Convert MPEG to VOC — Free Online Tool
Convert MPEG video files to VOC audio format, extracting the audio stream and encoding it as raw PCM data compatible with Creative Labs Sound Blaster hardware and DOS-era applications. The conversion decodes the MPEG audio track (typically MP2 or AAC) and re-encodes it as unsigned 8-bit PCM, the native format expected by classic VOC-compatible software.
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FFmpeg Command
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Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
This conversion is audio-only: the MPEG video stream is discarded entirely, and only the audio track is processed. FFmpeg decodes the compressed audio from the MPEG container — which is commonly encoded as MP2 or MP3 — and re-encodes it as raw unsigned 8-bit PCM (pcm_u8), wrapping it in a VOC container. The VOC format does not support video, chapters, multiple audio tracks, or metadata beyond basic sample rate and channel information. Because MPEG audio is lossy and VOC/pcm_u8 is a lossless PCM format, the re-encoding does not introduce additional compression artifacts, but it also cannot recover quality already lost in the original MPEG encoding. The output file will be significantly larger per second of audio than the MPEG source, since PCM stores raw uncompressed samples rather than compressed data.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg tool, which handles all demuxing, decoding, encoding, and muxing in this conversion pipeline. In the browser-based version of this tool, FFmpeg runs as a WebAssembly binary with no server involvement. |
-i input.mpeg
|
Specifies the input MPEG file, which may contain an MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video stream alongside an MP2, MP3, or AAC audio track. FFmpeg will demux both streams but only the audio will be used in this conversion. |
-c:a pcm_u8
|
Selects unsigned 8-bit PCM as the audio encoder for the output VOC file. This matches the native audio format of the original Sound Blaster hardware and is the most broadly compatible option for DOS-era VOC playback environments. |
output.voc
|
Defines the output filename with a .voc extension, which causes FFmpeg to use the VOC muxer. The resulting file contains a VOC header followed by raw unsigned 8-bit PCM audio blocks, with no video data from the original MPEG included. |
Common Use Cases
- Extracting audio from vintage MPEG footage or digitized VHS recordings for use in a DOS game mod or retro multimedia project that requires VOC-format sound effects
- Preparing sound clips from MPEG-encoded broadcast recordings for playback on original Sound Blaster hardware or DOSBox emulation environments
- Converting a short MPEG audio segment — such as a jingle or sound effect — into a VOC file for use in a legacy interactive kiosk or early 1990s-style CD-ROM application
- Stripping the audio from an MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video for archival in a format compatible with classic audio editors and trackers that supported the VOC format natively
- Creating retro-compatible audio assets from modern MPEG source material for indie developers building games targeted at period-accurate DOS or early Windows environments
Frequently Asked Questions
The original MPEG audio (typically MP2 or MP3) is already lossy, so some quality was lost when the MPEG file was first created. Re-encoding to pcm_u8 VOC does not add further compression artifacts because PCM is an uncompressed format. However, unsigned 8-bit PCM has a very limited dynamic range — only 256 amplitude levels — which is noticeably lower fidelity than the 16-bit audio most modern listeners are accustomed to. For critical audio, consider whether pcm_s16le (16-bit PCM) might be a better fit if your target application supports it.
MPEG audio codecs like MP2 and MP3 use perceptual compression to shrink file sizes dramatically. VOC with pcm_u8 stores raw, uncompressed audio samples — one byte per sample per channel. At a typical 44100 Hz stereo signal, that amounts to roughly 88 KB per second of audio, whereas an MP2 stream at 192 kbps would only use about 24 KB per second. This size increase is expected and is not a sign of an error in conversion.
Yes, FFmpeg will carry the original audio sample rate from the MPEG source into the VOC output unless you explicitly override it with a -ar flag. However, older Sound Blaster hardware and some legacy applications only reliably support specific sample rates such as 8000, 11025, 22050, or 44100 Hz. If your target playback environment has restrictions, you should add -ar 22050 (or your desired rate) to the command before the output filename.
Yes, VOC supports both pcm_u8 and pcm_s16le. To use 16-bit signed PCM, change the command to: ffmpeg -i input.mpeg -c:a pcm_s16le output.voc. This doubles the file size compared to 8-bit PCM but provides significantly better dynamic range and fidelity, making it preferable if your playback environment supports 16-bit VOC files. Original Sound Blaster cards supported 8-bit only, while Sound Blaster 16 and later cards support 16-bit playback.
The video stream is completely ignored and does not appear in the output. VOC is a pure audio container with no capability to store video data, so FFmpeg automatically drops the video. You do not need to add a -vn flag explicitly for this conversion, though adding it causes no harm and makes the intent explicit in the command.
On Linux or macOS, you can use a shell loop: for f in *.mpeg; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:a pcm_u8 "${f%.mpeg}.voc"; done. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.mpeg) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:a pcm_u8 "%~nf.voc". This applies the same pcm_u8 encoding to every MPEG file in the directory, producing a matching VOC file for each one. Files larger than 1 GB that exceed the browser tool's limit are well-suited to this desktop batch approach.
Technical Notes
The VOC format was designed for the Creative Labs Sound Blaster family of ISA sound cards and uses a block-based structure with a fixed header identifying sample rate, bit depth, and channel count. FFmpeg's VOC muxer supports pcm_u8 (unsigned 8-bit, mono or stereo) and pcm_s16le (signed 16-bit little-endian). The default codec used here is pcm_u8, which mirrors the original Sound Blaster 1.0 and 2.0 capability. MPEG files can contain either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video paired with MP2, MP3, or AAC audio; all of these are decoded by FFmpeg before being re-encoded as PCM, so the source audio codec does not affect the output. One important limitation: if the source MPEG has stereo audio, the stereo channels are preserved in the VOC file, but very old playback hardware may only support mono — use -ac 1 to downmix to mono if needed. The VOC format does not support metadata fields like title or artist, so any ID3 or stream-level tags present in the MPEG file will be silently dropped. There is no audio quality parameter for this conversion because PCM encoding has no lossy compression settings; the only meaningful quality controls are sample rate (-ar) and bit depth (choosing between pcm_u8 and pcm_s16le).