If you are still looking for a good video converter, you might want to try TEncoder. This is an open source multi-threaded video encoders that would also help you hard code subtitles into the converted movies.

Multi-What?

Similar to other video converters like Handbrake and FormatFactory, TEncoder can help users convert videos from one format to another. Currently, TEncoder supports 9 major video formats, such as: Xvid, FLV, H264, WMV, MP4, MPEG 2. It uses FFMpeg and Mencoder codecs in the conversion so it won’t conflict with most formats.

So, what makes TEncoder different from other more established names in the video converter world? It’s the support to multi-thread technology. It means that TEncoder will allow users to do multiple conversions at one time, making use of modern computer’s multi processor power. Users can run up to 8 separate encoders at once.

This feature will make the whole converting process faster than the traditional way where the movies are queued and converted one by one. However, the speed will depend on the computer power and the quality of the video result that you choose. This ability will also be useless if the computer itself is not equipped with proper hardware, or if you only want to convert one video file.

Let’s Convert

If you want to try to convert multiple videos using TEncoder, prepare the files and open TEncoder. Here’s what the main window looks like: the function buttons above, a big file list pane at the center, and the conversion options below.

Start by adding the video file(s) to the list. You can do it one file at a time using “Add File” button.

Or you could put all the files into one folder and add them in a bulk using “Add Folder” button. If every file is located inside its own folder, use “Add Folder Tree” instead. I personally don’t see the need to use three different buttons if you can use just one, but apparently the developer think that three buttons are essential.

In my experiment, I added three different video files to convert.

Then go to the “Options” below the file list. From the Video Options, you can choose the file format, bitrate, size, FPS, and Aspect Ratio. While from the Audio Options, you can choose the Codec, Bitrate, Sample Rate, and Channels. Please consult your device’s documentation to find the settings that you need.

From the “Other Options“, you can set how many parallel processes that you want TEncoder to execute. You can also choose what Encoder that you want to use. To hardcode subtitle into the converted video, check the “Enable subtitles” box and put the subtitle file in the same folder as the video file. Please remember to give both the video file and the subtitle file the same name (without changing the file extensions, for example: movie_title.mp4 and movie_title.srt).

Checking the “Do two passes” box will give you better quality videos without bloating the size. However, the process will take about twice as much time.

The conversion process will start after clicking the “Encode” button. You’ll see the whole and individual progress in the Encoding window, along with the time indicator.

In general, TEncoder is a great tool for those who do a lot of video conversions and have a multi-thread-able machine.

Have you tried TEncoder? What do you think about it? Do you have your own favorite video encoder? Share using the comment below.

Image Credit: ToastyKen

Kdenlive is a free and cross-platform video editor that will probably mean more to your average Linux user than Windows or Mac types. The shortage of stable, usable and powerful editing suites on the Linux platform is the main reason for this.

If you’re searching for a decent, all-in-one solution for editing video on your Linux system then Kdenlive might just be the program you’re looking for.

Workspace & Features

If you’ve ever edited video before then you’ll probably feel instantly at home with Kdenlive, which is a typical non-linear video editor. If you’re a newcomer to the world of video editing then the interface shouldn’t put you off either.

The editor supports capture from a variety of devices, including Video4Linux compatibles and Firewire cameras as well as screen capture from the desktop. You can check if your device is supported on this compatibility list.

All the favourites are there – the timeline, a monitor window (with tabs for switching between individual clips and the whole production), file browser, transition window and a menu full of options and features. Overall the workspace is clean, attractive and responsive; if a little limited at times.

The program has a fairly extensive range of features, including a very handy transcoder. Transcoding video is as simple as adding source files to your project with the Add Clip button, right clicking your selection in the file browser and choosing Transcode. Kdenlive can do transcode to the popular DNxHD editing codec in two clicks and completely removes the need to download additional converters or doing it manually via command line.

Cutting up your freshly transcoded video into clips for arrangement on the timeline isn’t difficult, especially if you use the handy keyboard shortcuts. By default “I” is your in-point, “O” is your out-point and “Ctrl+I” creates a clip from your chosen area. Then it’s just a simple case of dragging your newly made clip onto the timeline.

