MPG to FLAC Converter

Extract FLAC Audio from MPG

An MPG file is an MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 program stream — the DVD, Video CD, and broadcast-era video container whose soundtrack is almost always MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2) or Dolby AC-3. This tool demultiplexes that stream, discards the video, and re-encodes the audio track on its own as a lossless FLAC file. The one thing to know going in: FLAC stores an exact copy of whatever audio is already there — it does not add fidelity to a track that was recorded with a lossy codec.

How to Convert MPG to FLAC

1. Upload Your MPG File: Drag and drop your .mpg or .mpeg file onto the page, or click "+ Add Files". Queue several clips to extract them all in one batch with the same settings.
2. Set the Compression Level: Open "Show All Options" and use the Compression level slider (1-12). A lower number encodes faster and leaves the file slightly larger; a higher number squeezes it smaller. Every level is lossless — the slider trades encode time for size, never quality.
3. Adjust Audio Channel, Sample Rate, or Trim (Optional): Leave Audio Channel and Audio Sample Rate on "Original" to copy the source exactly, downmix surround to stereo, or change the rate if your editor needs a fixed one. Use Trim to keep only a start-to-duration slice.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and download your FLAC file. No sign-up, no watermark.

Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically a few hours after conversion — never shared or made public.

What You Get: MPG Audio vs the FLAC Output

Frequently Asked Questions

Does converting MPG to FLAC improve the audio quality?

No. The audio inside an MPG is normally MPEG-1 Layer II (MP2) or Dolby AC-3 — both lossy codecs that permanently discard detail when the file is first recorded. FLAC is lossless, but lossless only means it preserves exactly what you give it; it cannot rebuild data the original encode already threw away. You get a faithful, edit-ready copy of the existing audio, not a higher-fidelity version. The ceiling is set by the source, not by FLAC.

Why is my FLAC file larger than the MPG's audio track?

Because FLAC keeps the full decoded waveform instead of the compact lossy stream. MP2 might run 224 kbps inside a Video CD or DVD, while FLAC stores every sample losslessly and typically lands several times higher. When the source is already lossy, the encoder also has fewer clean patterns to exploit, so the file can grow rather than shrink. In our testing, a 60-second MPG with 48 kHz stereo MP2 audio produced a FLAC around 6-8 MB. If a small, shareable file matters more than losslessness, use MPG to MP3 instead.

Does this keep the video, or only the audio?

Only the audio. MPG to FLAC is an extract-and-encode operation: the converter drops the MPEG video stream entirely and writes just the audio track to a FLAC file. That is why the output is a fraction of a standard-definition MPG's size — the picture data, which is the bulk of the file, simply isn't in the result. To keep the moving picture, convert to MPG to MP4 instead.

What does the Compression level slider actually change?

Encoding effort, not sound. FLAC is lossless at every setting from 1 to 12, so all of them reproduce the source audio bit-for-bit. A higher number just makes the encoder search harder for a smaller file and takes longer; a lower number finishes faster with a marginally larger file. The size gap between the extremes is usually only a few percent, and the audio is identical either way.

Is FLAC actually free to use, or are there patent issues?

FLAC is genuinely free. The Xiph.Org FLAC project describes it as non-proprietary, unencumbered by patents, with an open-source reference implementation, and it is now formally standardized as IETF RFC 9639 (December 2024). That open, royalty-free status is a key reason it's favored for long-term archiving over lossless formats that carry proprietary licensing.