How to Convert OGV to MP4 for Universal Playback

What Is OGV and Where Does It Come From?

OGV is the video file extension for the Ogg container format using the Theora video codec and Vorbis audio codec. Developed by Xiph.org Foundation, both the container and codecs are entirely open-source and royalty-free — which is precisely why they exist. In the early 2000s, when H.264 licensing costs were a concern for open-source projects, Theora offered a patent-free alternative.

You will encounter OGV files in a few specific contexts: Wikimedia Commons (Wikipedia's media repository uses OGV as its primary video format), Linux desktop screen recordings (some older tools defaulted to OGV), academic and government resources that mandate open formats, and legacy HTML5 video implementations from the era when Firefox did not support H.264.

The practical problem is that OGV support is limited to Firefox, VLC, and Linux media players. Chrome dropped Theora support, Safari never had it, and no smartphone plays OGV natively. Converting to MP4 with H.264 gives your OGV files universal playback capability.

OGV vs. MP4 Technical Comparison

Converting OGV to MP4

Since Theora video cannot be placed in an MP4 container (it is not a supported codec), re-encoding is always required. The good news is that H.264 is far more efficient than Theora, so your MP4 files will be smaller at the same visual quality.

Standard Conversion

ffmpeg -i input.ogv -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -preset medium \
  -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart output.mp4

High-Quality Archival Conversion

For archival purposes where you want to preserve maximum quality from the Theora source:

ffmpeg -i input.ogv -c:v libx264 -crf 16 -preset slow \
  -c:a aac -b:a 192k -movflags +faststart output.mp4

Converting Wikimedia Commons OGV Files

Wikimedia Commons videos are typically low-to-medium resolution educational content. Download the file and convert:

# Download from Wikimedia Commons
wget "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/X/XX/Example.ogv"

# Convert to MP4
ffmpeg -i Example.ogv -c:v libx264 -crf 20 \
  -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart Example.mp4

Batch Converting OGV Files

mkdir -p converted
for file in *.ogv; do
  [ -f "$file" ] || continue
  ffmpeg -i "$file" -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -preset medium \
    -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart \
    "converted/${file%.ogv}.mp4" -y
done

For more batch techniques, see our batch processing guide.

Online Conversion

Use the OGV to MP4 converter online for quick conversions without installing FFmpeg. The Video Converter supports additional output formats.

Quality and Settings Tips

CRF selection: Theora is a relatively inefficient codec by modern standards. A CRF of 20 for H.264 will match or exceed the visual quality of most Theora sources. Going lower (CRF 16-18) is worthwhile for high-quality Theora sources (e.g., professional content encoded at high Theora quality levels).

File size savings: Expect significant file size reductions. A 50 MB OGV file at 480p typically converts to 20-30 MB MP4 at equivalent visual quality, thanks to H.264's superior compression. For 720p content, savings are even more dramatic.

Audio handling: Vorbis audio is technically excellent — often better than MP3 at equivalent bitrates. When converting to AAC, use at least 128 kbps to match the original quality. For music-heavy content, use 192 kbps. More details in our audio bitrate guide.

Resolution preservation: OGV files from Wikimedia Commons come in various resolutions (240p to 1080p). Preserve the original resolution — do not upscale. If you need a specific resolution for embedding, use the -vf scale filter:

ffmpeg -i input.ogv -vf "scale=1280:720:flags=lanczos" \
  -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -c:a aac -b:a 128k output.mp4

The lanczos scaling algorithm produces the sharpest results for downscaling.

Common Issues and Troubleshooting

"Discarding ID3 metadata" warning

Some OGV files have metadata in a format FFmpeg does not recognize. This warning is harmless and does not affect the output.

No audio in output

Some OGV files contain only video (no Vorbis audio track). Verify with:

ffprobe -v error -show_streams input.ogv | grep codec_type

If only video appears, the file has no audio. Your MP4 will be video-only, which is perfectly valid.

Low-quality source material

Many OGV files on the web were encoded at low Theora quality settings (quality 5-6 out of 10). Re-encoding to H.264 preserves what is there but cannot recover lost detail. Use CRF 20-22 for these sources — lower CRF values just preserve Theora artifacts at inflated file sizes.

Seeking issues in the output

Add -movflags +faststart (shown in all examples above) to ensure the MP4 metadata is at the file start. Without this flag, some players cannot seek until the entire file is downloaded.

For a deeper comparison of open-source video formats, see our OGG vs MP3 comparison which covers the Xiph.org ecosystem.

Conclusion

OGV served an important role in the open-source ecosystem, but Theora has been superseded by royalty-free alternatives like VP9 and AV1 that offer dramatically better compression. Converting OGV to MP4 with H.264 gives your files universal playback support and typically reduces file size by 40-60% at equivalent quality. The conversion is straightforward — a single FFmpeg command handles it.

Ready to convert? Try our free OGV to MP4 converter — no registration required.