Conversion

There are many different audio and video formats out there, and most devices will only take a few specific formats. Many commercial programs will do this conversion for you, but there are a few good ones that will do it for free. None of these programs are quite perfect, and they tend to fall into a few general categories.

1. Device-oriented programs users have very easy-to-use settings and many device presets, but few (if any) user-editable settings. They are meant for converting audio and video so it can play on a portable device, such as an iPod.

When iWisoft Free Video Converter starts, it launches your browser for an upgrade check. Fortunately, that's the only thing bad about it. Its interface is a little slow, but extremely clean, well organized, and easy to use. It has a complete and well-organized collection of presets, and supports making and saving basic tweaks, too.

Pazera Video Converters Suite most of the same ground, but with a simple text-driven interface. It's really a package of several separate device converters with a common launcher. It supports fewer formats and has no built-in video editor, but can do everything else.

2. Custom-oriented programs have lots of settings and the ability to save custom formats, but fewer device presets and more complicated interface. They are meant for odd devices or compressing audio and video.

For power custom encoding jobs, MediaCoder is unmatched. The options in Advanced Mode are virtually unlimited, from start-stop times and odd codec combinations to custom croppings and channel mapping. However, these options are hard to navigate and can conflict with each other if you are not careful. MediaCoder includes several device presets and a setup wizard, but these are often incomplete and hard to find.

SUPER © — stabler than Mediacoder. Great for small, obscure tweaks. Has an annoying interface

3. Hybrid programs make compromises to handle both types of jobs well.

The most feature-filled converter in this review is FormatFactory. It has presets for over 100 devices, converts to and from dozens of formats, and allows for advanced tweaking and custom profiles.

Any Video Converter — FormatFactory with less options.

4. Audio-only programs use their narrow focus to make the interface simpler.

Pazera Free Audio Extractor is the audio-only program in the above-mentiond Pazera Video Converters Suite. It supports both video and audio input and output to many formats, and is slightly simpler than some of its sibling programs. Otherwise, it is perfectly identical.

Avidemux is a video editing software program designed for video editing and video processing.

iWisoft Free Video Converter is a totally free and powerful multi-functions video converter.

Format Factory is multifunctional convertor for video and audio formats, as well as for images.

Free Studio is a single package which bundles all software to work with DVD, video and audio.

Pazera Video Converters Suite is a collection of video converters which helps you to convert between video formats.

SUPER © is the fastest and simplest tool to encode full length movies to any other format.

mkv2vob was designed to remux mkv video to a vob file which is playable on the Sony PS3.

Any Video Converter Free is easy-to-use program for fast and high-quality converting video files.

Pazera Free Audio Extractor is an application that extracts audio tracks from video or convert them to others format.

MediaCoder is universal opensource media free transcoder with plenty of additional functions.

Auto Gordian Knot (AutoGK) — very simple and powerfull tool for making dvd rips, to create quality backups of your DVDs.

Hamster Free Video Converter is an easy-to-use free video converter with a cute but functional interface.

XviD4PSP is an easy to use and high quality all-in-one program for converting videos.

YouTube Downloader is software that allows you to download videos from YouTube and convert them to other video formats.

Media Converter SA Edition is convertor for converting documents, audio and video files between different formats.