MPEG to MP4
MPG and MPEG files come from older camcorders, video CDs and television recorders, and VOB files from DVDs. Turn them into MP4, which plays everywhere. Everything happens on your own device, so your video is never uploaded.
How to use it
- Choose your MPG, MPEG or VOB files, or drag them onto the box.
- The page checks what is inside each file, then converts it on your device.
- Download each MP4, or all of them together as a ZIP file.
Which files work
MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video, with MP2, MP3, Dolby Digital (AC-3) or DVD uncompressed sound, as found in MPG, MPEG and VOB files and in MPEG-2 television recordings (.ts). Files holding something else are named and refused before anything starts.
DVD files
A DVD keeps its film in VOB files inside a VIDEO_TS folder, usually split into pieces of up to 1 GB; convert each piece on its own, within the size limit shown on the page. Shop-bought DVDs that are copy-protected cannot be converted here; your own discs, such as camcorder or recorder DVDs, convert normally.
Widescreen DVD pictures are stored squashed, and are stretched back to the right shape. Interlaced pictures, as recorded for television, are smoothed so that moving edges do not show comb-like lines.
How it works
Browsers cannot read these files on their own, so the page uses FilePresto's own converter: a small build of the open-source FFmpeg, made by FilePresto, that only reads files. It downloads once, about 0.7 MB, before your file is opened, and nothing is sent anywhere afterwards. The pictures and sound it reads are turned into H.264 video and AAC sound by your browser's own encoders, which is what makes the MP4 play everywhere. The converter's source code and build instructions are published on the licences page.
What is kept
The main video and its sound are kept. Subtitles and any extra sound tracks are left out, and the result says when this has happened. Surround sound is mixed down to stereo.
Limits
Videos are converted in the browser's memory, so very large files are refused before anything starts; the page shows the largest size tested on your kind of device. Converting older formats means decoding every picture and encoding it again, so it takes longer than simply rewrapping a file, and the page must stay open and on screen while it works, particularly on a phone.
Questions
Are my files uploaded?
No. The work happens inside your web browser, on your own device. Before your file is opened, this page locks itself: from then on your browser refuses to let it fetch, upload or send anything at all. You can check: once the page has loaded, switch off your internet connection and it will still work. How the lock works.