Best Free Audio / Video Format Conversion Program

[Bear Bottoms]

By Mick Barker

"The ready availability of audio and video material in digital format has allowed all of us to have access to a huge range of content with an ease and accessibility never before possible.

This wonderful blessing has, however, been tarnished by the proliferation of different audio and digital media formats. The existence of so many formats has meant that seemingly simple tasks, such as transferring a YouTube video to your iPod or making an MP3 file from a DVD soundtrack, can end up being complex tasks; so complex that they become nearly impossible for non-technical users.

In response to this situation we have seen the market flooded by expensive commercial media conversion programs which can cost up to $199. The good news is that there are many free media conversion programs available that will do the job just as well as their commercial cousins.
My long-time favorite has been Super, even though it's really no more than a user friendly interface for a variety of command line conversion programs. It has two great strengths: first, it's reasonably easy to use, and secondly, it handles a large number of different file formats. For example, with video files it handles 3gp/3g2 (Nokia, Siemens, Sony, Ericsson), asf, avi (DivX, H263, H263+, H264, Xvid, MPEG4, MSmpeg4, etc), dat, fli, flc, flv (used in Flash), mkv, mpg (Mpeg I, Mpeg II), mov (H263, H263+, H264, MPEG4, etc), mp4 (H263, H263+, H264, MPEG4), ogg, qt, rm, ram, rmvb, str (Play Station), swf (Flash), ts (HDTV), viv, vob, and wmv. It also handles audio file format conversion including ac3, amr, mp2, mp3, mp4, ogg, ra, wav, and wma.

The download link for Super on the author's site is quite hard to find so I've listed an alternative download site in the product details below.
The new kid on the block is FormatFactory. It can convert all popular video,audio,picture formats to other formats including phone,ipod multimedia file formats and BlackBerry. It supports Zoom,Rotate/Flip,tagscan also repair damaged video and audio file. It can even rip DVDs! Conversions can be a little slow at times but that's OK with me because I am too, LOL.

Yet another alternative is MediaCoder . It has the advantage of being open source and, arguably, is even easier to use. It doesn't handle some of the formats handled by Super but is being continuously expanded by its authors. iPod and PSP owners will appreciate the special features for these devices that make usage particularly straight-forward.
If you are mainly interested in just video conversion, check out Any Video Converter. It has a better interface than the others mentioned here and is very fast as well. Input formats include DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV and AVI. Its set up to make MP4 conversion as simple as possible, but it can handle other output formats if you are prepared to delve into the options."

Super (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer) Website: http://www.erightsoft.net
Download link: http://www.erightsoft.net/S6Kg1.html Alternate download link:
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_encoders/super.cfm Author: eRightSoft
Current version: v2008.build.24
Version date: January 18, 2008
License: Freeware
Download File size: 26.1MB
Operating Systems Supported: 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: Yes
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: None
Other relevant information: None

FormatFactory
Website: www.formatoz.com/index.html
Download Link: www.formatoz.com/download.html Multiple Screenshots: www.formatoz.com/screenshot.html Author: Chen Hao (Author Unverified)
Current version: 1.42
Version date: April 26, 2008
License: Freeware
Download File Size: 14.5MB
Operating Systems Supported: XP/Vista 32Bit Editons Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: Yes, Standalone Version available for Download
Non-English languages supported: 23 Languages Besides English that is Supported with Translation from contributors
Other Relevant Information: When downloading try to avoid the foreign Web download sites

MediaCoder
Website: http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/
Download link: http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/download.htm Author: Yi-Chun Huang
Current version: 0.6.1.4031
Version date: January 18, 2008
License: Freeware
Download File size: 17.7MB
Operating Systems Supported: 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: Yes
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: Yes
Other relevant information: None>

Any Video Converter
Website: http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/ Download link:http://www.download.com/Any-Video-Converter/3000-2194_4- 10661456.html?tag=lst-1
Author: Any-Video-Converter.com
Current version: 2.6.2
Version date: July 16, 2008
License: Freeware
Download File size: 13.7MB
Operating Systems Supported: 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: Yes
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: NA
Other relevant information: None