There are a lot of video converter software, but I think only 3 Video Converter is very good - Movavi Video Converter (for windows), iSkysoft Video Converter (for windows) and 4Media Video Converter for Mac. They have fast conversion speed (>200%), best image and sound quality, easy-to-use. If you want to know more information of them please visit here:
http://www.topsevenreviews.com/reviews-video-converter.html

@Ira... dvr-ms files are basically mpg2 in a different wrapper -- they can also depend on what program wrote the files to your hdd. The Green Button web site is probably the best source for info & utilities re: conversion to DVD-spec mpg2 a set-top player will handle. Videowave - as it comes in Roxio EMC9 anyway - does a very slick, fast conversion when you import dvr-ms video.

@diannelamerc... VOB files are very different than avi files, but it if works for what you're doing who cares? ;-) OTOH if renaming ever doesn't work, you have a clue why. :)

I've had no problems converting flv to wmv on either of my XP machines, and the 3gp to wmv is the best I've tried! Finally a reliable way to get watchable video off my treo! Thanks GAOTD!

#10/marinho

Quick trick that always works for me: most (all?) VOB files are actually avi. To convert them... just change the extension. At least on a PC they play, burn, edit just fine from there.

I really enjoyed reading everyone's feedback here, so thanks to all of you. I've been in need of a video file converter... once again, we all have our own unique purposes for it, and mine is to use w/ another program I transcribe from. As a result, I downloaded the GAOTD offer (thanks, GAOTD!) plus two others mentioned by those knowledgable here. Hopefully one of them will serve my purpose well. Many thanks to all!

media coder does this and more.

Ok I tried the software. It blows when I run it without the key. Then with the key trying to convert an XviD encoded video to MPEG-2 It freezes. Jesus I spend a lot of time downloading this just for nothing. Maybe I go back to virtualdub

Ok I tried the software. It blows when I run it without the key. Then with the key trying to convert an XviD encoded video to MPEG-2 It freezes. Jesus I spend a lot of time downloading this just for nothing. Maybe I go back to

As much as I like the alternatives offered by some users here, others post links to junk thats as bad as this Red Chinese garbage! Ok, I bought Xilisoft Video and Xilisoft Audio Converters and later found that Any Audio and Any Video converters are better then what I trashed money on. both free, both run great on Vista and both look great. Now as to the comment about XP working (thats what it does and Vista doesn't) WRONG!!!!! Both of the systems work great on the same Dell XPS Desktop PC for me. You have balls trashing what you don't have and know little about! Don't knock Vista unless or until you have tried and used it more then the displays at Staples. It's not our fault you can't afford a new PC. Get a better job!
One last thought please. GAOTD, can you do something about these junk, apps by the Chinese who can't spell in English? Yesterdays, the day before yesterdays and todays are three of the very worst disasters I've seen here in three months.

Totally agree with #71, stopping put pile of dlls in windows\system32.
I think one of the free one call 'Super' also has this problem. I remember reading some old review saying because of 'Super' converter putting some READ ONLY old DLLS in windows\system32, it breaks some other programs that also use the same DLLS. All because they make it READ ONLY and the DLLS are old, it caused all kind of problem.

If you are developers, stop putting dlls (especially dlls that you don't own) in windows\system32!!!
Try make it portable if possible that can put in USB drive.

The best video converter for free is SUPER. I have used numerous converters and SUPER beats alot of pay for converters. The addy is
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
Just make sure you read the instructions and follow them completly.
Thanks anyway GAOTD but I'll have to pass on this one. Keep up the EXCELLENT work though.

It converted 1 video, then just went shaky shaky, and I can not convert another... I wouldn't pay 39.95 for this every... I have tried now many times.

This program is a winner. I could not get it to convert
anything to anything. Not kidding, really. Well, it did
convert a few, but they had no video, just sound.

I dl'd WinAVI Video converter from this site about 2 weeks ago and it converts anything to anything. I made a dvd of my motorola phone videos. WinAVI works great, try it out. Thanks GAOTD.

good giveaway but this one imo is WAY better (and no one even suggested it yet <.<) http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/


Thank you very much SeanC! I always prefer to use stuff from sourceforge whenever possible. :)
klm

No probelm, i allways love sorceforge projects myself for one main reason, the support is amazing! have a question? sorceforge has forums.... use them! lol

anyways ya this program is amazing http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/ and with it working with Linux that is a huge plus in my books (as i am a linux user), AND works with MAC (again in my books thats a plus)

Does anyone know if this software will convert dvr-ms files to a file that can be burned on a DVD and then play on any DVD player? Media Center makes DVDs from dvr-ms but only if the original dvr-ms file is less than 1.75 hours.

