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Best Free Audio-Video Format Conversion Program
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Introduction
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There are many different audio and video formats out there, and most devices (such as the iPod) and programs (such as Windows Media Player) are only compatible with a few specific formats. An AVI or WMV movie will not play on an iPod, for example, without being converted into an MP4 file first. There are quite a few programs that will do this for free, with more popping up all the time. They tend to fall into a few general categories:
While some are better than others overall, which one is best for you will depend on what sort of program you need. Note: If you want to rip video directly from a DVD, click here to view the Best Free DVD Ripper page.. |
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Discussion
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Device-Specific PicksPazera Video Converters Suite
Also recommended:
General Converter Picks
What I do find frustrating, however, is that the developer has now added OpenCandy to their installer. For more information about this bundled software, I recommend you read this article. Please see the last paragraph of this review for information on how you can opt out of this. Now, back to the awesome stuff. With Freemake, you can convert most any format of video or audio with this handy piece of freeware, along with DVD's, photos, and even web embedded media from sites like YouTube, Google, and Vimeo. There are lots of presets and quite a few options, giving the software best-in-class capabilities. The visual cues are easy to follow, pretty much guiding you from start to finish on any conversion task and providing a more user-friendly experience than most other software. This software can make use of DXVA and CUDA (two methods of hardware accelerated encoding) to boost speeds. I was only able to use DXVA on my test computer, so you may get faster encodes with your machine. On my laptop, I had an NVidia card, and Freemake actually displayed a message recommending that I update my video card drivers to make use of CUDA acceleration. Freemake took 39 minutes to produce its output using an Auto Bitrate setting, with a two-pass encode. It took under 15 minutes to do a one-pass encode. Handbrake took 33 minutes using a Constant Quality RF:20 setting. The quality of all three test encodes was excellent, with no apparent difference from the original. You won't find advanced encoding settings anywhere in this interface, so if you're looking to fine-tune your output, I recommend moving on to something like Handbrake, Format Factory, or FFCoder. I would have loved to give this software 10/10 stars, however there was one negative aspect to Freemake Video Converter: the bundled Freemake Toolbar and OpenCandy softwares. The toolbar is set to install by default unless you choose otherwise on the first page of the install wizard. To their credit, the Privacy Policies and/or EULA's are easily available for all bundled software. OpenCandy, on the other hand, does not have a checkbox to toggle its install. Instead, you'll have to roll up your sleeves and install from the command-line if you want to opt out of it. Here's how: Hit Start, then 'Run' the install file with the /nocandy switch. It will still show you the EULA for it, however there will be an option at the very end of the install to 'not install' the software OpenCandy recommends for you. Even without the /nocandy switch, you can still uncheck the box, but for some reason the switch will trade in the check-box for 2 separate radio button choices (Yes or No). It's a lot to worry about and go through, but this software really is top-notch in most other ways. Although their website defaults to an "online installer", they do host offline installers, available here.
NOTE: When installing Format Factory, watch out for the bundled toolbar. It is installed by default if you don't uncheck the box on the first screen of the installer package. A portable version of this software is also available at LiberKey, which is a superb portable application manager.
Also recommended:
Custom-Oriented PicksIf you need to make complex, custom jobs, FFCoder is the standout choice for its coherence. Like most programs in this review, it has an excellent device preset list, the ability to convert multiple files at once, and a simple, sleek interface. Where FFCoder stands out is its support of highly advanced configuration for each of the dozens of video formats and codecs, down to lighting and rendering settings. Despite a few dependencies (listed below) and a steep learning curve for any tweaks past the presets, this is the best converter for almost any power user, device owner or not. One of my favorite FFCoder features is the Directory Watch. You can setup FFCoder so that it monitors a folder for files matching a filename pattern, which will be automatically converted using the selected settings. It can be a bit confusing to set up, however I found I got the best results when setting the wildcard filename pattern to something other than *.* (such as *.avi). There were two things I didn't like about FFCoder. The first is that is always creates Start Menu entries in the Administrator account, regardless of which non-admin account is being used to install it. This is fairly minor though, contrasted with all the powerful features. The second drawback is that it seems to be less stable on 64-bit Windows systems every now and again. I ran into .DLL errors and missing presets, which strangely were intermittent problems. I've spoken with the author and it looks like many of these bugs will be worked out in the next release. Also recommended:
Audio-Only PicksPazera Free Audio Extractor is the audio-only program in the above-mentioned 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.
