Extract Audio from MOD to AMR — Free Online Tool
Extract audio from MOD camcorder footage and convert it to AMR format using the libopencore_amrnb codec — a speech-optimized, low-bitrate format originally designed for mobile telephony. This is ideal for archiving voice recordings or dialogue from JVC/Panasonic camcorder clips in a compact, telephony-compatible format.
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FFmpeg Command
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Estimated output:
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DownloadHow It Works
MOD files from JVC and Panasonic camcorders store audio (typically AAC or AC-3) inside a modified MPEG-PS container alongside MPEG-2 video. This tool strips the video stream entirely and transcodes only the audio track into AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) using the libopencore_amrnb encoder. AMR-NB operates at a fixed 8kHz sample rate and is engineered around speech codecs, so the transcoder re-samples and re-encodes the original camcorder audio into narrow-band AMR frames. Because both the input and output are lossy formats, this is a generation-loss transcode — the AMR output will reflect any artifacts from the original MPEG-2 audio plus new compression artifacts from the AMR encoder.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg media processing tool. In the browser-based version of this tool, FFmpeg runs via WebAssembly (ffmpeg.wasm) entirely client-side — no file data leaves your machine. |
-i input.mod
|
Specifies the input MOD file — the camcorder recording from a JVC or Panasonic device stored in a modified MPEG-PS container with MPEG-2 video and typically AC-3 or AAC audio. |
-vn
|
Disables video output entirely, instructing FFmpeg to ignore the MPEG-2 video stream from the MOD file. Since AMR is a pure audio format, the video track must be excluded rather than just unmapped. |
-c:a libopencore_amrnb
|
Sets the audio encoder to libopencore_amrnb, the open-source implementation of the AMR Narrow-Band codec. This encoder re-samples the camcorder's audio to 8kHz mono and applies CELP-based speech compression to produce an AMR-NB stream. |
-b:a 12200
|
Sets the AMR-NB codec mode to 12200 bps (12.2 kbps), which corresponds to AMR Mode 7 — the highest quality mode available in AMR-NB and the one that best preserves speech intelligibility from the original camcorder audio. Note that unlike most audio formats, this value is in raw bps, not kilobits. |
output.amr
|
Specifies the output file in AMR format. The .amr extension tells FFmpeg to wrap the libopencore_amrnb-encoded audio in a standard AMR file container, which is natively compatible with Android devices and most telephony systems. |
Common Use Cases
- Extracting spoken interview or documentary dialogue from JVC/Panasonic camcorder MOD footage for archiving in a compact telephony-compatible format
- Preparing voice recordings captured on a camcorder for use in GSM or VoIP systems that natively consume AMR audio streams
- Stripping audio from old camcorder home videos to create lightweight speech files that can be stored on legacy mobile devices with limited storage
- Converting camcorder-recorded field interviews into AMR for integration with mobile journalism or radio production workflows that require low-bitrate speech files
- Archiving the vocal/narration track from camcorder footage as an AMR file to dramatically reduce file size when video content is no longer needed
- Testing or validating AMR playback pipelines using real-world camcorder-sourced speech content extracted from MOD recordings
Frequently Asked Questions
No — AMR-NB is a speech codec that operates at 8kHz (narrow-band), which means it discards most audio above 4kHz. Your MOD file's original audio track (typically recorded at 48kHz) will be heavily down-sampled and optimized for voice intelligibility, not fidelity. Music, ambient sound, and anything other than speech will sound noticeably degraded. If your goal is preserving full audio quality, consider extracting to AAC or MP3 instead.
AMR-NB (Narrow-Band) is the default used here, encoding at 8kHz sample rate with bitrates from 4.75 to 12.2 kbps — it was designed for GSM mobile voice calls. AMR-WB (Wide-Band) encodes at 16kHz, offering significantly better speech quality and is used in HD Voice systems. For camcorder footage where speech intelligibility is the priority and compatibility with older mobile or telephony systems matters, AMR-NB at 12200 bps is appropriate. If your target system supports AMR-WB, switching to libopencore_amrwb will yield noticeably cleaner speech from your MOD source audio.
AMR uses a set of fixed codec modes defined by the ETSI GSM standard, each corresponding to a specific speech encoding algorithm. These aren't arbitrary bitrates — they represent discrete AMR codec modes (Mode 0 through Mode 7 for AMR-NB), where each mode uses a different compression scheme optimized to balance speech quality against bandwidth constraints in mobile networks. You cannot specify an arbitrary bitrate like 128k; you must select one of these standardized mode bitrates.
Replace the value after -b:a with any valid AMR-NB mode bitrate: 4750, 5150, 5900, 6700, 7400, 7950, 10200, or 12200 (bps — note these are not in 'k' units like most audio codecs). The default 12200 is the highest quality AMR-NB mode and is recommended for camcorder footage. To switch to AMR-WB instead, change -c:a libopencore_amrnb to -c:a libopencore_amrwb and use AMR-WB compatible bitrates (e.g., 23850). Example: ffmpeg -i input.mod -vn -c:a libopencore_amrwb -b:a 23850 output.amr
Yes. On Linux or macOS, you can loop over all MOD files in a directory with: for f in *.mod; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vn -c:a libopencore_amrnb -b:a 12200 "${f%.mod}.amr"; done. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.mod) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -vn -c:a libopencore_amrnb -b:a 12200 "%~nf.amr". This is especially useful if you have a large collection of old JVC/Panasonic camcorder recordings to process.
AMR is a bare-bones container format with very limited metadata support — it does not have standardized fields for recording timestamps, GPS coordinates, or camcorder model information the way MP4 or MKV do. The FFmpeg conversion will not carry over MOD/MPEG-PS metadata tags into the AMR file. If preserving metadata is important, extract the audio to a format like M4A or MP3 instead, which support ID3 or iTunes-style tags.
Technical Notes
MOD files from JVC and Panasonic camcorders use a modified MPEG Program Stream (MPEG-PS) container, and the audio track is typically encoded as Dolby AC-3 or AAC at 48kHz stereo. When converting to AMR-NB via libopencore_amrnb, FFmpeg must perform several transformations: down-mixing stereo to mono (AMR-NB is a mono-only codec), resampling from 48kHz to 8kHz, and re-encoding using the CELP-based AMR algorithm. This multi-step lossy transcode means quality loss is compounded from both the original MPEG-2 audio encoding and the new AMR encoding. The resulting AMR-NB file at 12200 bps will be extremely small — typically under 100KB per minute of audio — making it highly efficient for speech but unsuitable for any musical or high-fidelity content. AMR files use the .amr extension and are natively playable on most Android devices and many feature phones, but may require plugins or third-party apps on desktop operating systems. FFmpeg requires the libopencore-amrnb library to be compiled in; most standard FFmpeg builds include it, but some minimal distributions may not.