@ #60, Zomaya:

I once downloaded a small app called Apollo Avi Converter. I've never used it, but I have it in a rar-file on my laptop here... the readme.txt claims to convert avi files and burn them to dvd right away... wanna try? I have no idea where you can find it online (I've had it for a long time... just in case I might need it one day, but like I said... never used it yet...)

Anyway, let me know if you're interested...

I get this error message when I try to convert a file from AVI to RealMedia.

Can anyone help me out here?

Installed and now testing. My first observation is that it puts a pile of dlls (presumably codecs?) in windows\system32.

I repeat what I've been saying here for a year, to the developers: put any codecs etc in the Program Files subdirectory that was created for your program! I am sick to death of every new multimedia app crapping over the previous one...

Otherwise, it looks just like any of the other dozen or so converter apps we've had here in the last six months. How about something completely new??? There's lots of good posts in the forums on suggestions of what to offer... how often are they followed up?

G
PS I'm itching for a commercial-grade OCR app myself. If anyone here knows of a good free one do let me know! ... I haven't found any :-/ Thanks. Also a scan manager that lets you feed pages through as fast as you can insert paper and hit 'scan' would be useful. *Every* app that I have from vendors takes a huge number of keystrokes and actions to setup/save each page between scans and seems to go at half the speed you'ld expect :-/

(apologies for the off-topic footnote, you're welcome to reply/flame/whatever via the forums if you prefer. But I think we have a lot of regular posters to the comments page who won't use the forum because it requires a real email address for registration and they prefer to remain anonymous?)

Hi All
I read a lot of the comments and decided not to risk this giveaway.
However I followed link from #2 (Thankyou)......

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

And this is a super program, installed no probs, free!!, converted a few files to make sure and it performed !00%

Regards

Chris

I have XP SP2 and all I got was the blank interface with the blue bar on top. I un-installed it and re-installed it, but got the same thing. Very disappointed.

This is exactly what I was looking for - THANKS! I hadn’t come across this software or company [Yaomingsoft] searching so far, so it was a great surprise – I’ll definitely be spreading the word about both Yaomingsoft & GAOTD!

It does work in Vista for me, though not perfectly – some of the docs say Vista, others don’t, so maybe a future version will be better? In XP didn’t have any problems. Speed of encoding/conversion seems mid-range, it does use all 4 cpu cores (depending on what else you have running). Results seem to be excellent for this quick & easy class of encoding/conversion software, & device presets hopefully do away with guesswork [took far too long the other day to come up with a best *Guess* for my sister-in-law’s Zune]. Shockwave video handling is either weak or broken, but then I haven’t found any ideal tool for every flv file I’ve encountered.

I’ve been working with video on PCs since Win 3.1 – maybe this will help others as well as address some prior comments – please bear in mind that I haven’t had long to play with the A-One Video Convertor yet, so this is based on initial impressions...

Video is complicated because there are dozens of possible formats, with many variations for each format – program *X* may create video files that are very different than program *Y*, even though both files are in the same format. There are dozens of different methods & software tools to convert your videos, & while the A-One Video Convertor is an excellent Swiss Army Knife sort of program, you still may have to do some work to get your video into a format that it can work with. Creating one large mpg2 video file from several VOB files (used with DVDs) is a good example, and takes just a few minutes. If this program doesn’t like your video, perhaps it might be worth it to do the research, find out why, & correct it beforehand? I’d suspect that at least some of the folks reporting problems would or do have the same sorts of problems using other, similar programs.

Working with or even playing video can be complicated too, because Windows uses the video handling software *You* installed. Usually Direct Show filters, these audio/video handling files are often incompatible with each other, so installing different versions (of these files) that do the same things can be disastrous – it’s led to many a Windows re-install. Free-ware converters are cool, but often they include, require, &/or install many of these DS filters – Super for example installs several, set to be hidden, in the Windows\System32 folder. Because of this software may or may not work, & it may break other video programs, or even all video programs you’ve installed. A-One Video Convertor seems to keep to itself, & while it does add some files to that same System32 folder, they don’t show up as competing with other Direct Show files. That plus the simple-to-use interface make it a great choice. That said, it does use video/audio handling files that you have installed, so if those are screwed up &/or conflicting already, it can cause problems using the A-One Video Convertor.

