PSD to MPG Converter

Convert PSD to MPG: What This Tutorial Covers

A .psd is an Adobe Photoshop document — a layered raster working file. An .mpg is an MPEG program stream, the container legacy DVD-authoring tools, set-top boxes and broadcast ingest systems still accept. This page turns one into the other: the converter reads the flattened composite of your PSD, holds that single picture on screen for a duration you choose, and writes it as a silent MPEG-2 clip. Two things about this specific pair will decide whether your job succeeds, and both are covered below: the codec dropdown offers an MPEG-1 option that a still image can never satisfy, and very large PSDs can land on a frame size the MPEG-2 encoder refuses outright.

How to Convert PSD to MPG

1. Upload Your PSD File: Drag and drop your .psd onto the page or click "+ Add Files". Queue several and use Merge strategy — "Merge images" (the default) chains them into one clip, "Video per image" returns a separate MPG per file.
2. Leave Video Codec on MPEG-2: The Video Codec group offers MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, and MPEG-2 is what the page opens with. Do not switch to MPEG-1 — the reason is in "Common Errors" below.
3. Set Image Duration and Video Resolution: Image Duration controls how long the still is held, from a single frame (1/60s) up to 10 seconds per frame, and opens on "5 seconds per frame". Under Video resolution, pick Fixed Resolutions and an explicit width × height rather than leaving "Keep original" if your artwork is larger than 4096 px on any side.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert and save the .mpg. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared.

Walk-through: Frame Size Is the Only Real Control

Under File Compression you get three modes — Quality Preset, Constant Quality and Constraint Quality. On an MPEG-2 target none of them behaves the way the labels suggest, and it is worth understanding why before you spend time tuning them.

MPEG-2 has no constant-rate-factor mode at all; it is a pure bitrate codec. Our MPEG-2 encoder therefore converts whatever quality mode you picked into a bitrate target, then compares that target against a minimum derived from the output resolution — roughly 0.10 to 0.18 bits per pixel at a 30 fps reference, with a hard floor of 2 Mbps — and raises anything lower to that minimum. The practical consequences:

• Quality Preset has nothing to scale. A still image has no source bitrate for the preset to work from, so moving it between "Highest" and "Lowest" does not move the output on this page.
• Constant Quality is accepted and then discarded — the encoder logs that it has no quality mode and substitutes the resolution-derived minimum bitrate.
• Constraint Quality lets you type a Max bitrate, which is the closest thing to a real handle here, but any value below the resolution minimum is raised to it.
• Video resolution is the control that actually changes the file. Halving the frame height roughly quarters the pixel count, which is what the minimum-bitrate formula keys on.

So: set the frame size you want, take the bitrate the encoder gives you, and do not expect the quality dropdowns to earn their keep on this pair. If you want a codec where a quality slider genuinely works, PSD to MP4 uses H.264, which is CRF-based.

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

• "MPEG-1/2 does not support 5/1 fps" / the job fails the moment you pick MPEG-1 — Still images are encoded at 1 fps in this pipeline. MPEG-1 can only signal the eight frame rates in its standard table (23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, 60); it has no frame-rate extension field, so a 1 fps still is unrepresentable and the encoder refuses to open. MPEG-2 does have the extension fields and accepts it. Fix: leave Video Codec on MPEG-2.
• A huge square or 4:3 PSD fails at "Keep original" — Every image is normalised to a PNG capped at 4096 px on its long edge before encoding. If that lands your frame on exactly 4096 in either direction, the MPEG-1/2 encoder rejects it with "Width or Height are not allowed to be multiples of 4096". We reproduced this directly: 4096×4096 and 4096×3072 are both refused, while 4094×2730 encodes without complaint. Fix: choose an explicit frame size under Video resolution — 1920×1080 or 1280×720 are always safe.
• Transparent areas came out white — MPEG-2 has no alpha channel, so anything transparent in the PSD is filled with the Background Color, which opens on White for image sources. Pick Black or any of the other 24 swatches, or export the artwork as an image instead with PSD to PNG.
• The clip is silent — By design. The audio codec group is hidden outright on an image source, so no audio stream is written at all. Add a soundtrack afterwards in a video editor.
• The .mpg will not play in a browser or on a phone — .mpg is not an HTML5 <video> format and MPEG-2 is not a mobile codec. Use PSD to MP4 for anything that has to play on the modern web.
• Layer effects, adjustment layers or hidden layers are missing — Only the flattened composite is read. See the table below.

