HD Video Converter Factory Pro 3 is a profile driven video converter that can convert nearly any video format into another. The converter supports more than 150 different video formats and containers, including mkv, avi, flv, mp4, rm or mov.

All it takes to convert supported videos to an existing profile is the following. You use the Add button to load one or multiple videos into the program. All videos are listed then in the program interface with their file name, duration, size, estimated size and conversion profile.

A small player is attached to the window to preview videos

You then selected the output profile from a list of available profiles. The selection menu displays common video formats such as xvid avi or DVD video format as well as device specific profiles for Playstation, Xbox and smartphones running Android, iOS and more.

Most users should find a profile suitable for their situation. It can however happen that no suitable profile is found. Users who encounter this situation can create custom profiles to define their own parameters. Video settings that can be changed in this regard are the video resolution, bit rate, frame rate, aspect ratio, encoder and audio settings.

Users who select an existing profile can still make changes to it. It is for instance possible to reduce the video bit rate to save space or to change the aspect ratio.

The program saves all converted videos into its own program folder. This can be changed under output folder. Before you hit start to run the conversion, you may want to look under Files > Preferences to configure conversion thread priority (set to normal by default) and actions after the conversion has finished (like opening the output folder or shutting down the computer).

The progress of the current video conversion and the total progress are displayed on a second screen that is also playing a preview of the video. The total remaining time estimates the time left to complete all conversions.

The conversion itself is fast. It took for instance roughly five minutes to convert a standard tv show avi of 370 Megabytes into Vob format.

HD Video Converter Factory Pro users can furthermore use the program to merge videos. A click on merge opens a new window where you can select some or all of the videos that you have added to the program for merging.

Video files that you have selected to be merged are then shown in a folder structure in the main interface.

Another interesting option is the cropping option which can be used to remove black borders from videos.

The effects menu finally offers video modification options. You can use it to change a video’s brightness or contrast, add a mosaic effect to it or make it look like old film.

Verdict

HD Video Converter Factory Pro 3 is an easy to use video converter that can convert nearly any file into a different format. All it takes is a few clicks to get started. Advanced users have sufficient options at their disposal to customize video outputs.

Giveaway

Wonderfox Soft was nice enough to provide us with unlimited HD Video Converter Factory Pro 3 licenses. You can download the program on the giveaway site. There you also find the registration name and license code.

Kastor Free Video Converter is a free, easy to use, video format converter for the Windows operating system. It supports single and batch conversions of many different video formats. Among the supported file formats are avi, mpg, mp4, mov, mkb, flv and about a dozen additional files.

You can add video files via the Add Files button at the top. Just select video files from the local directory. You need to make sure that the directories do not contain spaces in their names. If they do, the program will fail to convert the video files and generate files with a size of 0 in the selected output directory.

Video files added to the program this way are then listed with various information including their file name and format in the interface. It is possible to convert only part of the video by using the preview area slider. The preview area displays only video stills which feels a bit strange, considering that you cannot play the video in the application to change start and end times exactly.

Still, it is a feature that many other video converters do not support at all.

The output settings define the output video format that all videos added to the listing will be converted into.

Several output formats are available among them the majority of supported input formats plus device specific video formats for devices like Apple’s iPhone, Ipad, Sony’s Playstation 3 or audio only.

A click on Settings displays advanced video conversion options including the video cideoc, size, fps, bitrate and audio related settings.

You can select an output format from the preset listing as well, which offers additional format variations not available under the Output Format menu.

All videos listed in the program will be converted into the selected video format. A progress indicator next to each video listing indicates the progress of each individual conversion.

Kastor Free Video Converter is a handy tool for users who want to convert one or multiple videos into another video format. The application has a few shortcomings like missing support for directories with spaces or a preview feature that is not sufficient for previewing videos. The core feature on the other hand, video conversions, is handled fast and sophisticatedly.

The video conversion software seems to require the Microsoft .NET Framework. The required version is unfortunately not mentioned on the project website.

Interested Windows users can download the free video converter from Kastorsoft.

Video Converter for Windows is a video conversion software that supports all popular video formats and then some that you probably never heard of before. Chance is, if it is a video then Video Converter can convert it for you. Lets take a look at the supported video and audio formats, and the corresponding output formats first.

