Convert MP4 to WebM? Here’s Everything You Want to Know

Unlike the MP4 container format that every one of us here is quite familiar with, despite has been released 10 years ago in 2010 on Google I/O conference and has been widely used on most of the streaming platforms as of today, the WebM container format still sounds a little bit strange to the general public. So before we talk about how to convert MP4 to WebM, let’s start by explaining what WebM really is and why you want to convert MP4 to WebM.

Part 1. WebM explained: What Is It?

First announced at the Google conference I/O 2010, WebM is an open-source royalty-free container format (with the file ending .webm) for video and audio files that was originally planned as an alternative to the existing MP4 format with its H.264 codec from the beginning. The WebM container supports VP8 and VP9 as its video codecs plus Ogg Vorbis and Opus as its audio codecs. As mentioned at the very beginning, the WebM files have been widely used on most of the streaming services today, even you might not have realized. For instance, YouTube uses the WebM video file format for all of its videos, from 360p up to 4K and beyond.

Part 2. WebM vs MP4: Why Convert MP4 to WebM?

The major difference between WebM and MP4 formats is the video codecs they employed. WebM uses VP8 or VP9 while MP4 uses H.264. Quality-wise, VP8 is better than H.264. And as the successor to VP8, so is VP9. From the file size point of view, both containers offer relatively similar compression, so the size difference of the same duration of WebM and MP4 is not that significant. However, WebM files do tend to be a little bit smaller than MP4 files. The last advantage of WebM over MP4 is that WebM is natively designed for use on HTML5 websites for video streaming, which is far more efficient than using MP4. This is probably the reason why streaming services are now more open to WebM videos as HTML5 stands for the future of websites.

Part 3. DVDFab Video Converter — Convert MP4 to WebM in a Professional Way

Having understood the basics of WebM videos and its full potential, now it’s time to learn how to convert MP4 to WebM videos on your computer with an offline MP4 to WebM converter software, no matter you’re running Windows or macOS. Searching on Google, it is not hard to find a number of software tools able to convert MP4 to WebM videos. But to save your time comparing, we’ll introduce you the best MP4 to WebM converter compatible with two major operating systems.

As one of the world’s most popular video converter software, the Video Converter module from DVDFab 12 not only offers the world’s most complete video & audio conversion solutions, but also provides users with a great number of advanced video & audio editing features that allow you to edit your videos and audios like a geek.

Key features of this MP4 to WebM converter:

50. Convert MP4 to WebM and many other popular video format, vice versa.
50. Customize the output WebM video & audio parameters based on your need
50. Trim, crop and add images, subtitles and even opener and closing credits to the WebM videos
50. Batch convert MP4 to WebM to save you much valuable time
50. Enable GPU hardware acceleration to further speed up the conversion

Available on: both Windows and macOS
Pricing: 30-day fully-functional free trial; $29.99/mo; $59.99/lifetime

Now follow the tour below to guide yourself through the detailed steps on how to convert MP4 to WebM with this MP4 to WebM converter software like a geek does.

Step 1 — Download and Installation

Before you can convert MP4 to WebM on your computer with this top-notch MP4 to WebM converter software, you need to download and install it first, using the two Download buttons below, one for Windows, the other macOS.

                                 i  Free Download    i  Free Download 

Step 2 — Load the Source MP4 Files

Once finishing installing this MP4 to WebM converter on your computer, double-click its desktop icon to launch the program, choose the Video Converter from the welcome screen.

This shall take you directly to the Converter module of DVDFab 12. Now load your MP4 file(s) using the giant Plus button, the Add from Local button at the upper left corner, or simply drag & drop the MP4 file(s) here.

Additional Tips: As one of the bonus features of this MP4 to WebM video converter software, the Add from Mobile button next to the Add from Local button allows you to directly add your source MP4 files from a smartphone or tablet, regardless of iOS or Android, with the condition that you install DVDFab Remote to that device, which serves as the virtual data cable via Wi-Fi to transfer the files.

Step 3 — Choose the WebM Conversion Profile

After adding your source MP4 file, you should then select the WebM output conversion profile so as to convert MP4 to WebM. For that purpose, click the “Choose Other Profile” option from the dropdown menu of Profile Selection Box to enter the built-in Profile Library, where you can see hundreds of pre-configured and tested conversion profiles designed for different video containers and all the playback devices. Locate the WebM format from the Format section. Tick the General filter will help you find it faster.

