MPEG to Opus Converter

How to Convert MPEG to Opus Online

1. Upload Your MPEG Files: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to select one or more .mpg or .mpeg videos. Batch is supported — every file in the batch shares the same Opus output settings.
2. Pick a Quality Preset: Default is Very High (Recommended). Other presets are Highest, High, Medium, Low, Very Low, and Lowest. The preset maps to an Opus bitrate; lower presets work well for spoken-word recordings, higher presets keep music transparent. For precise control, switch to Custom Bitrate and choose between Constant Bitrate (CBR) or Variable Bitrate (VBR), or use Specific file size to target an exact file size.
3. Adjust Audio Channel and Sample Rate (Optional): Set Audio Channel to Original, Mono, or Stereo — Mono roughly halves the bitrate for podcasts and voice memos. Set Audio Sample Rate to Original, 8000, 12000, 16000, 24000, 44100, or 48000 Hz. Opus internally resamples to 48 kHz, so 48000 Hz is the natural choice; 16000 Hz is enough for narrowband voice.
4. Trim and Convert (Optional): Use the Trim controls to set a start time and duration in seconds or HH:MM:SS.sss to extract a specific segment. Click Convert and download. The video track is dropped; only the decoded audio is re-encoded as Opus.

Why Convert MPEG to Opus?

.mpg and .mpeg files are MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 program streams whose audio track is almost always MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2) — sometimes AC-3 on DVD-derived files. MP2 was finalized in 1992 (ISO/IEC 11172-3) and was designed for the bandwidth and CPU budgets of that decade. Opus, standardized as IETF RFC 6716 in 2012 and updated by RFC 8251, is the modern replacement: it covers 6 to 510 kbit/s, handles speech and music in the same stream, and stays competitive with AAC and HE-AAC at every bitrate. Extracting the audio from MPEG and re-encoding to Opus typically cuts file size by 50% or more for the same listening experience.

• Podcast and broadcast archives — DV, HDV camcorder tapes, and PAL DVDs often carry MP2 at 192–256 kbps. Re-encoding the spoken content to Opus VBR around 32–48 kbps mono shrinks each hour from ~110 MB to ~16 MB without audible loss.
• Voice messaging and VoIP defaults — WhatsApp uses Opus at 8–16 kHz for push-to-talk and calls; Discord, Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams (over WebRTC), and PlayStation Network party chat all use Opus. Delivering source audio in Opus skips a transcode round-trip.
• Web embeds — Opus inside Ogg or WebM plays in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, and Safari (macOS High Sierra / iOS 11+, with full Ogg-Opus support added in Safari 18.4 on macOS 15.4 / iOS 18.4). It is mandatory in WebRTC, so any browser-based call app already decodes it.
• YouTube uploads — YouTube transcodes audio to Opus internally (paired with VP9 in WebM). Pre-encoding to Opus matches what YouTube will store anyway, sidestepping a generation of re-compression.
• Storage de-duplication — If you keep MPEG files only for the audio (lectures, interviews, talk-radio captures), an Opus copy at 64 kbps stereo is around 30 MB/hour versus 100+ MB/hour for the original MP2 track plus video.
• Low-bandwidth distribution — At 24–32 kbps mono, Opus is intelligible enough for shortwave-radio archives, accessibility transcripts, and IVR prompts where every kilobyte over the wire costs money.

MP2 (MPEG audio) vs Opus

Opus Bitrate Quick Guide

These are the Opus reference targets from xiph.org and the libopus README — useful when you bypass the preset and pick a custom bitrate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this actually extract the audio, or does it transcode the whole video?

It extracts only the audio. The decoder reads the MPEG program stream, pulls the audio elementary stream (MP2 or AC-3 in nearly all .mpg/.mpeg files), decodes it to PCM, and re-encodes that PCM as Opus. The video track is discarded, which is why outputs are dramatically smaller than the source.

Why is my MPEG file's audio MP2 and not MP3?

MPEG-1 Audio defines three layers — Layer I (MP1), Layer II (MP2), and Layer III (MP3). Authoring tools for VCD, SVCD, DVB, and PAL DVD almost always pick Layer II because it was the broadcast and disc standard. MP3 became the dominant download format but rarely shows up inside .mpg containers. The converter handles both, plus AC-3 if your file came from an NTSC DVD.

Should I pick Mono or Stereo for a podcast extract?

Mono. Spoken-word programmes mixed for radio or talk shows are usually mono or near-mono, and Opus encodes mono at roughly half the bitrate of stereo for the same quality. If the source is genuinely stereo (e.g., a music interview with stereo bed music) keep Stereo; Opus's joint-stereo coupling already handles dual-mono efficiently.

What sample rate should I choose?

Leave it at Original or pick 48000 Hz. Opus internally operates at 48 kHz and resamples anything else, so 48 kHz avoids an extra resample step. The 8–24 kHz options are useful only for narrowband speech where you want to force the encoder into its SILK-based voice mode and shrink the stream further.

Is Opus better than MP3 or AAC at the same bitrate?

In published listening tests Opus matches or beats AAC-LC at 96 kbit/s and is well ahead of MP3 at every bitrate below 128 kbit/s. Below 64 kbit/s the gap widens further because Opus's hybrid CELT + SILK design handles voice and music without switching codecs. For music above 192 kbit/s the differences are inaudible in practice.

Will an Opus file play on iPhone, Android, and Windows?

Android plays Opus in MP4, MKV, Ogg, and WebM containers since Android 5.0. iOS and macOS play Opus in CAF and MP4 since iOS 11 / macOS 10.13, and gained Ogg-Opus support broadly with Safari 18.4 on iOS 18.4 / macOS 15.4 (April 2025). Windows plays Opus natively in Windows 10 1607+ and via VLC on older versions. For maximum compatibility with very old devices, convert MPEG to MP3 instead.

Why does Opus cap at 48 kHz when WAV can go to 192 kHz?

Human hearing tops out around 20 kHz, and 48 kHz sampling captures everything up to 24 kHz (the Nyquist limit). Opus is designed for delivery — streaming, calling, podcasting — where 48 kHz is the broadcast and film-mix standard. If you need 96 kHz or 192 kHz for production work, use MPEG to WAV and process the lossless audio in your DAW.

Can I keep the video and just compress it instead?

Yes — use Compress MPEG to keep the video and re-encode the audio at a lower bitrate in the same container. This page is for fully discarding the video and producing a standalone Opus audio file.

My source is MP4, not MPEG. Should I use this page?

No, use MP4 to Opus. Despite both being MPEG-family standards, .mp4 (ISO/IEC 14496-14) is a different container from MPEG-1/2 program streams (.mpg/.mpeg). MP4 audio is typically AAC, not MP2, so the source codec and demuxer path differ.