Supported video and audio input formats

• Standard video formats: AVI, MP4, MPG, MPEG, DPG, VOB, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, RM, RMVB, DAT, MOV, FLV, f4v, DVR-MS, M4V, MKV, MOD, TOD, GIF, AP3, AIF, DV, NUT, NSV
• HD video formats: MTS, TS, M2TS, TP, TRP,TOD, HD MKV, HD WMV, HD MOD, HD MOV, HD FLV
• Audio: AA, AAX, AAC, AC3, AIFF, APE, AMR, AU, CUE, FLAC, MP3, M4A, M4B, M4P, M4R, MKA, MPA, MP2, OGG, RA, RAM, WAV, WMA

Supported video and audio output formats

• Standard video formats: ASF, MOV, M4V, MP4 Video（AVC）, MP4 Video（Xvid）, MP4 Video（MC）, WMV, MKV, AVI, Xvid, DV, MPEG-1, NTSC, MPEG-1 PAL, MPEG-1 SECAM, MPEG-2 NTSC, MPEG-2 PAL, MPEG-2 SECAM, DVD-Video NTSC, DVD-Video PAL, DVD-Video SECAM
• HD video formats: TS, TRP, AVI, MP4, MPG, WMV, MOV
• Common Audio: MP3, M4A, AC3, AAC, WMA, WAV, OGG, APE, MKA, AU, AIFF, FLAC, M4B
• Online Video: FLV, F4V, SWF, YouTube Video, YouTube Video HD, Facebook Video, Yahoo Video, Vkontakte.ru Video

Video Converter for Windows

There is not a lot to see when you start up Video Converter. A menu bar on the top, a header bar with some icons and two larger panes of which the right can be used to preview videos that have been added to the left.

Videos can be added by dragging and dropping them into the program interface, or by using the File > Add Video Files, Add Video Folder or Load files from devices. The toolbar button offers similar options except for adding a video folder.

Information about each video that has been added are displayed in its left-pane listing. This includes the video’s playtime, resolution and size, but also audio and subtitle information.

Videos can be previewed right away by selecting them first and clicking the play button in the video player on the right pane. The video player offers the usual controls like pausing, using a slider to go back and forth or a volume control.

A click on the output settings icon on the right of the listed videos opens a menu with all available video output options.

As you can see on the screenshot above there is a lot to chose from. Available are device specific conversions with all popular devices available from Apple devices such as the iPad or iPhone, o Microsoft’s Zune, Creative Zen, Game Hardware, Blackberry to HTC and Nokia.

In addition common video formats, online video conversions and custom conversions are offered. It is possible to convert a video into a Youtube HD or Facebook video with ease using the software.

A click on the settings icon next to the selected video output opens an Advanced tab with options to make changes to conversion. Here it is possible to change the audio and video encoder, resolution, sample rate, frame rate or bitrate among other things which can be saved as custom profiles. Users from countries that use PAL and not NTSC need to change the frame rate of the videos manually here if they want to play it on a device that only supports PAL. An option to change the default frame rate would have been handy, but does not seem to be there.

Users can overcome it by creating custom profiles that they then use to convert the files.

A click on Convert converts the video into the selected format. The conversions are speedy, and NVIDIA users with a CUDA compatible video card can make use of the graphics processing unit to speed up the conversion further.

It is furthermore possible to merge the video files into one file which will basically create one video file out of all video files that have been added by the user.

The output format is located in the My Documents folder of the user profile. It can be changed easily in the program options along with the temp directory or the number of cpu cores used for the conversion.

Videos can be clipped and edited before they are processed. This is done by selecting the video in the main program interface and clicking on the Click or Edit buttons afterwards.

The video editor offers to change several aspects of the video. It is possible to crop it, change the aspect ratio and to add effects, watermarks and subtitles to it. The original video and the edited video are displayed on the same screen with changes being directly visible on the screen.

Video Converter for Windows Verdict

Video Converter for Windows is a handy program for users who need to convert video formats. The program supports all important video formats and a lot of lesser known ones as well. Conversions are very fast, especially with CUDA compatible video cards. The only gripe that I had during the review was that it was not possible to change the default frame rate in the video convert.

All in all it is a fantastic program to convert videos on the Windows operating system.

Video Converter for Windows Giveaway

We have 30 licenses for Video Converter for Windows which you can win. Just leave a comment below for a chance to win a license. Interested users can download a trial version from the program’s homepage.

