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Five free video converters for your iPod



XviD4PSP






Previewing video from the main window.
The good: Predefined profiles for popular devices; pass-through audio and video encoding; video deinterlacing; brightness and contrast adjustments; video preview on main window.

The bad: Requires latest version of .NET; no preview window for video cropping; autocrop feature does not always work; does not encode with DivX.

The bottom line: XviD4PSP is a highly capable converter with a decent user interface. The inclusion of filters to denoise and sharpen videos is slightly let down by the steeper learning curve of the software. While the interface is neat with the encoding settings laid out on the main screen, beginners may find it hard to understand.

File formats supported: avi, asf, mov, rm, rmvb, flv, mkv, mpg, pmp, 3gp, m4v, divx, wmv.


Free FLV Converter


Video searching without an internet browser.
The good: Lightweight program; integrated video search for many video-sharing sites; video conversion to FLV; selectable output video format.

The bad: Limited video-editing options; downloaded flash video files cannot be saved; no option to specify file save location for encoded video, layout can be confusing.

The bottom line: Kotoye Soft's free software will search, download and convert online videos into more common formats, perfect for those who are big fans of online clips. Its non-consistent UI may disorientate new users, and it has very limited video conversion settings. The plus side is that it also supports video conversion to the .flv format.

File formats supported: avi, divx, mov, flv, mkv, mpg, psp, 3gp, m4v, vob, wmv, xvid.


MediaCoder


The UI plugin for iPods and iPhones.
The good: Huge codec and format support; UI plugins for common device format conversions; video preview during transcoding; large range of settings.

The bad: Lack of proper help file or manual, steep learning curve, several bugs, program layout is confusing.

The bottom line: MediaCoder is a feature-rich converter sporting a wide range of audio-and video-encoding options, including post-processing and 3D de-noise. The large number of features can severely confuse new users, even with the simplified UI plugins for common devices--this software is still largely complicated. MediaCoder is not for everyone.

File formats supported: 3ivx, avi, asf, dirac, mov, rm, rmvb, flv, h.263, mkv, mpg, ogm, 3gp, m4v, theora, vob, xvid.