definition source simply does not work.

At the 2 Mbps floor, one minute of standard-definition video costs roughly 15 MB before audio. If that is unacceptable, you have two options: switch Video Codec to MPEG-1, which is not subject to the same floor and will follow a low bitrate you set, or leave the MPEG family entirely and use FLV to MP4, where H.264 delivers the same picture in a fraction of the space.

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

• "The Quality Preset seems to make no difference." On MPEG-2 the preset is not a quality dial — the codec has no constant-quality mode, so the preset is applied as a multiple of the source file's own bitrate and then clamped by the minimum floor above. On a low-bitrate Flash source, several presets can land on the same floored bitrate and therefore produce nearly identical files. Use Constant Bitrate or Specific file size when you want a predictable result.
• "Constant Quality and Constraint Quality do nothing." Correct, and they should be avoided here. Both are quality-target modes that MPEG-2 cannot honor, so the setting is discarded and the encoder falls back to the resolution's minimum bitrate. Stay on Quality Preset, Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, or Specific file size.
• "My DVD software rejects the file." The disc spec wants MPEG-2 video at 720x480 or 720x576, a matching frame rate, and MP2, AC-3, or LPCM audio — MP3 and AAC are not DVD-legal. Re-run with MPEG-2 plus MP2 or AC3 and a DVD frame size.
• "The output is much bigger than my FLV." Expected, and unavoidable in this direction. MPEG-2 needs far more bitrate than the codecs Flash used, and the encoder floor sets a hard minimum. If size is what matters, MPEG is the wrong target.
• "No browser will play the .mpeg." The MPEG program stream was designed for DVD players, set-top boxes, and desktop software, and HTML5 video expects MP4 or WebM. Convert to FLV to MP4 if the file needs to play on a web page.
• "The picture still looks standard-definition." It is. Re-encoding cannot regain detail the FLV already discarded, and choosing a larger resolution preset upscales the frame without adding information.

When This Doesn't Work

This conversion cannot resurrect what is not in the file. A truncated or partially downloaded FLV — common with anything pulled from an old streaming cache — converts only as far as the last complete frame, and Flash streams that were captured with encryption do not decode at all. Low-bitrate web video stays low quality no matter how much bitrate the MPEG-2 encoder is given, because the extra bits go into preserving the source's existing artifacts. And if your actual goal is a file that plays on current devices rather than one that satisfies a DVD authoring tool, MPEG is the wrong destination entirely: FLV to MP4 produces H.264 that every modern browser, phone, and television decodes natively, at a fraction of the size.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which codecs does this actually put inside the MPEG file?

By default, MPEG-2 video with MP2 audio — the pairing DVD-Video was built around. MPEG-2 (ISO/IEC 13818-2, finalized in 1995) decodes on essentially every DVD player, set-top box, and desktop player ever made. You can switch the video to MPEG-1 (ISO/IEC 11172, 1993) for Video CD or maximum legacy compatibility, and the audio to MP3, AC3, or DTS. AC-3 is the other DVD-legal audio choice and is the one to pick if the file is heading for a disc with surround sound.

Is .mpeg different from .mpg?

No. Both extensions name the same MPEG program stream, and this page produces byte-identical output to FLV to MPG given the same settings. The two spellings are a leftover from the eight-character filename era: .mpg fit the old limit and .mpeg did not. Some older software only recognizes one of them, so if a program refuses your file, renaming the extension is the first thing to try.

Will converting FLV to MPEG improve the picture quality?

No, and it usually costs a little. FLV holds Sorenson Spark, On2 VP6, or H.264 video; the MPEG output holds MPEG-2 or MPEG-1, so this is always a lossy-to-lossy re-encode into a less efficient codec. Nothing the original discarded can be recovered, and a standard-definition source stays standard-definition. Keeping the Quality Preset high ensures the MPEG encoder is not the bottleneck, but the source is still the ceiling.

Should I use MPEG at all, or is MP4 the better target?

For almost everyone, MP4. MPEG-2 made sense for DVD players and 1990s hardware; for phones, browsers, smart TVs, and any modern website, H.264 in an MP4 is smaller, sharper at the same size, and universally playable. The honest test is whether a specific piece of software or hardware has asked you for .mpeg. If a DVD-authoring pipeline, a legacy playback system, or an institutional archive requires it, use this page. Otherwise use FLV to MP4.

What happens to the audio from my FLV?

It is decoded and re-encoded, to MP2 by default. FLV files usually carry MP3 or AAC audio, and neither is a DVD-legal choice, so the default lands on MP2 — the MPEG-1 Audio Layer II codec the DVD and digital-television specs were written around. Switch to AC3 for a disc with multichannel audio, or to MP3 if the file is only going to be played in software and you would rather keep a codec closer to the source.

Why is MPEG-1 an option, and when would I want it?

MPEG-1 is the Video CD codec, and it exists here for genuinely old targets: VCD players, some 1990s capture hardware, and embedded systems that predate MPEG-2. It is less efficient than MPEG-2 and limited to smaller frame sizes in practice, so it is not a general-purpose choice. It does have one practical advantage on this page — it is not subject to the MPEG-2 minimum bitrate floor, so if you need a small file that still has to be in the MPEG family, MPEG-1 will follow a low bitrate that MPEG-2 would override.

Is FLV dead now that Flash Player is gone?

The delivery workflow is dead; the file is not unreadable. Adobe ended Flash Player support on December 31, 2020 and began blocking Flash content on January 12, 2021, so no browser plays an .flv natively anymore. The container itself was never dependent on the plug-in — standalone decoders parse it directly, which is exactly why an archived Flash file can still be converted to MPEG or anything else today.

Can I convert only part of a long recording?

Yes, and on this page it is worth doing. Set Trim to Time Range and enter a start time and duration in seconds or HH:MM:SS.sss, and only that span is encoded. Because MPEG-2's bitrate floor makes the output large, trimming is the most effective size control available — cutting a two-hour webinar down to the fifteen minutes you need saves far more than any compression setting will.

What resolution should I choose?

Keep original, unless a disc spec says otherwise. Most surviving Flash video sits between 320x240 and 854x480, and upscaling it to a preset like 1080p produces a much larger file that looks softer, while also pushing you into a higher minimum bitrate. If the file is DVD-bound, set 720x480 for NTSC or 720x576 for PAL so the authoring software does not have to rescale it and re-encode a second time.

How are my files handled, and how long are they kept?

Your FLV is uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically a few hours after the conversion — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public. Note that the MPEG output is often larger than the file you uploaded, so the download can take longer than the upload did on this particular conversion.