Online Conversion WebsitesVideo to Mp3 I was asked to checkout a web site converter for Youtube and Dailymotion videos. This site is set up to convert video to four set formats Mp3(128 kbt/s & 256 kbit/s ), flv, mp4 and 3gp. This is a wonderful idea, but does it work lets see.... I started the test with an Mp3 convert and WOW finished in a matter of seconds and my result was ready to download. Ok lets check out some of these other bad boy options. Next I selected the Mp4 option and clicked the convert button and nothing. EMMM I thought well it is a video conversion so it will take more time. I waited until the next day nothing. After a full 24 hours still nothing. I reloaded the page and recopied the URL started a new convert. After 6 hours nothing and then my browser crashed ooops. I started a third again after 24 hours nothing. I am not saying it wont work for you as different configurations of bandwidth, browsers etc may be different but don't get your hopes up. Next up the flv now I was thinking that a lot of Youtube video is in format flv so this should be quick but again after 3 days and 3 tests I had 0 results. At least this time my browser did not crash lol. So without much Enthusiasm I tried the 3gp option and hey what you know it worked first time and quite quickly about 30 minutes. Having said all this if anyone wants a Youtube video in basic no frills mp3 audio from a Youtube video then this is a viable option and simple to use just copy and paste a Youtube URL into box, choice format and click convert and when it is ready download finished product, easy.
Zamzar is an excellent website when you're on the run. It doesn't allow you to customize the encoding settings, however it makes up for that somewhat with its portability and flexibility. If you have a browser with internet access, you have Zamzar. If you have any file, you can convert it to any other type of file in the same class. For example, you can convert video files, audio files, photos (ex: .JPG to .PNG), archives (ex: .RAR to .ZIP), documents (ex: .PDF to .DOC), and eBooks (ex: .LIT to .EPUB). You can even paste a URL (ex: YouTube) and it'll download the embedded video for you and convert it. Once the conversion is done, they email you a link to download the finished product. This email-based file retrieval can be either a pro or a con depending on how you look at it. It's more fuss than there really needs to be in the process, however it gives you the flexibility of converting a Youtube video from a computer where you can't download the content, such as when at work behind a proxy or at a public library. When you get home, you can then download the finished conversion immediately using the email link. I first used Zamzar over a year ago, and to this day I have never received unsolicited email from them. There is a 100MB file limit for free use, but you can upgrade that to 200MB and get about 5GB of online storage if you want to pay their fairly steep monthly prices. For most users, the free services are more than adequate.
Tested and not recommended:
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is really a package of several separate device converters with a common launcher. Each converter is powerful, with several presets for device, custom tweaking/profiles, multiple-file support, all in a simple text-based interface. If you don't mind the launcher, you could effectively use it as a hybrid converter.
To Be Reviewed:
- Avanti
- DVDVideoSoft (re-review)
- Miksoft Mobile Media Converter
- Mediacoder
- Motion Man by Blink Solution
- MeGUI
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Related Products and Links
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You might want to check out these articles too: |
Portable version available here.
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Editor
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This software category is maintained by volunteer editor tpg. Registered members can contact the editor with any comments or questions they might have by clicking here. |
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Tags
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| free audio converter, free video converter, best audio video converter, top audio video conversion program, free av converter, free av conversion. |
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Comments
Thanks for those suggestions! I've used RipBot before but haven't heard of the others.
You are correct in saying that XRecode II is not "freeware", however the author intentionally coded the software in such a way that the user is free to use it without time limits or feature restrictions if they are willing to cope with the once-per-launch nag screen.
Until a firm decision is made on whether or not to recommend this software, I suggest each user tries it out and decides for themselves if it's worth the "nag screen".
If an alternative audio-converter comes to light which was more feature-rich than XRecode II, I'd be happy to take a look and consider replacing it in the review.
UPDATE on XRecode II:
We've spoken to the author of XRecode II, and have agreed to remove this software from our recommended list.
It's still a feature rich piece of software, however as several users have pointed out, it can't be considered freeware. It is the author's wish that users pay for the software to remove the nag screen.
