Every day we offer FREE licensed software you’d have to buy otherwise.
ThunderSoft Video to GIF Converter 1.4.3 was available as a giveaway on May 15, 2015!
ThunderSoft Video to GIF Converter is a handy tool which will help you to make animated gifs from video files. Easy crop, preview original video frame by frame, specify video clip and convert to gif with high quality.
ThunderSoft Studio provides Special Price for GAOTD users to get full version of ThunderSoft Video to GIF Converter (just $9.95)!
Please note that the best improvement idea will be rewarded with a life-time license of ThunderSoft Video to GIF Converter. Use Idea Informer widget to submit your feedback and do not forget to fill in your name and e-mail.
Windows 2000/ XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 7/ 8; Processor (CPU): Pentium IV 1.0 GHz or above; RAM: 512 MB or above; Disk Space: 1 GB or above
14.5 MB
$19.95
An incredibly easy-to-use software package that lets you make slideshow from your pictures and videos. One day 50% off special offer.
Convert video files to html5. The output supports all popular web broswers: IE, Firefox, Apple Safari, Chrome, Opera, and can be viewed on iPad, iPhone. One day 50% off special offer.
A professional converter for SWF file to animated gif conversion. One day 50% off special offer.
A friend told me about GOTD about a year ago and as I am a night owl, am usually able to get the new offering at 3AM. As is usually the case, Karl is the first reviewer to
show up on the comment page. I don't know Karl but he seems knowledgeable about most things or points in the direction of anything better or more practical than what's offered. When something does not have an address where you can check the producer of the offering, he lets you know that like he's looking out for the best interests of your computer. Like I say, I don't know Karl from Adam, but it distresses me that some of you attack him not about the program but about which version of windows 8 he says he is using. Please, evaluate the program and forget the snarky attacks.
I don't usually download the day's offering unless I think it would be useful to me to have and you can't beat the price. I am thankful to GOTD for whatever arrangements they have with developers to provide these free gifts. So, please don't make personal attacks on individual commenters and thank you everyone who sends alternative free programs in your comments. Peace!
Save | Cancel
It's ridiculous that when registered, there remain the two visible burrons of "REGISTER" and "BUY NOW".
What a shame!
Save | Cancel
It works but lacks any settings to optimise the gif colour palette, i.e. losslessely convert an animated gif to a video using a lossless video codec so the output video would have less than 256 individual colours, the playback of the video looks the same as the original animated GIF but the output of this conversion is apparently dithered to some arbitary 8-bit palette we have no control over. It needs options like optimise octree palette, use nearest colour, use Floyd-Steinberg dithering, use Odered Dither, use Error Diffusion. Reduction in detail needs to have ways to massage it to get the desired result, especially for a commercial tool IMHO. When I rebuilt the animated GIF with images extracted from original in Jasc Animation Shop 3.04 I was given optimisation options that allowed me to derive original palette from the source images and the end result was much better than this could produce.
Save | Cancel
Hi
I do not understand the tech people here, just want to know if it is worth the 0 money to download.
many thanks
Save | Cancel
NEVER install every single update that Microsoft gives you, even the optional one without doing your homework. If you do not need the update after reading MS's changes, right-click the update and select HIDE and it won't appear anymore until later, IF THAT UPDATE HAS BEEN CHANGED. ALWAYS READ THE UPDATE FULL DESCRIPTION, WHICH YOU CAN ACCESS IF YOU CLICK THE LINK AT THE RIGHT OF YOUR SCREEN.
Some updates CAN mess up your PC and you may have to restore to an earlier version of your system.
PLEASE, JUST STOP TRUSTING EVERYONE AND MS FOR THIS INFORMATION. DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK ON THESE UPDATES. I don't know how many times I have had to fix people's PCs because they selected every single update and optional update on the WINDOWS UPDATE option in the Control Panel. And then, their PC would not boot up, or things got screwed up.
READ, READ, READ WHAT THESE UPDATES ARE BEFORE YOU INSTALL THEM.
GO HERE, IF YOU HAVE AN UPDATE PROBLEM: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/971058
Save | Cancel
Can anyone tell me if this offer would be good for converting VHS videos to stills? I am looking for something that will let me get some still photos off my videos.
Save | Cancel
Duckie, if you have video on VHS that you want to convert, you need a bit of hardware in between your VHS player and your computer.