What Reaches the MPG, and What Does Not

MPG Output at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does picking MPEG-1 make the conversion fail every time?

Because a still image is encoded at 1 fps and MPEG-1 cannot express that frame rate. The MPEG-1 bitstream carries a 4-bit frame-rate code that indexes a fixed table of eight rates — 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94 and 60 fps — and there is no extension mechanism to signal anything else. MPEG-2 added frame_rate_extension_n/d fields precisely so arbitrary rates could be carried, which is why the same still encodes fine as MPEG-2. The encoder reports it as "MPEG-1/2 does not support 5/1 fps" and stops. Leave the codec on MPEG-2.

Will my Photoshop layers survive in the MPG?

No, and they cannot. The converter reads the flattened composite that Photoshop stores alongside the layer data — the same picture you see with every visible layer turned on — and encodes that. Layers, masks, adjustment layers, smart objects and editable type are not addressable in this pipeline, so no setting brings them back. Keep the original .psd as your working master. If what you actually want is a flat image rather than video, PSD to PNG is lossless and keeps transparency.

Why is my converted MPG completely silent?

Because there is nothing to encode. A flattened Photoshop document carries no audio, and on an image source the audio codec group is hidden outright rather than defaulted to something — the resulting file has a video stream and no audio stream at all. That is deliberate, not a fault. To add music or narration, convert here first and then bring the .mpg into a video editor.

My PSD is 6000 px wide — will that work?

Yes, but not at "Keep original". Anything over 4096 px on the long edge is scaled down to that cap before encoding, which frequently lands the frame on exactly 4096 px — and the MPEG-1/2 encoder rejects any width or height that is an exact multiple of 4096. The reliable move is to pick Fixed Resolutions and an explicit size such as 1920×1080 or 3840×2160, which sidesteps both the cap and the multiple-of-4096 rule.

Does raising the Quality Preset make the video look better?

Not on this page. Quality Preset scales a source bitrate, and a still image does not have one — so on an MPEG-2 target from an image source the preset has nothing to act on. MPEG-2 also has no CRF mode, so Constant Quality is converted to a bitrate and Constraint Quality's Max bitrate is clamped upward to a resolution-derived minimum. If you want a bigger, cleaner file, raise the frame size; if you want a real quality slider, use a CRF codec via PSD to MP4.

Can I turn a folder of PSDs into one MPG slideshow?

Yes. Upload several .psd files and leave Merge strategy on "Merge images"; each flattened still is held for the Image Duration you set and they play back to back as a single clip, so total length is the file count multiplied by the per-image duration. Choose "Video per image" instead if you want one separate MPG per file. Every image in the batch is normalised the same way, so mixed dimensions are padded with the Background Color rather than stretched.

Should I convert PSD to MPG or to MP4?

MP4 unless something specifically demands MPEG. .mpg with MPEG-2 exists for DVD authoring, older set-top hardware and broadcast ingest, and it is the right pick when a tool refuses anything else. For everything else MP4/H.264 is smaller at the same visual quality, plays natively in browsers and on phones, and gives you a quality control that actually responds — see PSD to MP4. If you want to compare all the still-to-video targets in one place, the PSD converter hub lists them.

How are my files handled, and how long are they kept?

Your PSD is uploaded over an encrypted connection, converted on our servers, and both the upload and the finished .mpg are deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, and your file is never shared or made public. There is no fixed file-count cap; on a large layered PSD the practical limit is upload time, since the whole document is sent before it is flattened and encoded.