Thanks for everyone's input on this discussion.
Can anyone recommend software which can convert from .iso?
Thanks
I recommend getting a Virtual Drive program (this site recommends lots of good ones).
Then you can use a DVD Converter or software from this article, depending on what's inside your .ISO
Hope that helps,
DrBaker
.iso is not actually a video file, but it's kind of a container format, which contains actual files and folders. You have to extract files and folders out of the ISO file, and then you can decide what to do with them.
As recommended by DrBaker below, you can use a virtual drive emulator, to mount the ISO file on the system, on which it will work like an optical disk. To know more about such programs, you can look here :
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-cd-emulator.htm
If the above programs appear a bit difficult to use, you can use ISO Workshop, to view and extract files out of the ISO file.
http://www.glorylogic.com/iso_workshop.html
Thanks great review/ information, I downloaded Freemake and it's a joy to use , it's makes great looking DVDs, simple to use and I can use it to convert you-tube videos and other videos saved on my PC to a format that will play on my android phone ( galaxy Y) using MX player.
Please help! I installed FreeMake Video Converter and now when I type in a wrong URL, it takes me to searchfusion [DOT] com. I did install with the /nocandy option and didn't see anything about candy.
Please help!
It that the only thing affected ( has your home page been changed , things like that ) it sounds like you have abit of Adware , McAfee siteadviser classes this site as 'only a minor safety/annoyance issues.' but It's very annoying when this happens I hate it. I would do a malware scan to be on the safe side and take it from there what browser are you having the issue on? If it's firefox the solution is quite simple see http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/914094
this person had the same issue as you ( if you use firefox that is) .
If you don't already have a malware scanner http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/malwarebytes-anti-malware.htm Malwarebyte is a good one nice and easy to use and the choice of a quick scan or full scan, a full scan takes about an hour and 15mins on my system but of coarse every-bodies scan time will be different.
Oh yes and just one final point next time you install freeware/ software that use's open candy in the installation wizard do the install slowly read everything and make sure all the correct boxes are checked or unchecked thats what I do, it may take longer to do the install but it actually saves time in the long-run because you don't have to mess around trying to get rid of software you don't want and that's hidden somewhere deep in your system or browser settings. http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/controversial-advertising-progra... Good luck getting rid of searchfusion.
I don't think you got searchfusion from Freemake Converter. It must have come from somewhere else, and probably was on the system prior to Freemake installation.
I just installed the latest version of Freemake, and I did not find anywhere where searchfusion could have been installed. I don't think even OpenCandy would give option to install it. And as you did install with /nocandy option, even OpenCandy couldn't have suggested it.
And I think Freemake have teamed up with OpenCandy in the latest, or maybe recent versions, because earlier, OpenCandy was not there. Earlier, there used to some FaceMoods, or something like that being offered.
That is why we often say on the site, that users should be careful during installation, and also, that these things are quite fluid, and keep changing, of what is offered with what.
Ok, maybe I don't understand the technology well enough but maybe if I first explain what I have & then what I want to do, someone can advise me what software (joiner, whatever) if any that I may need to do the job.
I have some talks/lectures on individual CDs. When I look at them it through m-player or any other audio player that cd may have ~12 3-4 minute long .mp3s in it. As I'm a child of the '70s I kinda look at these like the "tracks" of yesterday's albums but those albums had/have a break between each track.
Does a CD with multiple mp3s like described have these similar breaks like the albums and if yes are is there a way to remove the "breaks" for the purpose of emailing the lecture without having to email 12 or > mp3s? Or are the mp3s somehow tagged to play sequentially without having to worry about
mp3(8) playing before mp3(4)? Thanks in advance!!
A CD may or may not have 'breaks' between the tracks, however breaks on a CD are the result of 'silence' at the end or beginning of each track. I am not aware of functionality on Audio CD's which would allow for breaks to exist in any other way. So if the author chooses to not include any 'silence' as a part of one or both tracks, then the tracks will appear to be 'seamless'.
Furthermore, if the author has a continuous recording (like a lecture) which spans 15 minutes for example, the may choose to 'split' the recording into 3 or 4 shorter tracks. If they have done this, and have not added in any extra silence, then it may sounds as if the recording is one continuous recording to the listener.