Every device has its own specifications that videos must adhere to. This for instance includes the screen size and resolution, and formats that are supported.

It is often the case that videos need to be converted into another format before they can be transferred and played on other devices.

Hamster Free Video Converter is, as the name suggests, a Windows video converter. The program walks the user through three steps to convert one or multiple videos.

free video converter

In step 1, one or multiple videos are added by the user to the list of videos. This can be done by dragging and dropping them into the program interface, or by using the file browser to select video files manually from the hard drive.

The free video converter supports a wide variety of formats, consult the listing below for an overview.

Audio Video Interleaved (.AVI)
Windows Media Video (.WMV)
DivX Video (.DIVX)
XviD Video (.XVID)
DVD Video (.VOB)
Digital Video (.DV, .DIF)
Apple QuickTime Video (.MOV)
MPEG Video (.MPG, .MPEG, .MPE, .M1V, M2V, .MPV)
MPEG4 Video (.MPEG4, .M4V, .MP4)
Advanced Streaming Format (.ASF)
AVS Video (.AVS)
Intel Indeo Video (.IVF)
Matroska Video Stream (.MKV)
Mobile Phone Video (.3GP, .3G2)
HD Video (.H261, .H264)
JVC Digital Video (.MOD)
WinAmp3 Video (.NSV)
MythTV Video (.NUV, .NUT)
Flash video (.FLI, .FLC, .FLX, .FLV, .FFM, .SWF)
Sony high definition video (.MTS and .M2TS)
RealMedia Variable Bitrate (RMVB)

The output format is selected in the second step. The program offers conversions into general formats, e.g. avi, mp3 or mpeg, or device specific conversions, like converting a video to iPad, iPhone, xBox or Ps3 compatible formats.

convert videos

Depending on the selected output format, editing options are displayed on the right side. It is for instance possible to select a video codec, video quality or output resolution if avi is selected as the output format. Device specific conversions on the other hand do not display options at all, since the resolution and output parameters are always the same.

The third step holds the button to start the conversion. A progress bar is shown for each video in the video list, and percentages are displayed in the video preview area.

hamster free video converter

Step 3 does not offer visual confirmations of the selected output video format, which can be confusing. The speed of the video conversions depends largely on the PC the software is running on. The folder containing the converted videos can be opened right from the program interface.

Hamster Free Video Converter is an excellent program for users who do not want to fiddle around with encoding parameters. Even beginners can convert videos without having to worry about the right format, aspect ratio or resolution.

The software is available at the developer’s website for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows (via What’s On My PC)

Free Video to DVD converter is such an alternative. It requires almost no configuration at all and can convert most popular video formats to a DVD compatible format.

The program is offered as a standalone software and as part of a suite at the developer’s website. Both applications are free and offer the same functionality. We did have troubles with the standalone software which did not install properly on our Windows 7 test system.

Uninstalling that version and installing the complete software suite solved the problem. The installer offers to install a toolbar during installation which most users probably do not want at all. Unchecking the box will prevent the installation of the toolbar.

The interface of Free Video to DVD Converter is as basic as it can get. There are virtually no options except for the presets where the quality and video standard (NTSC or PAL) can be selected.

The program supports both single layer and dual layer DVDs and displays the output size of the added video files in a bar at the bottom of the screen to give an indication if the user has to burn a single or dual layer DVD.

Files can be added by clicking on the browse button in the interface. The program does not limit the video files that can be added for conversion (or warn the user) which means that it is possible to end up with a size that does not fit on one DVD. This is obviously problematic as it is not possible to burn the videos to DVD if they exceed the maximum capacities. The program does not split the DVDs or reduce the quality settings automatically.

The user has to make sure that the maximum capacities of a single or dual layer DVD are not exceeded. The converter will create a Video_TS folder out of the video files that are added by the user.

It is possible to just create the Video_TS folder or burn the DVD automatically in the end. Another nuisance is that the program will display an advertisement to install the toolbar again when the user closes it.

Free Video to DVD Converter is nevertheless one of the easiest to use programs to burn videos to DVD. Users of all experience levels can use it to create video DVDs easily. The developers should consider to add warnings when the space limit is exceed or implement an option to automatically split the videos on multiple DVDs if the space is exceeded.

