Video conversion is a topic that makes many of us cringe. It sounds hard!
HELP!
But it’s not really.
Video conversion is fairly easy if you have the right software. This post will tell you about two different software packages that you can download for free over the internet.
WHAT IS VIDEO CONVERSION SOFTWARE?
There are thousands of different video file formats. Incompatible files are indeed a royal pain in the wazoo. It’s the reason why that Flash video won’t play on your iPad. It’s also the reason that video disc burned by your friend won’t play on your DVD player.
Just like an 8-track audio tape won’t play in an audio cassette player, a .wmv video file won’t play on the DVD player designed for MPEG2 video files.
But lucky us, video conversion software will chew on that video file and pop out a brand new file in the format of your choice!
Although there are plenty of paid choices with video conversion software, there are also some good free ones and they might be all you need.
FREE!!!
One freebie that I use all the time is MPEG Streamclip by Squared 5. It comes in versions for both Windows and Mac. It functions with all formats that are Quick Time compatible.
By using any Quick-Time compatible codec, MPEG Streamclip can convert from:
- MOV, DV, MP4, AVI, DIVX, MPG, MPEG, VOB, PS, MOD, M2P, VRO, TS, DAT, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AVR, M2V
to
- MOV, DV, MP4, AVI, DIVX
For full compatibility with MPEG2, (the format used in home DVD players and the main format of commercial DVDs) Mac users need to buy an MPEG playback component from Apple and PC users need to install the Quick-Time Alternative.
SQUARED 5 is a small group out of Italy who are generous enough to keep MPEG Streamclip as a freebie! I use it all the time.
OPEN SOURCE CONVERSION SOFTWARE
Another, even more versatile choice is HandBrake. HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed (General Public License), multi-platform, multi-threaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.
Supported Sources for HandBrake:
- Most common multimedia files that libavformat and libavcodec support. This is a huge list of formats.
- Any DVD or Bluray-like source which is NOT copy-protected. (removal of copy protection is not supported)
Outputs in HandBrake:
- File format: MP4(M4V) and MKV
- Video: MPEG-4(ffmpeg), H.264(x264), or Theora(libtheora)
- Audio: AAC, CoreAudio AAC (OS X Only), MP3, or Vorbis. AC-3 pass-through, DTS pass-thorugh (MKV only)
Between these two free choices, you can probably do just about all the video file converting you’d ever need to!
Thanks for reading Video Production Tips!
Lorraine Grula
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