Again, IMHO free-ware is very cool – I just suggest that you look before you leap when it concerns video, and check out any program before you install it. The mentioned MediaCoder is cool – I have it on my hdd – but it’s ratings are far from stellar, the program download is much larger, & it’s more complicated while using the same x264 encoder as far as I can tell. Super works, can be confusing, has very mixed reviews, give lots of people problems, may not work without going on-line, & can mess up many other video programs. Any_video_convertor may or may not be good, but the free version is Very limited. Online conversion may/may not be cool, except you’re limited to small files, & you’ve got upload/download delays – uploading can be slooowww over cable broadband.

good giveaway but this one imo is WAY better (and no one even suggested it yet <.<)

http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

Thank you very much SeanC! I always prefer to use stuff from sourceforge whenever possible. :)

A program i suggest instead of this one is Total Video Converter:
http://www.effectmatrix.com/total-video-converter/

It is available as freeware and supports numerous formats including vob.

I mentioned:

I see they boost Acala as well

Acala and Agogo! The Agogo boosting is interesting because although the breadcrumbs show up in the shill posters' logs (eg http://www.download.com/3642-2194_4-2812968.html?pn=4&sb=0 ) there are *no* reviews available when you search for Agogo in the product list. I suspect Download.com got wise to the shill reviews and pulled them all. It'll be interesting to see if the same happens here. There were a lot more obvious shills than just the half dozen that JM and #26 pointed out. In fact almost all of the reviews looked to be by the same people...

#14 JM pointed out the riddiculously high rating on Download.com, I went and had a look at some of the profiles to see what else they’d commented on. The users madsome, monrig, rosejack, sue_john12 , candy louise and hehuahua are all people who’ve commented on the Download.com page, but looking in their profiles, you can see all of them have only commented on Plato and A-One products; which are all very similar except for aesthetics. I know this doesn’t mean much, but damn; I don’t really have much respect for companies who try to make their products look better by making false testimonials.

And every one of them written in perfect Chinglish! :-)

I see they boost Acala as well. Are all three the same company? Test-market a product under one of the less well known names, if it tanks or gets terrible reviews, drop it, but if it goes down well, rebrand it under the flagship name? Is that what's going on here? (with Plato being the 'clean' brand?).

These marketing shennanigans don't bother me too much, as long as the software is sound, and trustworthy.

I bet the staff at GAOTD knows, since they obviously deal with these vendors regularly...

I love your service and have downloaded a number of packages. Keep up the good work!

However, it's sometimes very hard to sort out if the package is useful or not - Your software ratings actually only rate comments, which could be negative or positive about the software. This means a particular package could get loads of thumbs up, even though all the comments are actually negative about the package. This means I've got to sort through all the comments to see what they're actually saying.

To me, it would be far more useful if the rating system worked a bit like Amazon - Give the author of a comment the ability to rate the software (thumbs up or down), then continue to allow users to rate the comment useful/useless. The summary could then show the number of good/bad ratings and we could then search for the most useful positive and negative ratings.

Thanks!

this is THE WORST program i have ever gotten here.

not only is it cheese, with a poor interface , it doesn;t really seem to DO anything...

and forget any kind of help file.

uninstalled, deleted...

bad program, poorly written, no tech support or even a lowly helpfile..

it converts just fine...

everything is just empty files tho.

no thanks.

video converter? might as well do it for free online at http://media-convert.com/ , that will convert almost all videos, sounds, documents ect and u can do it anywhere with the internet. Bit slower on the big stuff though (e.g 2 hour videos).

I have a fairly simple need ... I think. I need to convert AVI files to burn to a DVD. Then I want to put the DVD in a regular (not computer) player and watch it on a TV set.

It would be most convenient if I could burn directly to the DVD, instead of the two step convert / burn. But, not essential.
All the formats have me confused and I believe both Audio and Video have to be on the DVD for it to play as a regular movie.

Any help available???

Thanks

As some have written above, I also got a blank page when opened. Can anyone suggest any other way of installing. I am having XP pro.

Worked fine for me on XP Home. Converted an flv file to MPEG2 with no problems. You just have to remember to copy the registration number from the readme file. Then, with the program running, click the register button and paste in the number. Otherwise you're stuck with the trial version.

XP Home SP2. As others have found, on first running, the program opens with an empty window except for a blue bar at the top titled 'A-one Video Converter' and minimise/close etc.

I tied downloading and installing the normal trial version from the http://www.yaomingsoft.com/video-converter.html website but experienced the same result.

Conclusion - there is something wrong with the developers installation software, not just the GAOTD packaging.

