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Need help?MPEG-2 to MPEG-2: a Re-encode, Not a Repackage
Sending an .mpeg2 file through this page produces a brand new MPEG-2 program stream: the video is decoded and encoded again on our servers, not copied across. That is the point. It is how you shrink an oversized broadcast capture, cut a clip down to a section you actually need, force a specific frame size for an authoring tool, or rewrite a file whose header a player chokes on — while staying inside the MPEG-2 format that DVD authoring software, set-top boxes and broadcast ingest equipment expect. The trade is that MPEG-2 is a 1990s codec with a rate-control model to match, and the settings that work on it are not the ones you would reach for on H.264.
How to Convert MPEG-2 to MPEG-2
- Upload Your MPEG-2 File: Drag and drop the
.mpeg2onto the page or click "+ Add Files". Several files can be queued and they share one set of settings. - Choose a File Compression Mode: "Quality Preset" is preselected on "Very High (Recommended)". The alternatives are "Specific file size", "Constant Bitrate", "Variable Bitrate", "Constant Quality" and "Constraint Quality" — the table below explains which of them MPEG-2 can actually honour.
- Set the Video Resolution and Trim: "Video resolution" starts on "Keep original" and also offers "Resolution Percentage", "Preset Resolutions" (a target height, with width following the source aspect), "Width (Keep aspect ratio)", "Height (Keep aspect ratio)" and "Width x Height". "Trim" has an "Unchanged" entry and a time-range entry — pick the time range to enter a start time and a duration in seconds or as HH:MM:SS.sss.
- Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and take the file. The Video Codec and Audio Codec groups are fixed on this route — MPEG-2 video and MP2 audio are the only entries offered — so there is nothing to choose there. No sign-up, no watermark.
Which Rate-Control Modes MPEG-2 Actually Honours
MPEG-2 has no constant-rate-factor mode. Our encoder pipeline knows that, so the two quality-style modes are translated into a plain bitrate before the encoder ever runs — which means the number you type into them is discarded:
| Mode | What MPEG-2 does with it | Use it? |
|---|---|---|
| Quality Preset (preselected) | Scales the source's own bitrate: Highest 1.5x, Very High 1.32x, High 1.14x, Medium 0.9x, Low 0.72x, Very Low 0.54x, Lowest 0.3x | Yes, but note the default targets more bitrate than your source has |
| Specific file size | Works out the bitrate your target size implies and encodes to it | Yes — the most predictable way to hit a size |
| Constant Bitrate | Encodes at the bitrate you type | Yes |
| Variable Bitrate | Uses your bitrate with min/max bounds | Yes |
| Constant Quality | The value is thrown away and replaced with the minimum bitrate for the frame size | No |
| Constraint Quality | Same — the max-bitrate figure is discarded too | No |
That first row is the one that surprises people. "Very High (Recommended)" asks for 1.32 times the incoming bitrate, so a modest capture comes back larger. Encoding an 8-second 720 x 480 program stream that carried 1,061 kbps through those rules produced a 2,002,944-byte file at 2,000 kbps — roughly 1.9 times the original. If you came here to make the file smaller, pick Medium or lower, or name a target with "Specific file size".
The Minimum Bitrate Floor
MPEG-2 falls apart at low bitrates, so the pipeline refuses to aim below a floor derived from the output frame size — roughly 0.10 bits per pixel at standard definition, rising to 0.18 at 4K, times 30 frames per second, and never less than 2 Mbps:
| Output frame size | Floor the encoder will not go below |
|---|---|
| 640 x 480 and 720 x 480 (SD) | 2 Mbps |
| 1280 x 720 | ~2.8 Mbps |
| 1920 x 1080 | ~7.5 Mbps |
| 2560 x 1440 | ~16.6 Mbps |
| 3840 x 2160 | ~44.8 Mbps |
Ask for less and you get the floor. The practical consequence is that resolution, not bitrate, is your compression lever on MPEG-2: taking 1080p down to 480p drops the floor from about 7.5 Mbps to 2 Mbps, which no bitrate setting alone can achieve. If a smaller file is the whole goal and the format does not have to stay MPEG-2, a modern codec will beat it comfortably — MPEG-2 to MP4 re-encodes the same footage as H.264, and compress MPEG-2 adds a percentage-of-original target that this converter does not expose.