Each Audio CD player will normally play tracks in order. But if you have created MP3 files from your CD, then the rules change. Now the various MP3 playing software will vary in how they 'sort' the tracks. Some may use the 'filename' while others may use one or more of the 'MP3 tags'. There is no failsafe way, unfortunately, to guarantee that MP3 files will play in the correct order. I've had bad luck a couple of times when loading Audiobook tracks on an MP3 CD for a long drive. 5 minutes down the road I realize that it's not playing in order and there isn't a way to fix it without renaming the files or the MP3 tags and burning the CD again.
You can certainly use software to 'JOIN' the MP3's together into a larger, continuous MP3 file so you don't have to worry about the play order. If you do this, however, the file may become too large to email. I can't recall which software will do this, but I'd like to invite our other readers to chime in with what has worked for them.
I'll have a look later on and will report back here as well.
Good luck!
If it's a proper audio cd with tracks, then you will have to rip the tracks to get them into mp3 files, as by simply copying the cd tracks, you won't get any audio file.
So, for ripping, you can use a CD ripper :
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-cd-ripper.htm
When you get the mp3, then you can join them if you want to, using an audio joiner software. Suggestions here :
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-cut-split-merge-audio-files.ht...
As DrBaker said, joining the files can make them big, so you will have to see how many files you can join to have an acceptable size to send over the email.
New converter.
Video to Video Converter : http://www.videotovideo.org/
Many features like audio-video converter, video joiner/splitter, built-in dvd ripper, dvd authoring, etc.
Has a portable version too. Looks good.
I've just downloaded and installed the Freemake Video Converter offline installer file using the /nocandy switch and saw no trace of Open Candy during install, except for the EULA on first page.
I have tried the software yet it works fine! (converting mov into avi/wmv)
Thank you so much for the heads-up on this, Anupam. I was looking for a good portable conversion program. I just tried this and it works a treat. It is also much faster than the paid product I have (from Wondershare) but was looking to replace. This is now top of my list for converters. Again, many thanks!
Welcome! Glad it was of help to you :).
EasyBrake:
Features:
- Powered by HandBrake engine
- Automatic video control
- Automatic audio control
- Built-in profiles
- Automatic subtitle control
- Sample creation
http://www.easybrakeconverter.com/
I would say as a casual user not a professional or heavy user, I loved handbrake it was among the best I used so far but such a pity they remove target filesize from its option due to certain somebody ranting about it.
I recently tested XMedia Recode 3.1.3.0 and quite impress with it so far. Couple of things to say about difference I found between latest XMedia Recode and nightly build HandBrake svn 5026.
For a 350mb avi movie using same settings for both encoders, XMedia Recode took just 7 mins to get it into 160mb mkv while handbrake took 15 mins to get to 155mb. But there is a but, there is slight quality difference handbrake uses Constant Quality RF 22.5 while XMedia Recode Constant Quality RF 25 to achieve the filesize I wanted that was 150-160mb range.
Hi,
I've first heard about Freemake Audio/Video Converter thanks to this article. I am not all that into audio/video creation or editing, and I liked the idea of having converter that would do just that, convert format to another format with not too many questions... And that is just what Freemake software does, and does it really nice, as far as I can tell.
But today I found new service on my Win7 machine, and it is called Freemake Improver. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think at all that it is malicious. I just think that I should have been asked if I wanted a service that starts with my OS and takes 32MB or memory at any given time. I know, memory is cheap, but I guess I am too - my rig is my own, and I will run on it only the stuff I have to besides ones I want to. And I don't want this one.
I stopped the service, switched it to manual start, tried out the app, worked just fine. I will continue to use it, but I will have this service as black spot on this nice app, as well as on the creators.
Regards,
Jason
hello and good day to you . 'DVDVideoSoft Free: Pazera without custom tweaks; has neat tricks like Youtube downloading and video tweaking. This product is bundled with OpenCandy. See this article for more information. It will also attempt to install a toolbar which you may not want.'
DVD does now have a you tube downloader that downloads video or mp3 and it works because I use it BUT as you said the program really does nag you to download that toolbar after every conversion it pops up asking you to download the toolbar, it doesn't really bother me I just click it off but I see how this would be a drawback to other users.