Kdenlive also includes stop-motion capture, which by default worked using my laptop’s webcam. If you have a video device that is configured for use with Linux then there’s little reason you wouldn’t be able to use it for stop-motion here too.

Transitions, Effects & Usability

There’s a decent array of transitions and effects included with Kdenlive, and once you’ve read the how-to, adding them to the timeline is a fairly easy affair. Some users might find the naming and function of some effects and transitions confusing, as they don’t really give much clue as to what the selection does. This makes Kdenlive feel a little less user friendly than it could be at times.

Another thing that makes the program seem slightly unintuitive are the effects, and their applications. Instead of being able to change the volume of a clip by default in your timeline, volume is instead an effect that needs to be selected and applied. Fortunately you can keyframe it, but it’s nowhere near as quick or straightforward as some of the more advanced (and admittedly costly) non-linear editors out there.

On the Ubuntu 10.10 system I’m currently using, Kdenlive was incredibly stable. I’ve not actually enjoyed this level of stability from a Linux video editor ever, and I’ve tried nearly all of them. Whilst editing together a 7 minute 720p video with effects, transitions, images, additional audio and a lot of source videos the program crashed once in the entire editing process (don’t hit Save whilst you’re previewing your creation).

The only “major” problem I had were my sub-clips (selections of video within other files) somehow hid themselves and there was no clear way of getting them back. Eventually I worked out that creating a new sub-clip from the same source video reveals them again, but it’s annoying all the same.

When it comes to rendering you’ve got plenty of pre-defined output options, so choose carefully before you commit. Rendering always takes a while, and the more grunt your PC has the less time you’ll have to wait.

There’s also a decent community sharing custom creations including render profiles and transitions, though these can be downloaded within Kdenlive from the drop-down Settings menu.

Download

If you like the look of Kdenlive then you can download the following versions:

• Linux – Packages available for Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware and more as well as source code and instructions on compiling.
• Mac – From Macports.
• Live CD – Burn Kdenlive to a CD, DVD or USB stick and boot as an OS (perfect for Windows users).
• VirtualBox & FreeBSD – Versions for virtual machines and the FreeBSD OS.

Conclusion

I really like Kdenlive, even though it doesn’t feel quite user-friendly enough for everyone. Whilst it does have its bugs, quirks and annoyances it is still the most stable video editor I’ve yet to use on the Linux platform. For this reason (and its decent array of features) I’d recommend Kdenlive as a very workable solution, though if you are thinking of undertaking a project then don’t forget the software’s limitations.

If you’re looking for alternative Linux video editors, Kdenlive was featured alongside 6 others in this article.

Have you tried Kdenlive? Did you like it? Any better editors out there? Anything nearly as stable around?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Once you do find the right tool, you still have to face the task of getting your newly converted files over to iTunes and syncing them to your devices, which can be more difficult than it sounds.

With Evom for Mac, however, this whole process is extremely easy. Evom is a lightweight video converter and transfer tool that will export converted videos directly to iTunes for you. If that doesn’t tickle your fancy…it’s high speed!

What Is Evom?

Evom, a product of the Little App Factory, enables you to drag-and-drop and convert videos quickly and easily. It lets you enjoy online content without being tethered to the web and, like I stated in the introduction, it was built for speed. It is designed to convert movie files and Flash videos quickly, taking advantage of your Mac’s multi-core processor, allowing you to get content off of the web and onto your favorite devices.

With Evom, you can drag folders, individual files, or links into the program’s window to start, and your items will be converted for you and exported directly into iTunes or – optionally – saved to your desktop. Once converted, your videos will be compatible with your iPods, iPhones, iPads, and many other devices.

How Do I Use Evom?

Although I gave you a rough idea of how Evom works above, let’s take a closer look at the actual process from start to finish. The first thing you’ll need to do if you want to take advantage of Evom’s power is head over to the website and download the app.

Once you’re ready to go with Evom, just drag or specify the video folder you would like to convert video from. If you leave the iTunes option selected, your videos will go straight to your iTunes folder after conversion to be synced with your iOS devices.

When you drop video files that you want to convert, a configuration box will pop up asking you to specify the output format, as well as the output folder, title, and quality of video.

