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This story was printed from CNET Asia.
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Five free video converters for your iPod

By Kelvin Low
15/05/2009
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/musicplay/0,39050461,62054090,00.htm

Anyone who owns an iPod or iPhone will soon realize that iTunes has very basic video import capabilities, and is limited only to QuickTime or MPEG-4 formats. With a plethora of video formats in use today, it can be confusing and frustrating to import them into iTunes. This applies for other video-compatible media players in the market today. Some of these software provide video-editing controls that allow a certain level of video tweaking.

Any Video Converter Free Version


Direct YouTube video download.
The good: Clean and simple interface; direct YouTube video download and conversion; user-customizable profiles.

The bad: No DVD ripping support; beginners may find it difficult to know what format to convert to; advertisement popup for pro version upgrade after converting.

The bottom line: Any Video Converter is a good all-in-one video-converting tool with a simple interface. Plus, it features the direct download from YouTube feature, making it suitable for regular YouTube visitors.

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


XMedia Recode






A comprehensive device profile library.
The good: Large profile library for portable media players; adequate settings for advanced users; decent video-editing features; support for encoding job queue.

The bad: Some setting profiles are out of device's actual specifications; no support for video joining; video has to be played to preview the crop effects; program's default startup language is in German.

The bottom line: XMedia Recode bundles a good set of video-converting tools with basic video-editing features. While it is let down by the spartan user interface, there is enough features to keep advanced users happy.

File formats supported: avi, asf, mov, flv, mkv, mpg, ogg, 3gp, m4v, swf, vob, wmv.

Editors' note:

This guide aims to simply provide information for people looking to convert their own videos to iTunes-compatible formats. CNET Asia shall not be held responsible for the misuse of information/software contained within this guide, loss or damage of data or profits arising from user of the software mentioned.

Through this guide you are able to link to other Web sites which are not under the control and responsibility of CNET Asia. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.

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.