Free Video to DVD Converter can be downloaded from the developer’s website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. A free alternative with an advanced functionality is DVD Flick.

The biggest advantage of the video converter is its ease of use. All it takes to convert a video is to drag and drop it into the program’s interface or use the file browser to pick one, select the output format for the video and click the convert button.

That means it is possible to convert a video in two or three steps.

Advanced users will definitely miss options to change video parameters or to queue videos for batch processing but that’s probably not what the program has been designed for in first place.

It would still add value to the software if the developer’s would add those “advanced” options to their program to make it usable for additional usage situations.

Miro Video Converter will automatically convert the video into the correct sizes and formats if one of the supported phones or devices are selected. Supported are amongst others the iPhone, iPod Touch, Classic and Nano, PSP, G1, HTC Hero, Droid / Milestone, Nexus one, Cliq and Droid Eris.

The video converter is using FFMPEG and FFMPEG2Theora to convert the videos into the desired formats.

Miro Video Converter is available for Windows and Mac operating systems. The developer’s have made available the source code of the application as well.

Video files can be loaded by using the Add button in the header of the program. It is here possible to add one or multiple videos which are then displayed with various information in the program’s interface.

The information listed include the name and audio language of the video, playtime, bitrate and codecs.

The output folder and the start and end time of each video can be configured individually.

The lower half of the screen displays various output options in tabs. This ranges from converting the selected videos to general video formats, HD video, Apple, Sony or Microsoft specific formats, portable devices and audio.

Each selection displays a list of possible formats that can be selected for the output. The general video tab for instance can be used to convert the videos to avi, mpeg, wmv or a format supported by Youtube while the HD Video formats basically list the same formats but with HD quality.

A few processing options are displayed beneath the format selection including audio and video quality settings, cpu core selection, high quality rendering engine and others.

• Support Multi-track HD Video – The first video converter that supports converting Multi-track HD video such as BDAV, M2TS, MKV, and AVCHD. You can freely choose audio language track and video track.
• Convert HD and SD Video – Built-in 160 video codecs and 50 audio codecs, WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe can convert between all popular video formats without assistance of any third-party codecs.
• Support Blu-ray, M2TS, BDAV – Support BDAV, TrueHD, M2TS, MPEG-TS A/V, a definitely useful feature when making a digital copy to backup your Blu-ray video.
• Multi-Core and Hyper Threading – WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe supports Multi-core CPU and Hyper-threading, which can offers you up to 5x‐15x real time converting speed.
• Support HD-Camcorder Video – Make an easy way to convert your HD-Camcorder videos to most popular video formats, so that you can burn it to DVD and edit the video in Windows Media Center.
• Make Website Videos – Help you convert video to the format which can be supported by YouTube, Myspace Video, Metacafe, or you Blog.
• Easy to Use with Professional Setting and Optimized Profiles – Have numerous presetting profiles to satisfy all your need. And the entire adjustable parameter settings enable you to make your own profile.
• Extract Audio and Images from Video – Extract audio tracks and save as MP3 music file. Extract single frame as JPEG or BMP picture. It can make your video converting experience have much more fun.
• Automatically Fix Incorrect Video Data – If your player can’t properly play some videos, or you have some corrupt video files, it will auto mend these incorrect data, such as the Video Aspect Ratio, and also you can set it manually.
• Support Both Portable Player and Console Player – Such as iPad, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PS3, PSP, X-box, Zune, PDA, Blackberry, Nokia, Android, Zen, etc. With the auto-setting tags in the video, you can easily check the original video name and artists’ name in iPhone, iPad, or iPod.

The video converter is easy to use considering that the output format settings can usually be left in their default state. The multi core cpu support improves the rendering speed of the program considerably.

WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe is currently offered for free at the WinX website. The software retails for $49.95 regularly. The offer to download the program for free is provided until March 15.

Videos are loaded into the interface by clicking on the + icon in the header or by right-clicking the queue and selecting Add from the context menu (the program window states that drag and drop is working as well but we were not able to get it to work). It is possible to select multiple videos at once if they are located in the same directory.

Videos that are loaded by the program are displayed with their file name and playtime in the video queue.

The available video formats are displayed at the bottom in a scrolling bar. The user has to scroll quite a bit to see all the video formats offered which is probably not the best way to present the options especially for new users of the program.

