5 Easy-to-use Freeware Video Converters
Our lives have turned into a big media center. Each of us likely have our own set of desktops, laptops, mobile phones, portable media players, handheld consoles, and MP3 players. The many video formats needed to run our gadgets just add more stress to our already media-entangled lives.
With so many video formats and too little time to organize our video files, we need an easy-to-use and intuitive video converter that handles all our video files on the go. Let us look at 5 of the best freeware video converters that will keep your video collection a little less insane. For converting other files, you can choose an online file converter that were covered earlier.
Quick Media Converter
Quick Media Converter is a powerful freeware video converter that handles all current formats such as FLV, AVI, DIVX, XVID, MPEG 1-4, iPod/iPhone, Real Media, and M4A. In addition, this whale of a free video converter allows you to record videos from your DV camera or webcam in the classic AVI format and convert the file to any format you need.
Quick Media Converter has two modes. The Easy Mode gives you quick access to all conversion options available in an all-in-one interface. Once you have your video file or folder loaded, just click the file that you want to convert and select the conversion format that suits you. The Expert Mode is less intuitive but it gives you full control of video conversion options like codec rendering, aspect, bitrate, FPS, audio synchronization, and recording volume.
Super Video Converter
Super fits the bill for a simple, no-frills interface that converts videos on the go. Super is actually a shell for different command line conversion scripts. Super handles a large number of video formats like 3GP and 3G2 for mobile phones, ASF, DIVX AVI, MOV, MPEG, flash video, real media, PSP video, and more. Super also handles audio conversion for those who want to extract their videos and rip the audio out for easy listening. Super handles large files quickly, and you can find the settings easily making it convenient for users to set their options and start converting.
Any Video Converter
Any Video Converter is perfect for your younger mother/ brothers/sisters who do not want to be bothered with the myriad of options and just want a fast solution that gets the job done while looking good doing it. The converter handles all popular video files with batch-convert and user-defined options. Any Video Converter also has a dumbed-down interface to make video conversion as simple as possible, although it can handle advanced video conversions if you tinker behind the interface and experiment with options.
MediaCoder
Mediacoder is an open source video converter which works on a large variety of formats. New features, conversion options, and conversions formats are constantly being added to support newly-released devices. Mediacoder dubs itself as the “swiss army knife for media transcoding”… simple, quick, and does everything that it is asked. Mediacoder gives straightforward tools that you won’t easily find in other converters like video compression, extracting audio from video files, and repairing corrupted or partially downloaded video files.
Format Factory
This full-featured converter allows conversion to and from popular formats including video formats for PSP, iPhone, and other video formats. The conversion options are easy to find within the interface and you can even perform batch conversion options for mobile video, pictures, audio, DVD videos, and more.
If you can find other freeware video converters hotter than these, just hit the comments button and share them with the MUO community. Cheers!
(By) Israel Nicolas - Geographer, Traveler, Blogger, and Techtionary. Follow Israel's twitter @dingclancy and learn his humble musings on the web landscape.
Nice list.
And VLC converts pretty well too.
You should try VIO video converter (via thepiratebay.org) it’s a very good converter. Extremely easy to use and is very quick. 1 gig mp4 file down to 500mb in 11 minutes.
IIRC.. it would depend on the amount of RAM you have and the size of your CPu..
Super is good.. i’ve been using it a while now and does everything i need..
- rmvb + mkv > divx
- divx + rmvb + mkv > mp4
and more.. the only tiny nag i have about it is that it outputs file names as “movie.avi.mp4″ or “movie.mkv.avi”
how about video converters for mac? never heard of ‘em ^^
Try ffmpegx for the mac. It is based on the excellent ffmpeg package and works quite well for me.
What’s a mac?
the mortal enemy of the PC
Is there a difference in quality in the different converters??
Does anyone know of a ‘quality’ comparison source??
I convert a lot of WMV to DVD (mostly photo-albums) and can’t find the best quality converter – smooth transitions and good picture definition.
Does any one know of a ‘best quality’ converter?
Free or TryBuy – don’t mind buying as long I can try and prove that it’s good quality
Hi David,
IMO there is no one video converter that can make the claim to be the best. It is a hard market to capture because of new video formats popping up that any top freeware video converter will have a hard time keeping up. You can start with the list above then make your own choice.
AS for WMV to DVD, there will always be quality loss because most video converters tend to convert WMV to MPEG before encoding it as a DVD (VOB) file. Your best bet is using Windows Movie Maker. Load your WMV up and then export it to DVD burner from Windows Movie Maker.
Format factory is the best.. have been using from last year
i am looking Video Converters, thanks to making this list. I just pick up the one i will use.
hi!
Why not you try iSkysoft Video Converter Mac application. It converts almost all video formats for Mac. It converts common video formats as well HD videos like MTS, M2TS etc for Mac.
Thank you.
For some reasons, Super keeps on challenging my simple mind.
I have been using Any Video Converter with ease though there is always a loss of video quality.
I will try the rest and see if any will perform better than the other.
Why would you need a video convertor?
This is a great list! I just wish people just make one video format so we will have no need for these.
will any of these convert .tivo files? How to?
Well, no AUTOGK love? Or Dr Divx 2?
Ok, which of of these can convert .mkv files into .avi files?