Anamorphic DVD Footage and the Resize Trap
A lot of .mpeg2 material is anamorphic: 720 x 480 or 720 x 576 pixels stored with a non-square pixel aspect so it displays as 16:9. That flag survives a "Keep original" conversion, but any resize flattens the pixel aspect to 1:1, so a widescreen DVD rip scaled with a preset or a percentage comes out horizontally squashed even though the pixel count looks right.
If your source is anamorphic and you need to resize it, work out the display dimensions yourself and enter them in "Width x Height" — 854 x 480 for 16:9 NTSC material, 1024 x 576 for 16:9 PAL — rather than using a height preset. And do not expect the conversion to fix interlacing: there is no deinterlacing step anywhere in this pipeline, so comb lines in fast motion are carried into the output exactly as the source recorded them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't I choose a different video codec on this page?
Because the target is MPEG-2, and the codec dropdowns collapse to a single legal entry: MPEG-2 for video and MP2 for audio. That is deliberate — the whole reason to write an .mpeg2 file is that something downstream expects MPEG-2 elementary streams inside an MPEG program stream, and putting H.264 in there would defeat it. If you want a different codec, pick a different target: MPEG-2 to MP4 gives you H.264 in a container that plays everywhere.
My player says the file is unsupported. Is the conversion broken?
Probably not — it is more likely the extension. The output is a standard MPEG program stream, but it is written with the .mpeg2 name, and plenty of players decide what to do from the extension alone. Rename the file to .mpg and most of them will open it immediately. If you would rather not rename anything, convert to MPEG-2 to MPEG instead, which produces the same stream under the .mpeg name.
Why is my output bigger than the file I uploaded?
Because the preselected "Very High (Recommended)" preset targets 1.32 times the source bitrate, and because the encoder will not aim below its floor for the frame size — 2 Mbps at standard definition. A capture that was already efficient at, say, 1 Mbps therefore comes back near 2 Mbps. Choose the "Medium" preset or lower, or switch to "Specific file size" and state the size you want.
Does converting MPEG-2 to MPEG-2 lose quality?
Yes. The stream is fully decoded and re-encoded, so this is a second lossy generation on top of whatever the original encode discarded — there is no pass-through or copy mode here. At high bitrates the loss is small, but it is real, and repeatedly round-tripping the same file will visibly soften it. Convert from the best copy you have rather than from an already-converted intermediate.
Will this clean up the comb lines in my DVD footage?
No. Those lines are interlacing: the source stores two fields captured a fraction of a second apart, and on anything moving they interleave into a comb pattern. Nothing in this pipeline deinterlaces, so the pattern is re-encoded as part of the picture. Deinterlace in a video editor or a dedicated tool before converting if the output needs to be progressive.
Can I cut out just one section instead of converting the whole file?
Yes. Set "Trim" to the time range and enter a start time and a duration — either in plain seconds or as HH:MM:SS.sss for frame-adjacent precision. Only that section is decoded and encoded, so a short excerpt from a long capture also converts far faster. For a fuller cutting interface with the same underlying behaviour, video cutter is the dedicated page.
What frame sizes should I avoid?
Anything whose width or height is an exact multiple of 4096. The MPEG-2 encoder rejects those dimensions outright, and the job fails rather than producing a slightly different size. This almost never affects real .mpeg2 sources, which are usually standard or high definition, but it is worth knowing if you are scaling a very large frame up. Every ordinary size — 720 x 480, 720 x 576, 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080 — is fine.
Is the audio re-encoded too, and what happens to multi-channel sound?
Yes, the audio is re-encoded as MP2, which is the only audio option offered on an MPEG-2 target and the codec the DVD and DVB specifications pair with MPEG-2 video. MP2 is a lossy layer-II format, so this is another generation for the soundtrack as well. If your source carries a multi-channel AC-3 track, do not assume the surround layout survives the trip — check the output before committing a project to it.
How are my files handled, and how long do you keep them?
Your file is uploaded over an encrypted connection, decoded and re-encoded on our servers, and deleted automatically a few hours after conversion — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public. MPEG-2 captures are large for their running time, so on a long recording the upload usually takes longer than the encode; trimming to the section you need before converting is the quickest way to cut both.