XMedia Recode falls into both categories. The video convert comes with several pre-configured profiles that can be used to convert videos with just a few clicks and no background knowledge at all.

Profiles exist for gaming systems like Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s Playstation 3 and for mobile devices like Apple’s iPod and iPhone series, dozens of Nokia cell phones and other devices. Way more than 100 profiles are available to select and there is the option to select custom settings as well in case the device is not in the list.

Custom settings are very extensive. Dozens of video and output formats and codecs can be selected to convert the video into a different format.

Video files can be opened from the computer’s hard drive or directly from DVD (which can also be located on the hard drive)

XMedia Recode provides features that most video converters do not. Most of these features are located in the Crop / Preview tab. This includes the option to cut part of the movie, change the resolution, crop the movie, deblock, invert or correct the colors.

The video converter is probably a bit easier to use than Super, one of our favorites. The software uses a German interface by default which can be changed in Optionen > Sprache to English, French, Japanese and Italian.

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You do need two freeware programs for the whole procedure. The first is called Super. Super is a great converter that is able to convert to many formats including a DVD compliant MPEG II format. The second freely available application is DVD Styler which we will use to create the navigation of the DVD and the DVD iso file. We can finally burn the iso image using a program that is able to burn such images.

Start Super the video converter and change the following settings. The output container should be mpg (MPEG II). Everything else can remain the way it is. Drag and drop a avi file into Super and click on Encode (active files). Super will start the conversion and output the new mpg file in the directory where it is installed. The process might take a while depending on your cpu, graphics adapter and the size of the movie.

Once the conversion is finished we start DVD Styler and create our DVD menu which will later be used to navigate the DVD and start the movies that have been added to it. DVD Styler has a somewhat unusual interface which requires some explanation.

Action defines the next step after the first button is pressed. We want to play the first movie which is the default value for the first button. Add a second button to the menu and name it accordingly. Now we want the second movie to start which means that we have to select Jump to Title 2 instead of Title 1.

Continue this for all the movies that you want on the DVD.

Start by selecting a background from the left background menu. Now add the newly created mpg files by dragging and dropping them into the lower bar of DVD Styler next to Menu 1. The movies should appear on the right side of Menu 1.

A very basic menu would look like the following. Click on the buttons tab on the left side of the program. Drag and Drop one of the buttons to the right pane. You can move it around and make it smaller or bigger. Right-click the button and select properties.

The first thing that we should do is change the label that appears in the menu. Rename button 1 to the name of the first movie.

You could also create separate menus for every movie. Do this by right-clicking the lower pane which contains menu 1 and all the movies that we have added to it. Select Add New Menu and Menu 2 will appear in the pane.

You do need to create a button that opens Menu 2. The process is similar to linking to a movie. Right-click the button and select properties. Choose Menu 2 in Jump to and the link has been created.

Adding screenshots or boxart is easy as well. Just drag and drop them into the menu area and place them accordingly. Once you are satisfied with the results click on File in the menu and select Burn DVD. Select the temp directory and the output directory. Make sure you have enough space in both.

You can find further help in the DVD Styler wiki.

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The website looks really messy at first glance and novice users might have a hard time finding what they are looking for, the download link is at the bottom of that page which opens a new html page, scroll to the end again and you see four download mirrors.

I know that you want to know about the supported formats before you believe my bold claims, here we go:

Video formats:

• 3gp/3g2 (Nokia,Siemens,Sony,Ericsson)
• asf, avi (DivX,H263,H263+,H264,XviD,MPEG4,MSmpeg4 etc..)
• dat, fli, flc, flv (used in Flash)
• mkv, mpg (Mpeg I,Mpeg II)
• mov (H263,H263+,H264,MPEG4 etc..)
• mp4 (H263,H263+,H264,MPEG4)
• ogg
• qt, rm, ram, rmvb, str (Play Station)
• swf (Flash)
• ts (HDTV)
• viv, vob, wmv

Audio format:

• ac3, amr, mp2, mp3, mp4, mpc, ogg, ra, wav, wma

You might be asking about the practical use of this video converter, let me give you some examples. If you are having a mobile device like a cellphone, a psp or a nintendo ds you know that they only support certain formats that they can playback. You can convert your normal videos or audio files into those formats to play them on your mobile devices. You could for example convert the audio, and only the audio, of a movie or show into a format that your mobile plays.

You are also able to create VCDs, SVCDs and DVDs from other formats which makes it possible to burn those newly created files with a tool like Nero for instance to watch the movie on your tv. I don´t like watching large movies on my computer, it does not have the right feeling I think and I like to convert movies to watch them on tv.

A short note about the requirements:

• Win98 or higher
• 1800 Mhz cpu
• 512 MB ram
• 20 GB hard drive

I suppose super will also run on PCs that do not meet the requirements but considerably slower than on those who do.

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