MPG to WMA Converter
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Supports: MPG, MPEG
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Need help?Extract WMA Audio From an MPG
MPG is an MPEG program stream — the VCD, DVD and digital-TV container that interleaves MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video with an audio track. This tool discards the picture and re-encodes the soundtrack as Windows Media Audio. Microsoft's own documentation is blunt about what the result is: "The extension wma or wmv is used to specify an ASF file that contains content encoded with the Windows Media Audio and/or Windows Media Video codecs." So a .wma is an ASF container carrying a WMA stream — the format Windows Media Player, older Windows software and a lot of legacy hardware expect.
How to Convert MPG to WMA
- Upload Your MPG File: Drag and drop the
.mpgor.mpegfile onto the page, or click "+ Add Files" to browse. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are processed on our servers, and are deleted automatically a few hours later — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public. - Leave Audio Codec on WMA v2: The Audio Codec group offers WMA v2 and WMA v1, and WMA v2 is what the WMA output default selects. Only pick WMA v1 if you are feeding software old enough to predate WMA v2 — it is worse at every bitrate.
- Pick a Rate-Control Mode Under File Compression: This page starts in Quality Preset mode. Constant Bitrate gives you an exact, repeatable rate — pick 24 kbps or higher, because the 8 and 16 kbps entries are rejected by the encoder. Custom Bitrate, Variable Bitrate and Specific file size are the other three modes.
- Convert and Download: Set Audio Channel, Audio Sample Rate and Trim if you need them, then click Convert and download the
.wma.
What Each Rate-Control Mode Actually Does
| Mode | What reaches the encoder | Range it can produce | Reach for it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality Preset (starting mode) | The preset is mapped across WMA's 32–320 kbps span and scaled for channel count and sample rate | 32–320 kbps | You want one dropdown and do not need an exact size |
| Constant Bitrate | Exactly the value you picked, with no clamping | 24–384 kbps usable; 8 and 16 kbps fail | You want a specific, repeatable rate — the most predictable option here |
| Variable Bitrate | A constant bitrate at the midpoint of the band you chose — WMA has no true VBR mode | 40–176 kbps depending on band | Never, really: Constant Bitrate says the same thing more honestly |
| Custom Bitrate | Your typed value, clamped into WMA's 32–320 kbps range | 32–320 kbps | You need a rate the Constant Bitrate list does not offer |
| Specific file size | A bitrate solved from your target size and the clip length, then clamped to 32–320 kbps | 32–320 kbps | The file has to fit under a hard size limit |
Because Quality Preset, Custom Bitrate and Specific file size are all clamped to WMA's 32 kbps floor, none of them can trip the encoder's minimum. The Constant Bitrate dropdown is the one path that is not clamped — which is exactly why its two lowest entries fail.
The "Variable Bitrate" Bands Are Constant Bitrates
WMA v1 and v2 have no genuine variable-bitrate quality mode in this pipeline, so every band in the Variable Bitrate dropdown resolves to a single constant rate at the middle of the range shown. That is by design rather than by accident, but it does mean the label promises something the output does not deliver.
| Band shown in the dropdown | Bitrate the encoder is actually given |
|---|---|
| 32k-48k | 40 kbps constant |
| 48k-64k | 56 kbps constant |
| 64k-80k | 72 kbps constant |
| 80k-96k | 88 kbps constant |
| 96k-128k | 112 kbps constant |
| 128k-160k | 144 kbps constant |
| 160k-192k | 176 kbps constant |
If a 112 kbps constant file is what you want, choosing Constant Bitrate → 112 kbps gets you there with no ambiguity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does 8 kbps or 16 kbps fail every time?
Because the WMA encoder refuses them. Ask it for 8000 bps and it stops with "bitrate too low: got 8000, need 24000 or higher" — and it does so at every sample rate and channel combination, so there is no setting that rescues those two entries. They are listed because the bitrate dropdown is shared across audio formats, and the other three modes on this page clamp their values into WMA's supported range before the encoder sees them, while the Constant Bitrate list does not. Pick 24 kbps or above. If you genuinely need a tiny speech file, 24 or 32 kbps mono is the floor here; MPG to MP3 will go lower if you must.
What bitrate should I pick for a DVD soundtrack?
For music, 128–192 kbps stereo is the sensible band — WMA v2 is a late-1990s codec and does not hold up at low rates the way modern encoders do, so being generous costs you little. For commentary, lectures, home video or anything speech-dominated, 64–96 kbps stereo or 48–64 kbps mono is plenty. Remember that the source is already compressed: a DVD's Dolby Digital track tops out at 448 kbit/s and its MPEG-1 Layer II track at 912 kbit/s, and you are re-encoding that lossy audio a second time, so squeezing hard is audible faster than it would be from a lossless master.
My DVD had 5.1 surround. Where did the other channels go?
Downmixed to stereo, and unavoidably so — WMA v1 and WMA v2 are limited to two channels in this pipeline, so a 5.1 AC-3 or DTS track is folded down whether you leave Audio Channel on Original or set it explicitly. If keeping the discrete surround channels matters, do not convert to WMA: MPG to AAC or MPG to FLAC preserve multichannel audio.
What sample rate should I use?
Leave Audio Sample Rate on Original in almost every case. Every audio format DVD-Video permits runs at 48 kHz — Dolby Digital, DTS and MPEG-1 Layer II all specify it, and Linear PCM uses 48 or 96 kHz — so that is what your MPG almost certainly holds, and resampling it to 44100 Hz only adds a conversion step for no benefit. Drop to 24000 or 16000 Hz deliberately when the content is speech and the file has to be tiny — at those rates you are removing treble the voice never used anyway.
Should I ever choose WMA v1 over WMA v2?
Almost never. WMA v2 replaced v1 early in the format's life and is what Windows Media Player, Windows itself and virtually every WMA-capable device expect; it produces better audio at the same bitrate. WMA v1 exists on this page for the rare case of software or firmware old enough to reject a v2 stream. If you are unsure, keep the default.
Can I convert just one scene's audio instead of the whole file?
Yes — use the Trim control here rather than converting first and cutting later. Set Start time and Duration, in plain seconds or as HH:MM:SS.sss, and only that span is encoded. For a long DVD rip it is also faster to trim the source video first with our Video Cutter and convert the short result, since upload time dominates on large files.
Is WMA still worth using in 2026?
Only when something specific requires it. Microsoft now flags the Windows Media Format SDK as a legacy feature superseded by newer APIs, and browsers, phones and streaming services have long since standardised elsewhere. WMA remains genuinely useful for old Windows applications, in-car head units from the 2000s, and archives where the rest of the library is already WMA. For anything else, MPG to MP3 is more universally playable and MPG to M4A sounds better per byte.
How are my files handled while this runs?
The MPG is uploaded over an encrypted connection and processed on our servers; both the upload and the finished .wma are deleted automatically a few hours later. There is no sign-up, no watermark, and files are never shared or made public. The audio is always re-encoded — there is no path that copies the MPEG-1 Layer II or Dolby Digital stream through untouched, because neither codec can live inside an ASF file as WMA.