How to Convert Old Videos (WMV, FLV, 3GP, MPEG) to MP4

Why your old videos will not play

In every case the file is fine. What went away is the player, the plugin or the codec it was made for. MP4 with H.264 video is the closest thing video has to a universal format, so converting to it is what brings these files back.

How to convert them

1. Open the converter for your file type — the links above, or the video converter for anything else
2. Drop the file in, or click to choose it. You can add up to 20 at once
3. Leave the quality on its default unless the file is going somewhere that needs it smaller
4. Download the MP4

The first video conversion downloads the conversion engine into your browser once; after that it is cached. Conversion then runs on your own computer, so a home video or a work recording never leaves it.

How long it takes

Old formats cannot simply be repackaged — every frame has to be decoded and encoded again. Expect a noticeable fraction of the video's own length: a one-hour training recording takes several minutes, while a short clip from an old phone takes seconds, because those were tiny to begin with.

Each file can be up to about 667 MB. That covers almost any home video, Flash download or phone clip; a full DVD rip is larger and needs desktop software.

What to expect from the result

• It will not look better than the original. Old phone and Flash video was recorded small and at low quality, and converting cannot add detail that was never captured. It will look the same, on more devices
• The MP4 is often smaller. MPEG-2 from DVDs and capture cards needs several times the data H.264 does for the same picture, so those files usually shrink a lot
• Lines on moving edges in DVD video are interlacing, normal for TV and DVD material. It is kept as it was, not removed
• Old phone audio sounds like a phone call. 3GP files usually carry AMR audio, built for speech at telephone quality; that is in the recording
• A WMV that refuses to convert is usually copy-protected — bought from an old Windows Media store. Your own recordings convert normally

If you only need the sound

For a lecture, a talk or a recorded meeting, the audio may be all you need, and extracting it is far faster than converting the video: WMV to MP3, FLV to MP3 or 3GP to MP3.

Convert them while you still can

Software support for these formats keeps shrinking. If the files matter to you — family videos, an old phone's clips, recordings you made years ago — converting them now, while tools still read them, is far easier than trying in ten years.