Convert MPEG to WMA — Free Online Tool
Convert MPEG video files to WMA audio by extracting the MP2 or AAC audio track and re-encoding it using the Windows Media Audio v2 (wmav2) codec. This is ideal for pulling the soundtrack from legacy MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 broadcasts and making it compatible with Windows Media Player and Microsoft ecosystem applications.
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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
MPEG files typically carry audio encoded as MP2 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer II) or occasionally AAC, wrapped alongside MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video. During this conversion, FFmpeg discards the video stream entirely and re-encodes only the audio track from its source codec (MP2, MP3, or AAC) into Windows Media Audio v2 (wmav2) — Microsoft's second-generation WMA codec. Because MP2 and wmav2 use entirely different compression algorithms and bitrate structures, a full audio decode-and-reencode is required; there is no stream-copy shortcut available here. The output is a .wma container holding only the wmav2 audio stream, with no video, subtitles, or chapter data.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg tool, which handles all media reading, decoding, encoding, and writing for this conversion from MPEG to WMA. |
-i input.mpeg
|
Specifies the input MPEG file, which may contain MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video alongside MP2, MP3, or AAC audio. FFmpeg will parse both the video and audio streams from this container, though only the audio will be used in the output. |
-c:a wmav2
|
Sets the audio encoder to Windows Media Audio v2 (wmav2), Microsoft's standard lossy audio codec and the default for .wma files. This re-encodes the MPEG source audio (typically MP2) using wmav2's MDCT-based compression algorithm. |
-b:a 128k
|
Sets the wmav2 audio bitrate to 128 kilobits per second, the WMA default and a reasonable target for general-purpose audio. For MPEG sources with high-bitrate MP2 audio (e.g., 192k or 256k broadcast audio), increasing this to 192k or 256k will better preserve fidelity during the lossy-to-lossy transcode. |
output.wma
|
Defines the output filename and signals FFmpeg to use the WMA container format. Since WMA is a pure audio container, FFmpeg automatically discards the MPEG video stream and writes only the wmav2-encoded audio to this file. |
Common Use Cases
- Extracting the audio commentary or narration from an archived MPEG-2 broadcast recording for use in a Windows Media Player playlist
- Converting old MPEG-1 video files from legacy camcorders into WMA audio for playback on early 2000s-era Windows CE or Pocket PC devices that only support WMA
- Pulling the audio track from MPEG-2 DVD-compatible video files to create WMA audio files suitable for distribution via older Microsoft Zune or Windows Phone devices
- Stripping the soundtrack from MPEG broadcast captures (e.g., recorded TV segments) to produce WMA files for upload to platforms or archives that require Windows Media Audio format
- Archiving the audio portion of MPEG-format educational or training videos into WMA for integration with older Windows-based e-learning systems that expect WMA input
- Preparing WMA audio files from MPEG source material for use with Microsoft Expression Encoder or legacy Silverlight streaming pipelines that natively handle WMA
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, some quality loss is expected. MPEG files typically store audio as MP2 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer II), and converting that to wmav2 requires a full decode-and-reencode between two different lossy codecs. This is sometimes called 'generation loss' — each lossy re-encoding introduces new compression artifacts on top of whatever was already introduced in the original MP2 encoding. At the default 128k bitrate, the result is generally acceptable for speech and mid-quality music, but audiophiles working with high-quality MPEG sources should consider a higher bitrate like 192k or 256k to minimize perceptible degradation.
Because the output format is .wma — a pure audio container — FFmpeg automatically omits the video stream without needing an explicit -vn flag. WMA files cannot hold video data, so FFmpeg intelligently drops the MPEG video stream (whether MPEG-1 or MPEG-2) during muxing. The result is an audio-only file. If you want to be explicit about this behavior when running the command locally, you can add -vn before the output filename and the result will be identical.
Replace the value after -b:a with your desired bitrate. For example, use -b:a 192k for higher quality or -b:a 96k for a smaller file size. The WMA format supports bitrates ranging from 64k up to 320k. Keep in mind that increasing the bitrate beyond what the original MPEG's MP2 audio contained (commonly 192k or 224k in broadcast MPEG-2) will not recover lost quality — it will only increase file size. For most MPEG broadcast sources, 128k to 192k wmav2 is a practical balance.
Yes, you can substitute -c:a wmav1 in the FFmpeg command to use the older Windows Media Audio v1 codec. WMAv1 was the original version and is compatible with very early Windows Media Player versions (pre-WMP 7). However, wmav2 generally offers better audio quality at the same bitrate and is supported by all devices and software that support wmav1. Unless you have a specific compatibility requirement for an extremely old Windows system or device, wmav2 is the better choice.
MPEG files have very limited metadata support — they may carry basic title or author tags in some implementations, but this is not standardized. WMA, by contrast, has robust metadata support including title, artist, album, genre, and copyright fields. FFmpeg will attempt to map any metadata present in the MPEG source to the WMA container's tag structure, but in practice most MPEG broadcast files contain little to no metadata, so the WMA output will likely have empty tags. You can add metadata manually using the -metadata flag in the FFmpeg command, for example: -metadata title='My Recording'.
Yes. On Linux or macOS, you can use a shell loop: for f in *.mpeg; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:a wmav2 -b:a 128k "${f%.mpeg}.wma"; done. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.mpeg) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:a wmav2 -b:a 128k "%~nf.wma". This processes each MPEG file in the current directory and produces a corresponding .wma file. The browser-based tool processes one file at a time, so the FFmpeg command line approach is especially practical for bulk MPEG library conversions.
Technical Notes
MPEG files using MPEG-2 video typically carry MP2 audio at bitrates between 128k and 384k, as defined by the MPEG-2 standard for broadcast and DVD applications. When converting to WMA, this MP2 audio must be fully decoded to PCM and then re-encoded as wmav2 — there is no possibility of remuxing or stream-copying between these two codecs. The wmav2 codec uses a modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) approach, which is a different psychoacoustic model than MP2's subband coding. At equivalent bitrates, wmav2 generally outperforms MP2 in perceived audio quality, but because the source is already lossy MP2, the conversion is effectively lossy-to-lossy and some artifacts may compound. The WMA container supports DRM (Digital Rights Management) in principle, but FFmpeg does not apply DRM during encoding — output files will be DRM-free. The .wma format does not support multiple audio tracks, subtitles, or chapters, all of which are also unsupported by MPEG in this context, so no data loss occurs in those areas. File sizes will vary depending on the duration of the MPEG audio and the chosen bitrate, but WMA at 128k is generally comparable in size to MP3 at 128k for the same audio duration.