To 19 - #26

Thanks for following-up on that. I had thought the same thing ( only you acted on it and I just thought about it. Good job by you!), to check-out their profiles and see a little more closely if I could see a common thread or pattern of these individuals. But I was lazy :( *lol* Thanks much for taking it a step further! :)

And BTW, I am 100 % firmly with you about how you feel in-reference to software companies. I have no patience for developers who need to resort to falsehoods in order to sell their product. If what you have is useful, will enhance productivity and be cost effective, your message WILL get out there, eventually.

Really, really miss Bladedtroth's reviews.

it doesn't work!!! my pc runs xp and every time i try to open it there is the infamous message, 'A-one video converter has encountered a problem and needs to close'!!!!!

Don't use it

I have to start to read more carefully
I read no. 14
I pressed on the blue link
expecting to find a test on the vibes people get
Anyway I enjoy the giveaways
Not to bright
ema

To # 12

try using xilisoft converter, I also have a Hitachi dvdcam and using this software for conversion.

This easily makes up for GAOTD's fiasco yesterday. I tried this out thoroughly on XP (Which contrary to some people's opinion is alive and working. Key word is "working" which is more than Vista seems to be doing) and it worked fine. it lagged my main computer badly but thats my fault as I have a lot of TSRs on it. It converted every file I gave it flawlessly. With reference to #1, I tried converting to and from FLV and it worked fine for me. Id be willing to pay for this one if it wasn't for the fact that there are a lot of freeware alternatives. Which brings me to Super. I used to use that and it failed more than it worked, It just isn't worth comparing to this one.

Installed it, tried to convert a file, and the program does nothing. Waste of time. "Any Video Converter" is much better.

Post #1 - Just search google for "download youtube videos". Websites will convert the file and email you the link.

I installed the program, runs good, I don't like the interface, but two test conversions worked perfectly.

@#20 "I am using win98SE and got this error message." get with it, win98 is obsolete, welcome to the future!

Converting VOB and RAM files...

I have only just been told how to convert these files more easily, amazing how more programs do not support them, considering all you normally have to do is RENAME .vob to .mpg and .ram to .rm

Sounds ridiculous, but it has worked so far in every file I've tried. It might #5 and others to extend the usefulness of their file converting software

sorry, samsungs format is SIV, my mistake, didnt catch that error before i hit post =(

good giveaway but this one imo is WAY better (and no one even suggested it yet <.<)

http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

converts to WAY more then this,
(quoted from there wiki)
Supported Audio & Video Formats

* MP3, Vorbis, AAC, AAC+, AAC+v2, MusePack, Speex, Windows Media Audio, AMR NB/WB, RealAudio, mp3PRO*
* FLAC, WavPack, Monkey's Audio (APE), OptimFrog, Audio Lossless Coding (ALS), WMA Lossless*, True Audio (TTA)*, WAV
* H.264, XviD, MPEG 1/2/4, Theora, Flash Video, Dirac, H.263, 3ivx*, RealVideo*, Windows Media Video (WMV)
* AVI, MPEG/VOB, Matroska, MP4, ASF, PMP, RealMedia*, QuickTime (MOV)*, OGM*
* CD, VCD, DVD, Cue sheet*



even has plugins for thoes with Samsung MP3 players (samsung uses a format called SVI), also converts for PSP (Mp4)

so like i said good giveaway, but this freeware one is better imo :)

Hi all,

This could be a GUI version of interface for MEENCoder

http://forum.videohelp.com/topic259578-120.html
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MPlayer

(which isn't a bad thing). The chap gets his fair share for making it easy to navigate menus and one doesn't have to mess with an ugly interface.

There are a lot of VOB to MPG converters out there. One can try to simply change the extension from xxx.vob to xxx.mpg, that often works. One problem is that frequently the the VOB is encoded with AC3 audio stream which has to be decoded to readable audio for Windows - which is where the problem really lies.

I have so many converters that I likely won't download this one - just a matter of having too many choices on my machine already, not that this one is bad or inconsequential.

Mike G

Installs and runs in Vista Ultimate. Thanks GOTD!

I found that Super does the same thing (I think, I am not going to instal today's program) and more becuase it's not just limited to videos. Super can be found by googling it, it's like the first link to come up.

A-One installed fine with XP SP2. I just wish I could find a easy-to-use converter that will work with VOB files.

I am also going to give this one a try. It looks great. I also got the Any Video Converter the other day and it is a wonderful program so will see if this one is better.