If you don’t want Evom to convert videos for some specific device, you can always choose to convert video in a specific format. Evom supports the AVI, FLV, MP4, HTML5, MOV, MPG, and WMV formats. Also, you can extract audio out of a video file and convert it into OGG and MP3 format.

As a side note, Evom is also capable of converting selected videos directly to your Apple TV in a compatible format.

Once you’ve made all of your selections and set up Evom just the way you want it, you can go ahead and click Convert to transform your files into watchable ones.

If you’re a fan of video conversion, I also recommend you check out MacX Video Converter and Handbrake too. Will you be using Evom to convert your videos?  Or do you have another favorite?

Creating a video from a slideshow isn’t something new. It has been a pretty common activity thanks to the clutch of PPT to video converters. But thanks to the latest edition of Microsoft Office, you can do away with third party tools…at least for a basic video conversion job.

Microsoft Office 2010 has come in with a slew of user-friendly new features. One of the new features in PowerPoint 2010 helps you convert Powerpoint presentations to video with just a click.

Here are the steps that start with a normal presentation file.

1. After creating a presentation, select the File tab from the ribbon.

   

2. Click on Save and Send – Create a Video under File Types.

   

3. A few optional settings help to further tailor your video creation process.As the screenshot below shows, you can record and time voice narration and laser pointer movements in your video effectively creating a screencast. All other animations and transitions are also preserved in the converted format.

   

4. Two dropdowns fine tune your ‘production’ for the media it will be displayed on. It also determines file size. For instance, opting for Portable devices reduces the resolution. I find this quite handy if I have to carry along and watch a presentation on an iPod or a smartphone.

   

5. You can also add the recorded timings and narration to the video. You can also specify the time that will determine the transition from one slide to the next.
6. Finally click on the large Create Video button and choose a location to save your video as a WMV file.

   

As the conversion to .wmv format begins there will be a progress bar displayed in the lower right corner of PowerPoint that indicates the pace. The time taken for the conversion will of course depend on the size of the PowerPoint file. My 15-slide sample presentation took about eight minutes to turn into a movie.

The inbuilt PowerPoint video conversion is a handy aid to have. There are some limitations of course:

PowerPoint 2010 supports only one video format. A few more choices like MP4, FLV etc would have been real handy. For that, you still have to depend on third-party conversion tools. Also, the highest resolution that’s on offer is 960×720. Higher resolutions (and commonly available) like 1,280×720, 1,920×1,080, or 1,920×1,080 are not available.

The limitations notwithstanding, the Create Video feature is a great tool to have. It saves us the bother of looking for a conversion tool and allows us to quickly upload and share videos of any presentations. If you are a PowerPoint super-user, would you agree that Microsoft has plugged a gap.

A slow Internet connection is one of the reasons why people prefer to watch downloaded web videos instead of streaming the content to their device. Other possible reasons include playing the web videos on non streaming-capable mobile devices and burning the videos to CD/DVD and playing them on TV. With so many video sites on the web today, we can never get enough of web video downloaders. Meet Clip Converter. This tool is no ordinary web video downloader, because it also allows users to clip and convert web videos before downloading them.

Just Add The URLs

If you want to use Clip Converter only to download a web video, all you need is the video URL. Clip Converter supports many web video services like YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, and direct download video links. You can also upload videos from your hard drive to be converted if you want to.

You can copy and paste the URL of the webpage where the video is located, even though the address doesn’t have a multimedia extension. Clip Converter will detect the media file on the page.

But the power of ClipConverter lies in its ability to convert web videos to the format that you want or need, including audio only. Here are the supported media formats:

• audio: MP3, AAC, WMA, M4A, OGG
• video: MP4,3GP, AVI, MPG, WMV, FLV

When you choose one of the formats before continuing with the download process, Clip Converter will display customization options related to that format. So for example, when I chose MP4, Clip Converter let me adjust the audio volume, audio channels, audio and video bitrate, and video aspect ratio.

Another great feature of Clip Converter is the ability to clip web videos. You can choose whether or not you want to download the full video (by checking the “Start of Video” and “End of Video” boxes) or only a specific part of it (by unchecking the boxes and typing in the start and end times).

