MPEG was developed in 1993 as MPEG-1 and it was a very popular format for audio and video storage. Today it is the most compatible media format in the world. When the format first appeared, it was innovate and ahead of its time, provided relatively high quality files while reducing their size and made it easy to upload and download files.
MP4 is one of the most popular video formats that is used for sharing, and playing videos. But sometimes, we need to convert MP4 to MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 so that we can put it on a flash drive and view on a flatscreen TV (that requires it be mpeg1 or mpeg2). Or you want to edit MP4 in NLE software, you also need to convert MP4 to MPEG-4, MPEG-2. Another case is, when you want to burn MP4 video to a DVD, you need to convert MP4 to MPEG-1, MPEG-2.
You can find free trials of programs to change MP4 to MPEG1/MPEG-2/MPEG-4, but they all leave a 'watermark' on the video. Today, we suggest you totally free converter programs that will convert from MP4 to MPEG 1 or MPEG-2, MPEG-4. Before that, you may want to figure out what is MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MP4.
MPEG stands for Moving Picture Expert Group in charge of the development of standards for coded representation of digital audio and video. The most popular are MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 in the market. MP4 and MPG both adopt MPEG as its encoder. Commonly, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoder are used in MPG format; MPEG-4 encoder is used in MP4.
MPEG-1 - MPEG adopted H.261 and JPEG together to form what is called a ‘Suite’. The specific name for the first suite is MPEG-1. It was limited to 1.5 Mbps, 4:2:0 and stereo audio only. At the time, there was PAL, NTSC and VHS, and that’s all it had to cater to.
MPEG2 - a video standard developed by MPEG group, is often used in digital TVs, DVD movies and in SVCDs. It is not a successor for MPEG1, but an addition instead.
MPEG4 - MPEG-4 is a further coding method with very high compression ratio and small impact on image quality. In addition to the more efficient coding of video, MPEG-4 moves closer to computer graphics applications.
MP4 - Part 14 describes a container format for MPEG-4 codecs, as in *.mp4. That’s all this is.
File Extension | MP4 | MPEG |
File Type | MPEG-4 Video File | MPEG Video |
Description | MP4 is a standard developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG); commonly used for sharing video files on the Internet.The MPEG-4 video is compressed with MPEG-4 video encoding. Audio is compressed using AAC compression. | Popular video format standardized by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG); compressed using MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 compression; often used for creating movies that are distributed over the Internet. |
Developed by | Moving Picture Experts Group | Moving Picture Experts Group |
Difference | MP4's biggest difference from the other MPEG formats is its ability to store subtitles, still images and other data along with digital video and audio. | MPEG-1 is used with video compact discs (VCDs) while the higher-quality MPEG-2 is used for DVDs. |
Help You Choose | MP4 is currently the most widely-used video format, so you can freely use MP4 format with few problems. | If you'd like to back up videos in CD/DVD, you probably need MPEG format. |
Below are two totally free programs that can convert MP4 to MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. You can click each tab to enter the specific guide to batch change MP4 to MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 using the two applications.
Pavtube Free Video DVD Converter Ultimate is a blazing-fast, intuitive all-in-one media freeware which enables you to convert MP4, MPEG-4 to MPEG-1, MPEG-2 by batch. Besides MP4, it also can convert MKV, AVI, FLV, TS, Tivo, etc to MPEG-1, MPEG-2 to make you burn to DVD. 'Drag-and-drop' feature is also supported. Just put the MP4 files to the interface and then choose MPEG-1, MPEG-2 format. Then you can finish the process. Even though you are not a tech-savvy preson, you can complete the task easily.
Now, you can follow the steps below to change MP4, MPEG-4 files to MPEG-1, MPEG-2.
Step 1 Load MP4, MPEG-4 files
Click 'Add Vide/Audio' or 'Add from folder' button to load your MP4 files video or audio files. You can load your MPEG-4 MP4, H.264 MP4, H.265 MP4, DivX MP4 to re-encode to MPEG-1, MPEG-2.
If you want to batch convert MP4 video to MPEG1, MPEG2, you can load all your files and check all the titles.
Step 2 Choose MPEG-1, MPEG-2 format
Click on the Format bar and you can choose MPEG-1, MPEG-2 from 'Common Video'. Here you can find that you also can convert MP4 files to DivX AVI, XviD AVI, WMV, etc files as you need.
Tip: Adjust video/audio Settings (Optional)
To achieve best video and audio playback, you could click the “Settings” button to customize output video quality like resolution, frame rate, bit rate, audio channel, etc.
Step 3 Start to convert MP4 to MPEG-1, MPEG-2
After above settings, click the big “Convert” button to start to batch change MP4, MPEG-4 files to MPEG-1, MPEG-2. Once the conversion is done, simply click the “Open output folder” button, find the created file and watch it freely.
WinFF is available for many Linux distributions, languages, and Windows 95 to Windows 8.
You can donwload WinFF from http://winff.org/html_new/downloads.html
When you donwload and install WinFF, the program can be found at Start/All programs/Video Converters/WinFF.
1) To select the videos you want to convert, select Add.
2) Select the video you want to convert and press Open.
3) Set the Output Details to:
Convert To: MPEG-4
Device Preset: MPEG-4 720P
Output Folder: F:(Your Folder)
3) Click Convert, sit wait, and when it is done, you have a finished video!
Now, you have use WinFF to convert your any MP4 video files to MPEG-4. You also can use WinFF to convert AVI to MPEG-4.
Free Video DVD Converter Ultimate only can convert video to MPEG-1, MPEG2 and it doens't output MPEG-4 M4V, MPEG-4 MP4, H.264 MP4. On the other hand, WinFF only output MPEG-4 video not including MPEG-1, MPEG-2. Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate contains all the functions of the above two programs. But it is a free-to-trial software with watermark output.
- Convert MP4 to MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 by batch.
- Convert MKV, AVI, WMV, TS, etc to MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4.
- Rip Bluray, DVD, ISO, BDMV folder and Video-TS folder to MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4.
- Change MPG to MP4 video including H.264 MP4, H.265 MP4, MPEG-4 MP4.
- Allow you to adjust video and audio codec, bitrate, frame rate, sample rate, etc.
- Simple video editing software: trim, crop, merge, split, rorate, add subtitle, etc.
Free Download and Install