How to convert MKV videos to MPEG-1 on Mac?

MKV to MPEG-1 on Mac OS X: Convert Video from MKV (Matroska Video) to MPEG-1 (MPEG-1 Video) with Mac MKV video Converter, MKV2MPEG-1 converter for Mac, conversion

What are MPEG and MPEG-1 videos?

MPEG (pronounced M-peg), which stands for Moving Picture Experts Group, is the name of a family of standards used for coding audio-visual information (e.g., movies, video, music) in a digital compressed format.

The major advantage of MPEG compared to other video and audio coding formats is that MPEG files are much smaller for the same quality. This is because MPEG uses very sophisticated compression techniques.

When you have come into possession of a file with an .MPG or .MPEG extension, you usually have either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video. MPEG-1 video is used on VideoCD (VCD) discs and MPEG-2 video is used on Super VideoCD (SVCD) and DVD discs.

mpeg format

The MPEG standards consist of different Parts. Each part covers a certain aspect of the whole specification. The standards also specifies Profiles and Levels. Profiles are intended to define a set of tools that are available, and Levels define the range of appropriate values for the properties associated with them. MPEG has standardized the following compression formats and ancillary standards:

  • MPEG-1: is the first compression standard for audio and video. It was basically designed to allow moving pictures and sound to be encoded into the bitrate of a Compact Disc. To meet the low bit requirement, MPEG-1 downsamples the images, as well as using picture rates of only 24-30 Hz, resulting in a moderate quality. It includes the popular Layer 3 (MP3) audio compression format.
  • MPEG-2
  • MPEG-3
  • MPEG-4

How to convert MKV to MPEG-1 on Mac OS X?

Step 1, Download and install MKV video converter

You can download it for free here:

To install it, simply mount the .dmg archive by double-clicking it, and copy the application to your applications folder (or wherever you want).

Step 2, Add MKV video files

Click the "Add Files" button to add MKV video files to the program. This MKV video converter for Mac supports drag and dropping. It also supports batch conversion, so you can import and convert several multimedia files at a time.

load mkv, mkv to mpeg video converter

Step 3, Select output format

Use the “format” on the bottom of the window to control the output format. Click on the toggle to the right of the "Format" label to expand the panel. Select "MPEG-1 Movie-NTSC", "MPEG-1 Movie-PAL", "MPEG-1 Movie-SECAM" as the output format.

Select mpeg, mkv to mpeg

Step 4, Change MPEG-1 Video and audio Settings

MPEG-1 Settings, convert mkv to mepg1

Click on the “Setting” button to expand “Setting” panel.

You can change the Resolution, Encoder, Bit rate and Frame rate of the MPEG-1 video and Sample Rate, Channels, Encoder and Bit Rate of the MPEG-1 Audio. The size of the MPEG-1 file depends a lot on these settings.

The bitrate is in the unit of kbit/second. Use this formula to calculate the video size per minute:

Video size/minute (KByte/second) = bitrate / 8 * 60.

Step 5, Select output directory

Expand the "Output" panel. Use the "Browse" button to select an output directory.

Step 6, Click “Convert” to convert MKV to MPEG-1 on Mac.