Video formats can be added or removed in the program’s options. This is the same option that is available during installation. Removed video formats are removed from the list which is recommended to make the list of available formats more accessible.

Available for video conversion are generic formats like divx, xcid, avi or h.264 videos but also device specific formats including support for iPod, PSP, Apple TV or DVD format as well as audio formats to only extract the audio of the selected videos.

The advanced options are accessible from the same screen. They can be used to change quality settings, aspect ratios or frame rates.

Download and Installation

ConvertVid is available for free at the Giveaway of the Day website. The developer’s website can be found here.

The program comes as a zip file that will extract the setup file. Installation could pose a problem for some users as the program asks the user to select the video formats that videos should be converted into during the setup. All of the formats are selected by default but this is confusing and not helpful. The readme.txt that is extraced with the setup contains the serial number for ConvertVid which needs to be entered after clicking on the Buy Now icon in the header of the program.

Alternatives

There is definitely no shortage of video converter alternatives. From online converters like Movavi or Media Converter to software solutions like XMedia Recode Video Converter or, Super

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Supports batch processing including the option to save a batch to process it later
• Supports basic conversion profiles and advanced settings

Cons:

• The selection of video formats during setup is confusing.
• Drag and drop not working although it is mentioned in the program interface
• No video previews
• No custom video profiles that can be saved, e.g. for devices that are not included in the list of supported formats.

The interface of Media Converter Ultimate does not throw the user of with lots of switches and other confusing elements that can irritate inexperienced users. The essential options are displayed in the main menu. This includes adding videos or loading DVD contents.

Videos can be added individually or by selecting a folder which will add all videos that are stored in that folder.

Several interface elements become active after videos have been added to the list of files to convert. Each video will be listed with its source file name, duration and destination file name. A right-click opens a context menu with options to rename or remove the videos. Some actions are inactive but become available if subtitles or multiple audio tracks are supported by the selected video formats.

Each video can be previewed using the small media player on the right.

The settings in the footer area become available after videos have been added to the program. These settings are valid for all videos that are added to the queue which should not be a problem for most users. Some users on the other hand might like more flexibility here so that videos could be converted into different formats in one process.

The video format (and audio format if available) can be selected in this step. A click on the down arrow next to the audio and video file pulldown menu will open a large list of formats and devices the videos can be converted into.

Supported Formats

• DVD: DVD Folder, IFO Files, ISO File
• Standard Video: M4V, AVI, MP4, MPG, MPEG, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, RM, RMVB, DAT, MOV, FLV, MKV, DV, NUT, H.264, NSV, VOB, DVR-MS
• HD Video: HD AVI(VC-1, MPEG-4), MTS/M2TS/TS/TRP(AVHD H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2 HD), HD WMV(VC-1, WMV HD), HD MKV(H.264), HD MOV(H.264), HD MPG(MPEG-2 HD), HD MP4(H.264, Xvid)
• Audio: M4A, M4B, M4P, M4R, MP3, M4A, MP2, MPA, WMA, AAC, AC3, MKA, OGG, AIFF, RA, RAM, WAV, APE, FLAC, AA, AAX

That’s a comfortable way of displaying the available choices. Users do not have to worry about resolutions, bitrates and other advanced parameters at this point. If their device is in the list they can select it and are ready to convert the videos without having to worry about those advanced parameters.

Supported devices:

• iPod, iPod nano, iPod classic, iPod shuffle, iPod touch, iPod Touch 3G
• iPhone, iPhone 3G, Apple TV
• PSP, PS3
• Xbox, Xbox 360
• Android MPEG-4(*.mp4), HTC T-Mobile G1, HTC G2 Magic, HTC Hero, HTC Tattoo, HTC DROID ERIS, T-MOBILE myTouch 3G, SamSung i7500, Motorola CLIQ, Motorola droid
• BlackBerry Storm 9630/9550/9530, BlackBerry 8800/8830/8820, BlackBerry Bold 9700/9000
• BlackBerry Curve 8900/ 8530/ 8520/ 8300/ 8310/ 8320/ 8330/ 8350i
• BlackBerry Pearl Flip8220/ Flip8230/ 8100/ 8110/ 8120/ 8130
• General 3GP mobile phone, BlackBerry, etc.
• General MP4 players: Archos, Creative Zen,Zune, Zune HD, iRiver, etc.
• Window Mobile device: Pocket PC, Smart Phone, PDA, etc.