As a sidenote: As another bonus feature of this MP4 to WebM converter, you can batch-convert MP4 to WebM which shall save much of your valuable time. To use the batch-conversion mode, don’t forget to enable the option of “Use for all sources” when you choose the WebM profile at the profile library, and if you don’t, you will have to manually repeat that process for all the MP4 files you’re added.

Step 4 — Customize Output Parameters (Optional)

Here comes to the part where you can bring your own creative mind to the MP4 to WebM conversion. Click the Wrench icon to locate the Advanced Settings panel where you can experiment with different video, audio and subtitles settings. For the video section, you can change the codec between VP8 and VP9, resolution, encoding method and you even can decide the output video quality according to your specific need.

For the audio section, despite the codec being set as OPUS which you cannot change, you are still given the freedom to choose from four audio channel options including Mono, Stereo, Dolby Surround/ProLogic and Dolby ProLogic II, adjust the volume and the bitrate as well.

As for subtitles, you have three options: direct render into video, remux into file, or extract to idx/sub file.

Step 5 — Edit the Output WebM Video (Optional)

Like the settings at the Advanced Settings panel, it also depends on you whether or not to customize your videos at the Video Edit panel, where you can crop the video, trim the video length, add intro and outro to the video, change the video properties including contrast, brightness and saturation. You can also add texts, external subtitles and even watermark to your video.   

Step 6 — Start the MP4 to WebM Conversion

When you are all set both the Advanced Settings panel and the Video Edit panel, the last thing regarding converting MP4 to WebM is to actually start the conversion by hitting the Start button at the bottom right corner of the main interface.

Alright! The guides above show you how to convert MP4 to WebM with DVDFab Video Converter in a very professional manner. Hope you enjoy the process. Now, if you’re interested in how to convert MP4 to WebM online with an online MP4 to WebM converter solution without installing any software, then continue your reading.

Part 4. Convert MP4 to WebM with an Online MP4 to WebM Converter

To those who prefer an online solution to convert MP4 to WebM format, this part is right for you. There are many online conversion solutions capable of the MP4 to WebM conversion, the one we’re going to introduce you is the video converter solution offered by the online-convert website.

Now move on to see how to use this online MP4 to WebM conversion solution to convert MP4 to WebM videos for you:

Step 1 — Load your source MP4 videos, you can drop them directly into the webpage, use the Choose Files button to load from your local hard drive, paste a video URL to load the source MP4 video from online, or access them from your Google Drive or DropBox cloud storage, respectively. It will take a while to upload the MP4 file depending on your file size and network speed.

Additional Tips: although this online MP4 to WebM conversion solution is totally free, it only allows you to convert MP4 videos less than 100MB for free. If your MP4 file size exceeds that limitation, you will need to pay for a subscription plan.

Step 2 — Once the MP4 file is uploaded successfully, you can then hit the Start conversion button immediately to trigger the MP4 to WebM conversion using all its default settings. Otherwise, if you want to be a little bit techie, then you can freely customize the detailed parameters below before your start the MP4 to WebM conversion.

Step 3 — After starting the MP4 to WebM conversion, all you need to do is to wait for the conversion to finish before you can download the converted WebM video back to your local drive. The conversion will take a while, if you are lucky to skip the waiting queue (if someone else is also using the same feature on this website, you may have to wait in the queue).

Part 5. Bonus Info — How to Play WebM Videos

Almost all the modern web browsers, like Google Chrome, Opera, Firefox, and Edge, etc., are able to play back the embedded WebM videos and your local WebM videos as well. Just make sure your browser is the latest version. That being said, not every one of us is used to playing videos with a web browser. Instead, most of us still prefer a video player software, in that case, you can try out the DVDFab Player 6, the best 4K media player out there that allows to you play non-4K videos, including WebM videos, totally for free.

Final Words

HTML5 stands for the future of websites, and as the natively designed video format for HTML5 webpages, WebM videos have much greater potential than the aging MP4 container. Maybe in the future you will have to make your videos in WebM format in order to share them on the internet. Who knows! So why not start to embrace this prosperous video format now!

In this article, we’ve briefed you on the general knowledge on WebM, its advantages over MP4, and the methods, whether offline or online, to convert MP4 to WebM format with great details. We also shared our thoughts on how you can play back WebM videos from a browser or with a media player software. In case you are also interested in upscaling the converted WebM videos to 4K quality, just feel free to check out our article with the topic of how to upscale 1080p videos to 4K.

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