After you click the “Continue” button, Clip Converter will analyze the page and show you the detected media. If the video is available in more than one quality and/or format, you can choose which one you want to get. One video might have three options: standard quality in FLV, high quality in MP4, and High Definition in MP4; while other videos might have only two.

After clicking the “Start” button, you will see the progress bars. In my experiments, I found the whole process to be lightning fast.

Next is the result page. Aside from the obvious download button, you will also find other related information about the converted video, including a QR code that can be scanned with a QR-enabled smartphone.

Taking A Shortcut

If you do a lot of web video downloading and converting, repeatedly copying and pasting video URLs is impractical. Everything would be much easier and faster if you could do the process straight from the video sites.

There are two ways to do that. ClipConverter provides users with browser add-ons and extensions (available for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari), and bookmarklets (for other browsers, or as a complimentary tool to the add-on).

With the add-on enabled, you’ll have an additional Clip Converter button on the video sites. Clicking on it will bring you to the Clip Converter site to continue with the process. The same thing will happen if you click the bookmarklet button when you are viewing a video page.

As a person who loves web videos, I found Clip Converter to be very useful. What about you? Have you tried it? Or do you know and use other similar services? Please share them using the comments below.

But today’s high speed Internet brings a new problem to the video distribution world: video compatibility. There are many ways and devices that you can use to access video on the net but each requires a specific format of video. If you have videos that you want to share with the world, transcoding them to be compatible with all the devices and browsers out there could be a very tedious process.

Meet vid.ly, a web service that promises to do all the hard work for you, so you can concentrate on producing great videos to share.

One Link To Rule Them All

The basic workflow is this. You provide a video, vid.ly will transcode it into several versions, store the results on their server, then give you the link to the video for you to share. Vid.ly will detect every browser and every device that visits the link and then matches them with the appropriate video format.

You can see on the table the various formats that are supported by vid.ly. Not only browsers and mobile devices, vid.ly also supports video streaming to game consoles.

Before you can use vid.ly, you will need an invitation code as the service is currently in beta. The developer has been kind enough to give MakeUseOf readers an unlimited invitation code (thanks, Jeff!). The code is HNY2011. Just enter that code into the box provided on the main vid.ly webpage.

Then after getting access to the service, click “Start” on the right.

You will be asked to locate the video that you want to convert. You can provide the link to videos stored on the web – either in FTP or HTTP, Amazon S3 services or another cloud service. You can also upload any video stored inside your hard drive. Click “Next” and that’s it.

The next step is to wait. Provide vid.ly with your email address so that you can be notified via email when your video is ready. Click “Finish” after writing down the address.

If you want to know the progress of your video conversion, you can monitor the progress status box where the service logs each and every step along the way.

If you choose to upload video from your hard drive, you can also see how vid.ly utilizes almost all the screen area as the uploading progress bar.

Sharing The One Link

After the process is finished, you will get a video link. You can share this one link to your friends without worrying about the technicalities.

There are many sharing methods supported by vid.ly including several major social networks.

If you prefer to share the link directly to your friends’ mobile, you can send them a text message by entering their phone number and clicking the “send sms” button.

You can also embed the video to your blog or website simply by copying and pasting the provided script. If needed, you can change the video size by proportionally modifying the width and height tags in the script.

For those who still utilize legacy flash players on their site, vid.ly also has your back by providing a method to do direct FLA plays.

After The Links

Aside from making your own videos available, you can also utilize vid.ly to transcode interesting online videos that you stumble onto so that those videos are also available for your other devices and can be shared with your friends. All you need is the direct address of the video (the one that ends with the video format). Unfortunately, this method does not work with YouTube videos.

Please note that the success rate of the transcoding process during my experiment is not 100%. Maybe it’s because the service is still in the beta stage. Hopefully everything will be tuned to perfection for the final stage when they open their doors to the general public.

I would like to point out one other thing. Even though the invitation code I provided above ( HNY2011 ) should be enough for everybody, there’s the possibility that the code will be expired. So I would like to ask for help from those of you who have already got in to share your own invitation code using the comments below (you can view your invitation code by emailing them to yourself).

After you have tried vid.ly, please share your thoughts and opinions about the video compatibility service using the comments below.