Advanced users on the other hand can make use of the Settings button to change those parameters. This includes video and audio parameters like the frame rate, bit rate or video and audio encoder.

A click on the Start button will start the media conversion. Media Converter Ultimate uses multi-threading and all cores of multi-core cpus to speed up the conversions.

Converted videos can be moved to connected devices from within the program after all conversions have finished. That’s helpful for users who convert videos that they want to view on those devices.

It is furthermore possible to burn videos to disk. Media Converter Ultimate can created DVD templates and convert the selected videos into a format that is compatible with DVD video before they get burned to DVD.

DRM Removing

This feature was not tested due to a lack of files with DRM. It can, according to the developer, deal with several DRM formats that are used by iTunes, BBC iPlayer, Audible Audiobook and Windows Media.

Whether the “Fair Use” of iTunes’ .m4p music .m4v video .m4b audiobook, or the “Play for Sure” of Windows Media protected .wma .wmv files, or even BBC iPlayer WMV, Audible Audiobook AA, now DRM will be no longer the sham to deprive our fair usage rights, Media Converter Ultimate will disable DRM license easily.

Christmas Giveaway

We have ten licenses of Daniusoft Media Converter Ultimate that we can give away. Leave a comment for a chance to win one of the licenses.

Raju is giving away Axialis screensaver Producer at his blog, check it out.

Good video converters should support the most common video formats, create high quality outputs and offer an interface that is suited for inexperienced and advanced users alike. DVDFast Video Converter PRO is such a program.

The program supports a dozens of popular HD and SD video formats:

• Input Video formats:HD Video: HD AVI, HD H.264 / AVC, AVCHD (.MTS, .M2TS), HD Quick Time, HD MPEG-2 TS, HD MP4, HD WMV; SD Video: AVI, ASF, AVC, DIVX, FLV, H264, MP4, MOV, MPEG1/2, RM, RMVB, VOB, WMV, XVID, 3GP, 3G2
• Output: AVI, WMV, FLV, MP4, MPEG, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP, PDA, 3GP, Zune, Music, XviD, DivX, JPG, BMP

But support is only one aspect as it should also be easy to create quality outputs without lots of background knowledge in video terminology.

DVDFast Video Converter PRO can convert one or multiple input formats into output formats with just a few clicks. All the user needs to do is to pick the videos that should be converted from the local hard drive. Those videos will then be listed with information and a preview option in the interface.

The videos will be converted to avi by default which can be changed to another support format or device. This ranges from formats like mp4, mpeg or flv to device specific formats for the iPod, iPhone, PSP, Apple TV or Zune.

Everything is in reach with just a click of the mouse. A click on the start button will start the video conversion into the selected format. The standard settings are usually all that is needed to create a quality output of the selected videos. It cannot really get much easier than this.

Experienced users on the other hand have the option to use some of the advanced controls to change audio and video settings to fine tune the output even further.

This ranges from changing the start and end time of the output video and the folder for the output to advanced video and audio settings. It is here for instance possible to change the bitrate and frame rate of the video, select a different format if available (e.g. divx or xvid for avi output files), the video resolution, aspect ratio or that the high quality engine should be used to convert the video.

All of these options are accessible from the very same menu. It is therefor very comfortable to tweak those settings if necessary.

Another option that is provided is the ability to rename files with the help of renaming templates. Those templates use variables like #name or #resolution that can be used to name the output files. This is another helpful option especially when converting multiple videos at once with DVDFast Video Converter PRO.

The conversion speed depends largely on the speed of the computer system but also on the input and output videos. It can generally be said that the conversion is speedy as the video converter makes use of multi-threaded encoding techniques.

DVDFast Video Converter PRO is a very convenient video converter for the Windows operating system.

Christmas Giveaway

We are giving away 1000 licenses of DVDFast Video Converter Pro. All you need to do is to visit the giveaway page and enter the required information to receive a license.

Raju is giving away Tuneup Gold licenses.

The free video converter Movavi Online Convert is an excellent tool to convert videos on the Internet. It can convert files that are uploaded from the local computer system but also videos that are already stored on the Internet. Online video portals that are currently supported are for example Youtube, Dailymotion, Google Videos, MySpace or Break.com.

