Free online USM to MPG converter

What the USM format is

USM is a proprietary video container associated with CRI Middleware and CRIWARE, especially the Sofdec video system. Game developers use it for prerecorded cutscenes, menus, openings, and other video sequences inside games. USM files are usually created by CRIWARE encoding tools and are encountered in installed game data rather than in consumer camera or editing workflows.

A USM file may contain video, audio, subtitles, and interleaved streams. Some releases also encrypt the movie data or require a game-specific key. Standard FFmpeg builds generally cannot decode the USM container directly, so conversion often requires demultiplexing the file first.

What the MPG format is

MPG is a common filename extension for an MPEG program stream, normally containing MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video with MP2 or compatible audio. It is supported by many desktop players, older televisions, set-top boxes, DVD-era authoring applications, and legacy editing software.

MPG is useful when broad compatibility matters more than modern compression efficiency. It is usually larger than H.264 MP4 at comparable visual quality, and it does not preserve USM-specific subtitles, encryption, metadata, or game playback behavior.

How to actually convert USM to MPG

Online method: 101convert.com provides a free browser-based conversion option without installing software. Open the site's video converter, add the .usm file, choose MPG as the output format, start the conversion, and download the resulting .mpg file if the service accepts that particular USM variant. Encrypted or unusual game-specific USM files may not be supported.

Desktop method for unsupported or encrypted files:

1. Make a backup of the original USM file and confirm that you have permission to extract the game video.
2. Use a USM-aware extractor or demultiplexer, such as a suitable VGMToolbox module or a current USM extraction utility. Select the file and extract the separate video and audio streams. If the tool requests an encryption key, the key must come from the relevant game or an authorized modding workflow.
3. If the extractor produces HCA audio, decode it to WAV with a compatible HCA decoder such as vgmstream. If it produces ADX or another audio stream, convert that stream to WAV or another format accepted by FFmpeg.
4. When the extracted video is MPEG-2 elementary video such as video.m2v and the audio is audio.wav, create an MPG program stream with FFmpeg:

ffmpeg -i video.m2v -i audio.wav -c:v mpeg2video -b:v 4M -c:a mp2 -b:a 192k -f mpeg output.mpg

Adjust -b:v to match the source resolution and required file size. For a video-only USM, omit the second input and audio options:

ffmpeg -i video.m2v -c:v mpeg2video -f mpeg output.mpg

If the extracted video is not already MPEG-compatible, FFmpeg re-encodes it with the specified MPEG-2 video codec. Set the frame rate explicitly with an option such as -r 29.97 only when the source's frame rate has been identified; forcing the wrong rate can cause audio drift or uneven motion.

Quality and compatibility limitations

USM-to-MPG conversion normally involves decoding and re-encoding, so some quality loss is expected. A higher MPG bitrate reduces additional loss but increases file size. Do not use a low bitrate merely to make the extension compatible; fast-moving game footage can show blocking and mosquito noise.

Check the extracted streams before encoding. Some USM files contain separate language tracks, subtitles, alpha channels, or unusual resolutions. A basic MPG output usually includes only one video stream and one audio stream, and MPEG program streams do not provide a standard way to retain all USM game metadata.

If the resulting file fails in an older player, use MPEG-2 video with MP2 audio, a constant frame rate, and standard dimensions such as 720×480 or 720×576. Modern software may accept other dimensions, but legacy hardware and DVD-oriented applications can reject nonstandard frame sizes or audio codecs.