Why does Freemake software connect to the Internet? That’s suspicious!
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Firstly, Freemake software checks for updates via the Internet. We release a lot of minor releases with bug fixes, therefore, you have an automatic option to have an up-to-date versions. Secondly, if you agree to send us stats on any errors or software malfunctions, our stats server Freemake Improver needs to refresh its parameters and send information about your errors. Via the Internet as well. We understand your concern about any information reporting, but we guarantee, assure, promise and officially claim that we generate tech information only! How else we can prove it? We DON’T need your personal info. If you refuse from sending stats on crashes, don’t complain on software failure in some specific cases because it’s absolutely impossible to foresee and find issues when we speak about billions of processed video/audio files.
freemake.com/blog/freemake-devs-answer-5-hot-questions/
Hi,
Maybe I wasn't clear enough, but:
1) I didn't say that it is suspicious that Freemake software connects to internet. I have a lot of software that does that and I am OK with it.
2) I explicitly said that 'I don't think at all that it is malicious'. Reports about crashes are important to any software developer and I am aware of that. I report all the crashes to all developers that ask me to (Firefox, Chrome, Aimp etc), so, again, nothing wrong about it.
I said I didn't like that there is a Windows service eating 32MB of my RAM. I tried to turn it from the application, but I didn't find the switch. Therefore, it is not optional, right?
At the end, let me summarize: this is freeware software we are talking about, and it is nice piece of freeware. I like it, really. If there was a problem with it, I will not 'complain on software failure in some specific cases' etc. I just wish I had an opportunity to choose software modules.
Thanks for reading this. This is my last post about Freemake software. I like the app, I don't like the service. Best wishes to all,
Jason
I'm not a Freemake advocate Jason :)
My post is just a FYI, that's all.
If you don't like their service, turn off the 'send stats' option, imo that is the best solution for your problem.
Regards,
Alex
TEncoder - Multithreaded Video Converter :
https://sourceforge.net/projects/tencoder/
Ace Video Converter : http://www.acevideoconverter.com/
FreeMake Video Converter does provide a useful service by compressing and converting videos to a multitude of file types and compressions with ease, even allowing you to specify the size limit you would like your converted video to fit into. The problem is, it comes with a malware search bar that installs and binds itself to EVERY web browser on the host system, even when you explicitly specify NOT to install such a search bar. It also changes your default search engine and home page to the questionable search portal (possibly changes more, haven't found what other badness this malicious software does). Disabling or uninstalling the search bar does not function (it just comes back as if it was never disabled), and furthermore, the data files for the search bar program do not allow you to delete them manually (giving an error when attempting to do so). Finally, this program not only forced a restart of the computer after being installed (got to get that cash cow search bar installed ASAP, to hell with asking permission to reboot) but also slowed down a Core i5 computer to MOLASSES for no apparent reason whatsoever (aside perhaps from probably enforcing the search bar system service binding that prevents the search bar from ever being removed.) I highly recommend you turn to open source softwares like VLC or VirtualDub to compress/convert video and STAY AWAY from ANY software that claims to be free yet has no apparent advertising or sales model on their host website (they have to make money with this program somehow, and this crooked search bar is exactly how they do just this.)
hi, I have heard a couple of people complain about this issue ( toolbars being installed without the users permission) when I installed it a couple of months ago ( freemake) I had no such issues. When installing freemake i was super super careful because it really does try to install unwanted toolbars/ software on your computer, when installing you have to make sure you check EVERY box I DO NOT ACCEPT apart from the box for actually accepting for the freemake software itself. The installer will try to offer you quite alot of other offers/ software ( around 3 if i remember correctly) but as long as you are very careful when installing and only check the accept box for freemake itself and check the I DO NOT ACCEPT for everything else you will be OK . The problem is with alot of freeware has to be paid for somehow and having all this extra software available to download in the installer is one way of funding development i suppose. I managed to install it without all the rubbish and it is a great little bit of software i used it ( and videopad) to make aload of photo slide shows DVDs for my family and they loved them.
Any suggestions for Win 8?
I will suggest this freeware:
http://freemediaconverter.org/
this is a great freeware that convert, rip, download, record video.. with a wide range of format supporting and editing abilities..