Up to five videos that do not exceed a total size of 100 Megabytes and an individual playtime of 10 minutes can either be uploaded or entered with their url in the online video converter. A multitude of different output formats is available including avi and mpeg but also specific formats for devices such as iPods, iPhones or mobile phones.

The advanced options provide the means to customize the conversion further. It is for example possible to change the output width and height of the video or to change the video and audio quality.

A click on the start button will initiate the upload of the videos if they have been selected from the local system. Users can check the merge checkbox if they want to merge all the selected videos in one larger video.

The videos will be added to the program queue. At the time of writing the queue number was at 932. That’s a long time to wait. It is fortunately possible to add an email address to be informed when the video conversion has been finished. The queue window can be closed if an email address is supplied.

Movavi’s online video converter is a comfortable online tool that makes it dead easy to convert videos on the Internet.

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.

A Video_TS file is usually created by those DVD ripping tools like DVD Shrink or HD Decrypter. They can also be downloaded sometimes. The tutorial explains how you can convert the full movie including subtitles and additional languages if required.

The only software program required is AutoGK (Auto Gordian Knot) which utilizes a handful of well known tools like Virtual Dub Mod or AviSynth and automates their usage. That’s probably the greatest strength of the video software. It requires minimal input to convert the Video_TS folder to one video file.

AutoGK can do much more than just convert the video_ts file but that’s what the video tutorial will be concentrating on. Installation of the software takes a while because it spawns the installation of the additional tools used by it. Start AutoGK after the installation of all programs has finished.

The minimal steps that are required to convert the video_ts folder to a single video file are the following:

• Click on the Browse icon in the Input File row and pick the Ifo file of the Video_ts folder that points to the full movie. It usually contains the same digit as the largest amount of VOB files in the folder. In the case of the movie Crank it was VTS_02_0.IFO because there were six VTS_02_x.VOB files in that folder.

  AutoGK is displaying the playtime of the selected movie after picking the IFO file which is another indicator if you picked the right one. If the DVD has more than one main track then you need to repeat the step and merge the files later on.

• Now check or uncheck the available subtitles and languages.
• Once that has been done it is time to select the output file and size for the video that will be created.The output file size can be selected by picking a predefined size that ranges from 1/4 CD (175 MB) to 3 CDs (2100 MB). Several additional options are available for DVDr sizes. The user can also select a custom size if he likes but most should find a suitable one among the predefined sizes.
  The output file is simply a link to the avi file that will be created.
• Several optional parameters can be configured in the advanced settings. This ranges from selecting an output width to a selection of the video codec and output format.
• The last step involves adding the process as a job to the job queue and clicking on the Start button to encode all jobs in the queue. It’s possible to add additional jobs and let them run overnight for example.

The result is a avi file that can be played in video players on the computer.

One of the best, or at least one with lots of options to choose from, is Media Converter. The music and video converter supports a wide range of file types like flv, avi, mp3 or pdf that can be uploaded and converted online. That’s only part of their service though. Instead of uploading files to Media Converter to convert them online it is possible to point the service to a supported website and convert the media files found on that site directly.

This has the advantage that the source file does not have to be downloaded or uploaded. Only the final product has to be downloaded to the local computer. The media can be converted in the process. Pointing Media Converter to a Youtube video makes it possible to convert the video to mp3, ogg or one of the supported video formats before downloading the converted product.

Another interesting feature of Media Converter is the ability to convert video or music from protocols like rstp, mms or http. All those services are free of charge. Premium users get access to a handful of additional video portals, a larger file size limit, unlimited conversions per day, a higher priority and quality of recording.

The application was designed with ease of use in mind, especially the conversions can be handled without knowing anything about bitrates, formats and frames. If a user wants to convert videos into mp4 format he simply selects a desired quality and size or picks a device like the PSP or iPod that he wants to view the video on. Experienced users can select the custom settings which give access to all video parameters of the target video.

Format Factory supports batch conversions and multiple files and even folders can be picked at once to be added to the processing queue. It is even possible to mix file formats in the queue, everything is handled quite well by the software.

If you play around with Format Factory for a while you notice several “nice to have” features that have been added. Tag lines can be added to images that are converted for instance and it’s up to the user to pick a font, size, color and text of the tag line.

I downloaded some hiqh quality flash video files of Gametrailers.com and converted them in the application. I was surprised at the speed of the conversion. It’s fast and efficient from what I can tell.

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.