Convert JPEG to MPEG

A legacy video editor, DVD-authoring workflow, or playback device may accept MPEG clips but not still JPEGs. Encoding a JPEG as a video clip makes it usable in that workflow; one image becomes a static shot, not moving footage.

What JPEG contains

JPEG is a lossy still-image format, usually saved as .jpg or .jpeg. Cameras, phones, scanners, and image editors commonly create it; a JPEG has no frame rate or clip duration.

What MPEG provides

MPEG is a family of audio and video standards. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video are commonly stored in .mpg or .mpeg files, and MPEG-2 is used in many DVD and legacy video workflows. MPEG compresses a sequence of frames into a playable video stream, which can be easier to use in video equipment than a still image. An extension alone does not identify the codec or guarantee device compatibility.

Convert with desktop software

Freemake Video Converter is a Windows GUI option for turning photos into a video: add the JPEG with +Photo, set its duration (and arrange any additional photos), choose to MPEG, select a profile accepted by the target device, and start conversion.

For exact control, FFmpeg works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. In a terminal opened in the image folder, run:

ffmpeg -loop 1 -framerate 25 -i input.jpg -t 10 -vf "scale=trunc(iw/2)*2:trunc(ih/2)*2,format=yuv420p" -c:v mpeg2video -q:v 2 -an -f mpeg output.mpg

Replace input.jpg with the source filename and 10 with the clip duration in seconds. This creates a 25-fps MPEG-2 clip with no audio; the scale filter rounds odd image dimensions down to even values required by this pixel format. For a device that requires a specific frame size, frame rate, or MPEG profile, set those to its specifications instead.

Quality and compatibility

The video is a lossy re-encoding of the JPEG, so it cannot improve the image and may reduce its quality. A still remains still unless motion or transitions are added. MPEG-2 settings and supported resolutions vary by device; keep the original JPEG if you need an unchanged still, and verify that an online service explicitly exports MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 if using one—many export MP4 instead.