Best Video Converter

[Joe Tee]

Does anyone know of a good video converter that will let me convert large videos? I've heard of SUPER, but it's really complicated to me.

And while we're on this topic, does anyone have any suggestions for a good converter in general?

Thanks in advance.

[Henway]

Most tasks can be completed with VirtualDub and/or AutoGK (both freeware).

AutoGK is a mostly one-click solution to encode from VOB (DVDs) to AVI, but can handle MPG, other AVI's and a few other formats.

Basically, I use AutoGK no matter what. If GK does not support my initial filetype (say FLV), I will use something else to convert to a RAW AVI (read: GIGANTIC filesizes), then convert the RAW AVI to a compressed AVI (such as XViD).

VirtualDub is actually a component of AutoGK, but VirtualDub by itself is extremely powerful. It's what I convert to RAW AVI if I have to.

For more obscure formats, I've recently been using Amadis Video Converter.

RiverPast (I think one word, maybe two) makes a whole suite of video and audio products that I occassionally use when nothing else works.

Amadis and RiverPast are both shareware, but are available on the -bb.

[Henway]

PS: I never liked SUPER either...

[Joe Tee]

Thank you Henway! I'll take a look at all of them.

[AETAaAS]

Personally I use MediaCoder. Its totally free and it has a whole lot of features. It converts anything to anything, supports soft/hard subtitles, has quick settings for iPods/PSPs/etc and is very variable. It takes a bit of knowhow but its totally worth it IMO. For me, it is the best batch encoder interface for x264 (h264 encoder), so I effortlessly put whole seasons of TV shows onto my 8GB card for my phone so I can watch them anywhere.

Linky...
www.mediacoderhq.com

[Henway]

[Joe Tee]

@AETAaAS Thank you!

@Henway http://www.mediacoderhq.com/mirrors.htm?file=MediaCoder-0.7.2.4582.exe
That should work on XP, right?

[Henway]

Probably, but the download page I went to was greyed out for everything except linux.

[Kanaria]

I think you were looking at the wrong download page, Henway? The page that comes up when you click "Downloads" on the main page isn't actually the downloads page. This is. I can vouch that it works on XP (I use Vista now, but I also used it when I still had my XP comp).

I know, it's confusing. But considerably less than the SUPER page...ugh.

Anyway, I don't do as much video conversion as I used to. For most general convert-n-go jobs, I use MediaCoder. It's got a pretty steep learning curve, and you probably won't use the vast majority of its features, but once you get used to it, it works well in a decent amount of time and produces good quality files.

VirtualDub I use if I have to split a file into multiple pieces (usually for uploading to YouTube). Once again, there's a learning curve, but not as steep as MediaCoder.

AutoGK, like Henway says, is VERY powerful. But it's also VERY slow. Whenever I use it, I have to leave my computer on overnight for it to finish. The only time I use it is to convert .vob files (ripped from DVDs) to .avi.

These are all open source, if that sort of thing matters to you.

[Henway]

Yeah I found MediaCoder...their page is goofy.

I have a stream-ripped FLV that was cut off during download and I've been going through the rounds hunting for something that will transcode it easily. So far only VLC's Convert option works. MediaCoder, like the Anadis program, crashed upon pressing the Start Convert button.

AutoGK is not slow at all for me, maybe 45-60 mins for a complete two-pass 4.5GB VOB -> 700MB AVI job. I have a powerful computer, but it's by no means bleeding edge...

[AETAaAS]

Just thinking because you mentioned the time it takes, if you are looking to go faster, there's really no difference between apps. Most of the time, they are all going to use the same XVID or x264 backend.

If anything is going to get you encoding faster, a nice quad-core processor is the key. If you buy AMDs, they have the Athlon X4s for less than 100USD even the top end PhenomII X4s cost less than 200. A couple years ago, I upgraded to a quad core and never since looked back.

[la_icank]

I always like a simple software that work well, such as Allok (one version called Allok 3GP PSP MP4 iPod Video Converter). It can convert almost common video types, even a BB Storm compatible-mp4 file (very well-converted). I'm sure it is really easy to find the software anywhere on Google..

btw, this is my first post. Greeting from a WLIIA fan from Indonesia

[Joe Tee]

I've been using AutoGK, and it's really slow. Haha... but I think I'll pull through.
Thanks to all of you!