MOV to MPEG Converter

Convert MOV to MPEG: What This Tutorial Covers

This walkthrough is for anyone holding a QuickTime .mov — an iPhone clip, a DSLR take, a screen recording — that a DVD authoring suite, set-top box, broadcast ingest station, or an ageing non-linear editor refuses because it only reads MPEG-1/MPEG-2. By the end you will have an .mpeg program stream with the right codec, frame size, and audio track, and you will know which controls on this page actually change the file and which ones MPEG-2 quietly discards. (.mpeg and .mpg are the same MPEG program stream — if your workflow wants the three-letter spelling, MOV to MPG writes the same bytes under the other extension.)

How to Convert MOV to MPEG

1. Upload Your MOV File: Drag the .mov onto the page or click "+ Add Files" to pick it from your computer. Several clips can be queued and run with the same settings; each is uploaded over an encrypted connection and processed on our servers.
2. Pick the Video Codec: Open the advanced options and set Video Codec. MPEG-2 is preselected and is the right pick for DVD, broadcast and capture-card work; MPEG-1 is the only alternative and is worth choosing only when a device explicitly demands it.
3. Set the Frame Size and Audio Codec: Video resolution starts on "Keep original". For a disc target, use Width x Height and type the exact frame size — the Preset Resolutions list sets height only and lets width follow your source's aspect ratio, which will not give you a DVD-legal frame. Audio Codec is preselected to MP2, with AC3, DTS (DCA) and MP3 also offered.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert and save the .mpeg. No sign-up, no watermark; files are deleted from our servers automatically after a few hours.

Walk-through: Which Controls Actually Move the Output

MPEG-2 has no constant-rate-factor mode. Our encoder therefore computes a minimum bitrate from the output frame size and refuses to go below it, because libavcodec's mpeg2video encoder fails outright on rates that are too low for the picture. Everything under File Compression is filtered through that floor, so the single control with the largest effect on your file is actually Video resolution.

The floor scales with pixel count, so shrinking the frame is what genuinely shrinks the file:

Choosing MPEG-1 changes this: MPEG-1 runs through the generic encoder path, which does honour the qscale route, so the Constant Quality and Constraint Quality sliders reach -q:v and behave like a real quality dial. That is the one situation on this page where the CRF slider is not decorative.

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2?

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

• "My DVD authoring software rejects the frame size." DVD-Video only accepts 720x480, 704x480, 352x480 or 352x240 for NTSC and 720x576, 704x576, 352x576 or 352x288 for PAL. Set Width x Height explicitly; a Preset Resolution of "480p" on a 16:9 phone clip produces 854x480, which no authoring tool will take.
• "The picture plays but there is no sound on my player." Most .mov files carry AAC, which MPEG program streams do not use. MP2 is the preselected and safest audio codec here.
• "I picked AC3 or DTS and the file behaves oddly." .mpeg is written with the MPEG-1 Systems muxer, which accepts AC-3 and DTS only through a private-stream escape hatch and warns that the result is not widely supported. AC-3 is legal on a finished DVD, but it needs a DVD/VOB muxer to be written correctly — stick to MP2 here and let your authoring tool handle the Dolby track.
• "I asked for a 20 MB file and got 200 MB." The MPEG-2 bitrate floor overrode your target. Reduce the frame size first, then set the size target.
• "Output looks blocky compared to the MOV." MPEG-2 spends far more bits than H.264 for the same picture. Raise the Quality Preset, or accept a larger file — this is codec efficiency, not a wrong setting.
• "A phone or browser will not open the .mpeg." MPEG program streams are not a web format; Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge do not play them natively. They exist for legacy hardware and editors.

When This Doesn't Work

A DRM-protected .mov (purchased store content) cannot be transcoded at all, and a truncated or partially downloaded file will either fail or produce a short clip — re-export the source first. Two source problems this converter cannot repair: interlaced camcorder footage keeps its combing, because no deinterlacing filter runs anywhere in the pipeline, and HDR or Dolby Vision footage from a recent iPhone gets a plain colour conversion with no tone mapping, so it can come out flat or washed out — grade to SDR in an editor before uploading. Finally, if your real goal is a small, modern, shareable file rather than legacy compatibility, MPEG is the wrong destination: use MOV to MP4 or Compress MOV instead, and MPEG to MP4 to bring finished MPEG material back to a modern container.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I choose MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 when converting a MOV?

