Convert MVE to AVI

Older PC games such as Baldur’s Gate may store cutscenes in MVE files that common editors cannot import. Converting the footage to AVI can make it easier to play or edit in software that supports the codecs inside the AVI.

What MVE is

Interplay MVE is a proprietary video format used for cutscenes and other in-game footage in some older PC games. It can contain video and audio, and is not a general-purpose recording format.

What AVI is

AVI is a video container, not a codec. It can hold different video and audio codecs, so compatibility depends on both the container and the codecs used. MPEG-4 Part 2 video with MP3 audio is a practical choice for many programs that support AVI.

Convert with FFmpeg

1. Install FFmpeg from the official project or a reputable package manager. FFmpeg includes support for decoding Interplay MVE.
2. Open a terminal in the folder containing the file. To check its streams, run ffprobe -hide_banner "input.mve".
3. Convert it with:
   ffmpeg -i "input.mve" -c:v mpeg4 -q:v 3 -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 4 "output.avi"

Replace the filenames with your input and output names. The command encodes video as MPEG-4 Part 2 and audio as MP3; for -q:v and -q:a, lower values generally mean higher quality and larger files. If FFmpeg reports that the MP3 encoder is unavailable, replace -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 4 with -c:a pcm_s16le; PCM audio avoids that encoder dependency but creates a larger file. If the input has no audio stream, use -an instead of the audio options.

Quality and compatibility

FFmpeg re-encodes the video, so conversion can reduce image quality; keep the original MVE as a source copy. AVI does not guarantee that every editor will accept the file, because applications vary in their supported codecs. FFmpeg normally keeps the input frame rate and dimensions unless you add options or filters that change them. If it cannot decode a file, the file may be incomplete or use an unsupported variant. Online converters rarely document support for Interplay MVE, so a desktop conversion is more reliable for this format.