Quick media converter is NOT freeware and it contains a trojan, beware
It is freeware, and must have got it from a bad source.
i’ve used all 5 of these converters, and xvid4psp trumps them all in a big way. i can’t believe it isn’t more widely recognized.
Format Factory owns — it does not only convert into all formats, it also joins files including FLV files (can UNBELIEVABLY trim and join the FLV files)
Great job, share another powerful converter here too:
Aimersoft Media Converter from http://www.all-media-converter.com/media-converter.html#136
It can Remove DRM, Convert protected M4V, M4P, WMA, WMV from iTunes, Windows Media, Zune MarketPlace, Napster, Rhapsody, Nokia Music Store, Spiralfrog, Bearshek, eMusic, Puretracks, MusicGiants, CinemaNow Movielink, Amazon Unbox etc for iPod, iPhone, PSP, Zune, Xbox, creative Zen, Archos, Iriver, Blackberry, Samsung, Sonywalkman, HTC touch, Sansa etc
Support converting M4P, M4V, WMV, ASF, WMA, MP4, M4A, AVI (XVID), MOV, 3GP, 3G2, DVD VOB, h.264, HD(.m2ts; .tp; .trp; .ts), FLV, FLAC, AIFF, SWF, MPG, MP3, AC3, OGG, APE, AAC, WAV, MKV, MKA, etc
Aimersoft Media Converter is commercial or shareware app ( — says $35.00). Are you trying to promote and sell the product here or what? We are talking about free/open source softwares here.
Thanks for sharing!
But I’d still prefer Clone2Go Free Video Converter, which can also be used to download YouTube videos for free.
It allows you to customize profile as well!
I would suggest Movavi’s Video Converter because it is so easy to use I don’t waste a lot of time searching for features
Not one mention of HandBrake? It’s a multi-platform open-source, portable, freeware application which I would consider better than any on your top 5, hands down.
For mac, i would like use Pavtube Video Converter for Mac
You can get them at http://www.pavtube.com/video-converter-mac/
Freely cut off unwanted edges or parts of a video
Watermark with company logo, animation, subtitle, or another video
Sync video and audio perfectly with high quality
Convert with fast processing speed
this is as of 07/24/2009 is pretty crappy. These are not free since before you can do anything useful you get a pop-up asking to upgrade. Also, a simple WMV to MP4 does not work…
hi, i was just wondering if there was a good freeware product that can convert HD (.ts, .tp) vids ino common formats (avi..etc.)
hi, i was just wondering if there was a good freeware product that can convert HD (.ts, .tp) vids into common formats (avi..etc.)
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?convert=TS%20to%20AVI
VideoHelp has a list of .ts to .avi converters. I personally recommend avi.net. Just make sure that you have a good video card or else you’d be waiting for ages to convert.
I like it and downloading it now
Wondershare FLV Converter performs as powerful Video to FLV Converter\YouTube video converter\ FLV to Video Converter software: http://www.flash-on-tv.com/flv-converter.html#141
It is designed to help you convert YouTube video (FLV) to video format such as AVI, MP4, MPG, WMV, MOV, ASF, MKV, 3GP, 3G2, etc.
It costs 25$!. Why would you pay for something that has plenty of free alternatives?
MakeUseOf covered lots of them, just check the converters category.
I just found a very useful TS to AVI Converter, which is very powerful and also a TS to MPEG Converter
I found a very useful software, which is DVD Copy for Mac, at the same time, it is also a DVD Cloner for Mac
Moyea Video4Web Converter is a free FLV encoder that can can convert all video to FLV and the resulting video quality can be customized.
Users can directly download it to their computers because it is totally free and no watermark, no limitation.
Help!
Is any device, (eg. the Coby 610 portable media player) requiring that all video file(format)s be converted to ONLY “.mtv” format, before being able to play on that device, a waste of time? Cannot find a free or practical ‘to .mtv format’ converter anywhere.
I know the best freeware video converter is iWisoft Free Video Converter from http://www.easy-video-converter.com
this is what I am looking for.
I will choose one of them and use it to convert my videos
It seems that MediaCoder is no longer available on SourceForge.net:
http://blog.mediacoderhq.com/mediacoder-is-no-longer-hosted-on-sourceforge-net/
P.S: By the way, why don’t you put that “Get notified…” check-box before the “ADD COMMENT” button?
MediaCoder can be found here (I just downloaded it OK!):
http://www.mediacoderhq.com/dlfull.htm
I did a Google search and also got the Extra Codecs Pack here:
http://www.filekeeper.org/download/kostello/Media Coder/mediacoder-codecs-20071118.exe
Super is a great free program for video conversion on Windows.
That’s great freewares. Thanx!
Downloaded and successfully used FormatFactory. Worked great. Did exactly what I needed it to do – convert RealMedia files into FLV and Windows Media formats. It was relatively quick too. Converted a 50 MB file in about 20 minutes. Also, it is truly Freeware. Might give the others mentioned in the article and comments a try as well, but even if none of them are as advertised, FormatFactory is a nice product for the tasks I need.
FormatFactory 2.20 comes with a file called Ebay.exe that my Avira identified as a trojan.
Quick Media slows down your computer majorly and doesn’t work. Any Video Format seems to work fine. I suggest Free Video Converter .
http://www.best-video-converter.net/
can any one tell me a converter to convert file to real media format