ODG to MPEG-2 Converter

ODG to MPEG2: A Drawing Encoded with the DVD-Era Codec

.odg is an OpenDocument Graphics drawing — LibreOffice Draw's editable shapes, connectors and text frames, stored as XML in a ZIP package. MPEG-2 is the video coding standard behind DVDs and digital television, standardised as ISO/IEC 13818-2 and published by the ITU as Recommendation H.262, released in 1995-1996. This page renders your drawing and encodes each page as a silent held frame using that codec, inside an MPEG program stream — the shape of file that DVD authoring tools, older editing suites and broadcast equipment still ingest.

How to Convert ODG to MPEG2

1. Upload Your ODG File: Drag the .odg onto the page or click "+ Add Files". With several files, Merge strategy decides the result: "Merge images" builds one stream holding each drawing in turn, "Video per image" writes one file per upload.
2. Set the Video Resolution First: This is the control that matters most here. Video resolution opens on "Keep original", which for an A4 drawing means a 300 DPI render near 2480 x 3508 pixels — and MPEG-2's minimum bitrate scales with the pixel count, so that costs far more than the picture is worth. Pick 720 x 480, 720 x 576 or 1280 x 720 instead.
3. Set the Image Duration and Background Color: Image Duration → Duration controls how long each rendered page is held — 5 seconds by default, from a 1/60-second frame up to 10 seconds. Background Color, White by default, fills any area the page does not cover in the chosen frame.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and save the file. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.

MPEG-2 at a Glance

What the Conversion Does

The .odg is not handed to an image decoder. LibreOffice opens it as a Draw document, exports it with Draw's own PDF filter, and each PDF page is rendered before the encoder compresses it.

Page count survives the trip: a four-page drawing becomes four held frames inside one stream, in page order, each shown for the Image Duration. Fonts are resolved on our servers during the render, so a drawing that depends on a typeface installed only on your own machine can reflow — converting the text to curves in Draw (Shape ▸ Convert ▸ To Curve) before uploading pins the letterforms.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the quality slider barely change the file?

Because MPEG-2 has no CRF-style quality mode in this pipeline. A Constant Quality or Constraint Quality request is rewritten into a bitrate target computed from the frame's pixel count, and the encoder will not drop below the minimum bitrate that resolution requires — below it, MPEG-2 fails outright rather than compressing further. Frame size is the control that genuinely moves the output.

Why is my MPEG-2 file so much larger than an H.264 version?

MPEG-2 is a 1990s codec with far weaker prediction and entropy coding, and it is being asked to hold a frame at a minimum bitrate rather than letting a static picture collapse to almost nothing. The same drawing through ODG to MP4 at 1080p is typically a small fraction of the size, because H.264 spends almost nothing on an unchanging frame.

Is the output a .mpeg2 file or an MPEG program stream?

The extension names the codec; the bytes are an MPEG program stream, the same wrapper .mpg and .mpeg use. Most software that reads MPEG-2 does not care about the file name and identifies the stream by its pack header. If a tool refuses the extension, ODG to MPG writes the same content under the name legacy readers expect.

Does the file have any audio?

No. An ODG is a still drawing with nothing to encode, so the Audio Codec group does not render and the muxer writes a video-only stream. If a broadcast validator or DVD authoring tool requires an audio track, add a silent one at the authoring stage rather than expecting it here.

What happens to a multi-page drawing?

Each page is rendered and held in turn inside the same stream, in page order, for the Image Duration you set — so a three-page drawing at the 5-second default runs 15 seconds. To get one file per page instead, save the pages as separate .odg files in LibreOffice Draw, upload them together and set Merge strategy to "Video per image".

Will thin lines and small text survive the encode?

Mostly, if you help them. MPEG-2 stores colour at 4:2:0, so saturated hairlines — red on white especially — can fringe slightly, and low bitrates blur hard edges. Choosing a larger frame size, thickening hairlines in Draw before converting, and avoiding pure-saturation colours for fine detail all do more than any encoder setting available on this page.

Is MPEG-2 the right choice for a diagram at all?

Only when the destination is a DVD authoring tool, a legacy editor, or broadcast equipment that predates H.264. For everything else it is the wrong trade: bigger files, softer edges and narrower modern support. ODG to MP4 plays essentially everywhere, and ODG to PNG is better still if a picture would do.

How are my uploaded files handled?

Your drawing travels over an encrypted connection, is rendered and encoded on our servers, and is deleted automatically a few hours later along with everything it produced. Nothing is shared, published or reused, no account is required, and no watermark is applied. The ODG converter hub lists every other target for the same source file.