MPEG-2 for nearly everything. It is the codec DVD-Video and digital broadcast are built on, it handles interlaced material, and it scales to the bitrates a full-size frame needs. MPEG-1 (ISO/IEC 11172, published 1993, designed around "about 1,5 Mbit/s" and progressive-only) makes sense for Video CD-style targets or a player that specifically asks for it. MPEG-2 decoders can generally play MPEG-1 as well, so MPEG-2 is the safer default.

Why does the quality slider do nothing when I convert MOV to MPEG-2?

Because MPEG-2 has no CRF mode. When you pick Constant Quality or Constraint Quality, the slider value is dropped and our encoder substitutes a bitrate derived from the output frame size — that works out to roughly 7.5 Mbit/s for a 1920x1080 frame and 2 Mbit/s for DVD-sized frames. If you want a real quality dial, either use the Quality Preset (which scales your source's own bitrate) or switch the codec to MPEG-1, which does pass the slider through as a qscale value.

Why is my MPEG file larger than the original MOV?

MPEG-2 is roughly a generation and a half behind the H.264 or HEVC inside a typical .mov, so it needs several times the bitrate for the same picture. On top of that, the resolution-derived floor stops the encoder going low enough to match a modern file. A bigger output is the expected cost of legacy compatibility; if size is the goal, convert to MP4 instead.

What frame size do I need for burning a DVD?

720x480 for NTSC regions (North America, Japan) and 720x576 for PAL regions (most of Europe, Australia); 704- and 352-wide variants are also in the spec. Enter these under Width x Height rather than using a Preset Resolution, because the presets set height only and let width follow your clip's aspect ratio. DVD-Video also caps video at 9.80 Mbit/s and total payload at 10.08 Mbit/s, so leave the Quality Preset in the upper half rather than at Highest for a long programme.

Which audio codec should I pick for an .mpeg file?

MP2 — it is preselected here, it is the audio layer that shipped with MPEG video, and it is what ageing import filters and set-top boxes expect. MP3 also muxes cleanly. AC-3 and DTS are offered, and both are legal on a finished DVD (PAL DVD players are required to handle PCM, MP2 and AC-3), but the MPEG-1 Systems muxer that writes .mpeg carries them only as private streams and flags them as poorly supported. Author the Dolby track in your DVD tool instead.

Is ".mpeg" the same file as ".mpg"?

Yes. Both extensions name an MPEG program stream carrying MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video — the three-letter form is a leftover from systems that limited extensions to three characters. This page writes .mpeg; MOV to MPG writes .mpg. Probing either output reports the same MPEG-PS container.

My iPhone HDR footage looks flat after conversion — can I fix that here?

Not on this page. There is no tone-mapping stage anywhere in our pipeline, so HDR10 or Dolby Vision footage gets a straight colour conversion into MPEG-2's SDR-era colour handling and often comes out grey and low-contrast. Convert the clip to SDR in an editor (or export SDR from the phone) before uploading. The same applies to anamorphic or non-square-pixel sources, which are written with square pixels — set an explicit Width x Height to correct the geometry.

Will this remove the interlace combing in my old camcorder footage?

No. There is no deinterlacing filter in the pipeline, so interlaced fields are carried straight through and the combing stays baked into the frames. MPEG-2 at least stores interlaced video natively, so a set-top box or TV that deinterlaces on playback will handle it correctly; a computer player showing the file progressively will show the comb lines.

How big a MOV can I upload, and what happens to it afterwards?

The practical limit is upload size and time rather than anything on your end — trimming the clip with the Trim start-time and duration fields before converting is the fastest route for a long recording. Your file travels over an encrypted connection, is converted on our servers, and both the upload and the result are deleted automatically after a few hours. Nothing is shared or made public, and there is no sign-up or watermark.