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Supports: HEIC
HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) is Apple's default still-image format on every iPhone since the iPhone 7 / iOS 11 (2017). MPEG (.mpeg / .mpg) is an MPEG program stream — the legacy video container that DVD players, set-top boxes, older smart TVs, dashcams, broadcast equipment, and a lot of industrial / digital-signage hardware were built to play. Converting HEIC → MPEG turns Apple's modern image format into the format those legacy players actually accept:
If your destination is modern (web, social, phones, recent smart TVs), use HEIC to MP4 instead — MPEG is specifically for legacy / DVD / broadcast workflows. For other legacy targets, see HEIC to MPG, HEIC to VOB, or HEIC to MPEG-2.
| Property | HEIC | MPEG (.mpeg / .mpg) |
|---|---|---|
| Media type | Still image (or paired image + motion clip in Live Photos) | Video program stream |
| Underlying codec | HEVC (H.265) for image data | MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 typical; MPEG-4, H.264, H.265 also accepted |
| Audio support | No (Live Photo motion side-car carries audio) | Yes — MP2 (DVD standard), MP3, AC-3, AAC |
| Frame count | 1 still + optional 1.5 s motion | Many (1 → millions) |
| Time dimension | None on the still | Variable duration, configurable frame rate |
| Native playback | iPhone, iPad, Mac (Big Sur+), Windows 10/11 with HEIF extension | DVD players, set-top boxes, legacy smart TVs, broadcast hardware |
| Modern web / social support | n/a — input format | Limited — most modern platforms reject .mpeg in favor of MP4 |
| Default on iPhone since | iOS 11 (2017) | n/a — output container |
| Typical use today | iPhone camera roll | DVD authoring, digital signage, legacy hardware, broadcast |
| Goal | Pick this codec | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DVD-Video authoring | MPEG-2 (default) | The codec the DVD-Video spec is built on; pair with MP2 audio at 224 kbps |
| VCD or older embedded player | MPEG-1 | Lower bitrate ceiling, but plays on the oldest hardware that reads .mpeg |
| Slightly newer legacy player | MPEG-4 / Xvid / DivX | Higher compression than MPEG-2, accepted by mid-2000s DVD players that advertise DivX support |
| Digital signage / broadcast | MPEG-2 | Industry default; pair with MP2 or AC-3 audio |
| Modern player accepting .mpeg | H.264 | Smaller files at the same quality if your player decodes it |
| Iso-quality re-wrap of HEVC source | H.265 / HEVC | Avoids generational loss since HEIC is already HEVC inside |
| Use case | Image duration | Effective frame rate |
|---|---|---|
| Slow DVD slideshow (weddings, family albums) | 4-8 seconds per image | 0.125-0.25 fps |
| Standard slideshow (events, tributes) | 2-4 seconds per image | 0.25-0.5 fps |
| Quick photo montage | 1 second per image | 1 fps |
| Stop-motion from HEIC bursts | 1/10 second per frame | 10 fps |
| Cinematic timelapse | 1/24 second per frame | 24 fps (matches DVD/film cadence) |
| Broadcast NTSC | 1/30 second per frame | 30 fps |
| iPhone-native smooth playback | 1/60 second per frame | 60 fps |
MPEG-2 is the right default — it's the codec the .mpeg / .mpg container is built around, the one DVD-Video uses, and the one set-top boxes, broadcast playout systems, and most digital-signage hardware decode in silicon. MPEG-1 is older still and has a lower bitrate ceiling (originally targeted at VCDs and 1.5 Mbps CD-ROM playback). Pick MPEG-1 only if you specifically need to play on a Video CD or a very old embedded device that explicitly rejects MPEG-2. For everything else, leave MPEG-2 selected.
This tool produces an .mpeg program stream — that's the video portion of a DVD-Video disc, not a full DVD image. You still need DVD authoring software (DVDStyler, ConvertXtoDVD, Apple's older DVD Studio Pro, or Final Cut's "Send to Compressor" workflow) to wrap the .mpeg in a VIDEO_TS folder, generate menus if you want them, and burn to a DVD-R. The advantage of converting here first is that the authoring tool gets a compliant MPEG-2 / MP2 stream and doesn't need to re-encode — saving time and a generation of quality loss.
DVD-Video is locked to 720×480 at 29.97 fps for NTSC (US, Canada, Japan) or 720×576 at 25 fps for PAL (Europe, Australia, most of the rest). Pick 480P for NTSC or 576P for PAL in step 3. If you pick a higher resolution like 1080P, the .mpeg will play on computers and modern players but most DVD authoring tools will reject it or force a re-encode back down.
A Live Photo on iPhone is two files — the HEIC still and a paired ~1.5 second MOV / HEVC motion clip. Most apps strip the motion clip on export. If you have only the .heic, the motion clip is gone and this tool produces an MPEG from the still frame at whatever per-image duration you set. To preserve the motion, use "Save as Video" on iPhone (Photos app → share → Save as Video) or AirDrop both halves, then convert the .mov component with our MOV to MPEG tool.
MPEG-2 is much less efficient than H.264 (MP4's typical codec) — roughly 2-3× larger at the same visual quality — because the codec was finalized in 1995 and predates motion compensation tricks that H.264 (2003) and H.265 (2013) exploit. That's the price of universal legacy compatibility. If file size matters more than DVD-player compatibility, switch to HEIC to MP4 with H.265 selected.
VCDs use MPEG-1 at 352×240 (NTSC) or 352×288 (PAL) and 1.15 Mbps. Pick MPEG-1 codec and 240P or 288P resolution. Most VCD authoring software then expects an .mpg file at that exact spec — you may need to rename .mpeg → .mpg. VCD as a target is rare in 2026, but the path is supported for legacy hardware preservation.
For DVD-Video authoring, MP2 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer II) at 224 kbps is the safe default — it's part of the DVD spec and every authoring tool accepts it without question. AC-3 (Dolby Digital) is also DVD-spec and supports surround sound. MP3 plays on most computer-based players but is technically out-of-spec for DVD authoring. Since your source HEICs have no audio, this only matters if you plan to merge a music track with merge it with a video editor (DaVinci Resolve, Shotcut, CapCut, Adobe Premiere) after conversion.
Output duration = number of images × image duration. A 60-photo iPhone vacation album at 4 seconds each = 240 seconds (4 minutes), which fits comfortably on a single-layer DVD with room for menus and music. 1,800 burst frames at 1/30 second = a 60-second timelapse. The duration setting is per-image, applied uniformly — drag to reorder before clicking Convert.
iPhone shoots 4:3 by default but landscape orientation, Portrait Mode, and Pro RAW all coexist in a single album. Each frame is scaled to fit inside the chosen output resolution while preserving its source aspect ratio, then padded with the background color (letterbox for tall sources in a wide DVD frame, pillarbox for wide sources in a tall frame). Black is the standard letterbox color for DVD-Video — leave the default. For uniform output, resize HEIC all images to the same dimensions before converting.