MPEG to XviD Converter

Convert MPEG to Xvid Online

Xvid is the open-source MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile encoder that hardware DivX players, older set-top boxes, and a generation of media players were built to decode. Feeding it an MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 program stream is the classic "get this DVD rip onto the living-room player" conversion, and it is still the right move when the target device predates H.264. Two things about this conversion catch people out — the file extension, and the quality field — and both are covered below.

How to Convert MPEG to Xvid

1. Upload Your MPEG File: Drag and drop, or click "+ Add Files" to select one or more .mpeg / .mpg files. Batch uploads are supported and every file uses the same settings.
2. Pick a File Compression Mode: Quality Preset is the default at "Very High (Recommended)". Constraint Quality is usually the better pick here — it pairs the quality field with a Max bitrate ceiling. Specific file size, Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate and Constant Quality are the other modes.
3. Choose the Audio Codec and Video resolution: Audio Codec offers MP3 (the default for this target), AAC, AC3, MP2, EAC3, DTS, FLAC, Vorbis, Speex, WMA and several PCM variants. Video resolution defaults to Keep original; Resolution Percentage, Preset Resolutions, Width, Height and Width x Height are available.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are processed on our servers, and are deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared.

The .xvid Extension Is Not a Container

Xvid is a codec, not a file format. The file you download is named .xvid, and what is inside it is an AVI: Xvid-encoded MPEG-4 ASP video plus your chosen audio track, wrapped in standard AVI structures. Most players will not open it under that name because they dispatch on the extension.

The fix takes two seconds: rename movie.xvid to movie.avi. Nothing about the bytes changes, and every player that handles AVI will then open it. If you would rather not deal with the rename at all, run MPEG to AVI instead and pick Xvid as the video codec there — same encoder, correct extension from the start.

Getting the File Size You Want

The quality field on this page is labelled CRF, but Xvid does not have a CRF mode. What that field actually sets is a qscale value on a 1-31 scale, and the scale runs the opposite way to the H.264 numbers most people have memorised: 1 is the best quality and the largest file, 31 is the worst quality and the smallest. An x264 habit of typing 23 lands you near the bottom of the range, not in the middle.

The effect is not subtle. In our testing, a 10-second 720p clip encoded through this path came out at 14.4 MB at quality 2 and 1.7 MB at quality 23 — roughly an eight-fold swing across the same footage. Set the number deliberately; do not accept whatever the field happens to show.

MPEG vs Xvid Output

Frequently Asked Questions

Why won't my .xvid file open in VLC or Windows?

Because players choose a demuxer from the extension, and .xvid is not a container name any of them recognise. The contents are a perfectly ordinary AVI. Rename the file to .avi and it will open everywhere — no re-conversion, no quality change, nothing lost. This trips up nearly everyone on their first Xvid conversion.

Is the quality field really backwards?

Yes, on this codec. It is labelled CRF because the same control is shared across every video target, but Xvid uses qscale, where 1 is best and 31 is worst. On H.264 targets the same field is a genuine 0-51 CRF where lower is also better but the useful range sits around 18-28 — those numbers do not transfer. On Xvid, treat 2-4 as high quality, 5-8 as a sensible middle, and anything above 15 as visibly degraded.

Why did my file get bigger instead of smaller?

Almost certainly the default Quality Preset. On codecs without a true constant-quality mode, the preset scales the source video's own bitrate, and the "Very High" setting targets roughly 1.32 times the source rate — so a DVD-rate MPEG-2 source can come out larger than it went in. If shrinking is the goal, use Specific file size and name the number, or Constraint Quality with a Max bitrate ceiling.

What is the difference between Xvid and DivX here?

They are two implementations of the same underlying idea — MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile — with Xvid being the GPL fork that grew out of OpenDivX in 2001 and DivX being the commercial line. Files from either decode on the same DivX-certified hardware. If your target device is labelled DivX rather than Xvid, MPEG to DivX is the matching page; the practical difference is small.

Will converting to Xvid fix the combing on my DVD rip?

No. There is no deinterlacing step in this conversion, so an interlaced MPEG-2 source keeps its field structure and the comb pattern is encoded straight into the Xvid stream. Xvid does support interlaced coding, but nothing here detects or removes interlacing for you. Deinterlace in a video editor first if the artifacts matter.

What happens to my widescreen aspect ratio?

Keep original leaves the source's pixel aspect ratio alone, so an anamorphic 16:9 DVD source stays 16:9. Choosing any resize option normalises pixels to square, which squashes anamorphic material — a 480p preset on a 720x480 16:9 source produces a 3:2 picture. When you need to resize anamorphic footage, use Width x Height and type the display size: 854 x 480 for 16:9 NTSC, 1024 x 576 for 16:9 PAL.

Which audio codec should I choose for a hardware player?

MP3 is the default here and the safest choice for DivX-certified hardware, which was designed around MP3-in-AVI. AC-3 is the next most widely supported on set-top boxes and preserves surround channels from a DVD source. AAC, FLAC, Vorbis and the PCM options all encode correctly but are far less likely to decode on a player from the Xvid era, so save those for desktop playback.

Should I be converting to Xvid at all in 2026?

Only for a specific reason. Xvid earns its place when the playback device cannot decode H.264 — an older DivX-certified DVD player, a legacy car head unit, an embedded display — or when you are matching an existing library. For anything with a modern decoder, H.264 in an MP4 delivers better quality per byte and far broader compatibility, which is MPEG to MP4.