Convert Files online with Online-Convert.com

I prefer to convert files locally whenever possible as it is giving me more control and flexibility. The biggest advantage that I see is that I do not have to upload one of my files to another service to convert it, which can be especially important in a business environment. Online file converters to have their advantages though. You can for instance access them on systems where you do not have access to local converts. Say you are in an Internet cafe and want to convert an audiobook or ebook that you have discovered recently into a format that your smartphone, mp3 player or ebook reader supports.

It is exactly this scenario where a service such as Online Convert comes in handy. Another advantage is that you can run conversions regardless of the computer you are using. A low performance machine like a netbook may not be usable at all during conversions, and since it is a low performance computer, you may end up spending more time converting the file than you may want or have time for.

Online-Convert.com is without doubt one of the better online file conversion services available on today's Internet. It supports the conversion of a wide variety of file types:

• Audio
• Video
• Image
• Documents
• Ebooks
• Archives

When you load the main page of the service you are presented with all available conversion options. Unlike on other services, you begin by selecting the file format you want your file to be converted to.

Once you have selected the target file format you are automatically taken to the next page where you can upload the audio format from the device you are currently working on or alternatively enter or paste in an url that is pointing to the file you want to convert.

Depending on the selected type, you may see additional options displayed on that page. If you have selected to convert an audio file for instance, you can modify the bitrate, select to normalize the audio or trim the audio file. A click on convert file opens the third and final page where the conversion progress is displayed to you. You can enter an email address if you want to receive a notification and even the converted file when the conversion has finished.

The service will keep the file on their servers for a 24 hour period. If you want, you can use the delete link to remove it right away or let it expire automatically after that time.

Free users are limited to 100 Megabyte per file and four concurrent conversions. Those who need more can subscribe to the service for a monthly or one-time fee to increase the file size limit to 1 Gigabyte, the concurrent conversions to 10, and benefit from encrypted up and downloads.

What I like about the service is that you can use it without registration to convert a handful of files, that you do not have to install or enable a plugin like Java, and that they provide you with the means to delete files right away from the server.

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