Typically, these will have RCA plugs at one end, which go into your VHS player, and a USB plug at the other. Things like this can be had for between $15-$50 US, and usually come with software to convert the VHS video feed to a video file stored on your computer.
to get a still pic, you can either use a screen capture tool, use the included software, or use a video editor. Keep in mind that VHS video is low resolution, so any pics will not be great
Save | Cancel
There's a lot of choices for "video to picture converter" to pick from any search engine. Some are listed here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=video+to+picture+converter+app&hl=en&source=lnms&sa=X&ei=SRxWVa3YEI-wuASGkoCwCw&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAA&biw=1440&bih=772&dpr=1
But maybe you have to convert your VHS video file first into a digital format before you can convert it into still images.
Save | Cancel
no, you cant do that with this.
Save | Cancel
If you can play your video through your computer, the little button marked "Print Screen" or PrtScn will allow you to make a snapshot of whatever is on screen at that moment.
It ought to be possible to paste multiple screenshots into today's giveaway and the result will be a GIF that can play each still image in turn, depending upon how long a delay you set.
Save | Cancel
In case you did not know, the video converted into a GIF will have NO AUDIO.
Not just no voices. No sound at all. Totally silent. Zilch.
Even the Hollywood silent movies had musical background.
My guess is that GIF will die a natural death.
Technology has improved so much nowadays, that its "advantage" of small file size is not important anymore.
Whereas its lack of audio is a death blow to the GIF format.
Save | Cancel
The silent movies did not have sound. The music was provided by a piano player in the theater. The movies came with sheet music for the piano man to follow the movie.
Just thought you'd like to know (my dad and his dad before him owned a theater and in the earlier days they played silent movies). For perspective: I'm 70 and my dad was 40 when I was born. I don't know how old my grandfather was when my dad was born. My dad was the youngest of 8 kids.
Save | Cancel
ric. that is the nature of a gif. period. if it had sound it would be a video. one gif is an image. several images (gifs) hooked together is an animated gif but with the same file name 'gif'. you don't get sound from an image. i'm sure you probably know this already and 'thought about it later'? :)
jpgs are also images but you can't 'glue' those together to make an animated jpg, you've got to convert the jpgs to gif format, and then hook the gifs together to make the little animation.
gifs have their place and use but they obviously won't take the place of video.
Save | Cancel
p.s., ric. i thought animated gifs were 'dead' years ago. but no, they resurged and seem to be 'big' these days, bigger than i ever would have imagined. websites like 'buzzfeed' like to make long entries, so they'll have tons of animated gifs together on one 'page' since the file size is so small and they 'work on everyone's computer' without having to have a flash player or anything else installed.
Save | Cancel
In the past, animated gif were not playable on Mac computer. They appeared as fixed images as far as I can remember. Is it still the case? If someone knows the answer, thank you in advance. Useful to know when you send animated gif to fellows with Apple Macintosh computers.
Save | Cancel
Downloaded this product without any trouble on my Windows XP PC. Installation was also smooth. In all app was good but it had nothing to do. User can give it a try, as it was free.
Save | Cancel
Hey thanks, I was badly looking for such kind of app only. Thank you GAOTD guys for offering it free. Nice tool, worked smoothly on my Windows 7 based Laptop.
Save | Cancel
Sorry, but today’s give away is not at all of much use. Features are very limited.
Save | Cancel
1)Why would a modern day user want to convert a video to an animated GIF?
You know, I was wondering the very same thing. I'm sure there must be a good reason or use for doing this. Could one of the local Internet Wizards possibly explain it for us?
Save | Cancel
I used it for my video lesson such as from CBT Nuggets. I do not have to run the video if I need just to find a certain part in the middle of the video. Such as topology and configuration example. It is very useful at least for me
Save | Cancel
A lot of gif users here: http://imgur.com/
Save | Cancel
@Tom,
Can you give an example of it? I am really interested in seeing how gif can be used for short video lesson.
Save | Cancel
Here's an article with some nice examples of Animated GIFs, though they're not from video. http://www.wired.com/2013/09/the-rise-of-subtle-tasteful-and-commissioned-animated-gif-illustrations/
The pro examples in that article are more designed to reenforce a story or article -- video is more to show what is or was, more to document & share. Because they're so much smaller, Animated GIFs can go many places where that video you recorded with your cell cannot.
Save | Cancel
HungryJoe...you asked why someone would
want to create an animated gif...
I just got an email with what appeared
to be a video PLAYING inside the email.
there was no audio...when I clicked on
the "video" to see where the volume
was, I was redirected to a new page
where the actual video played.
it was a really cool marketing tool
and, I have no idea if this tool can
produce the same sort of product
Save | Cancel
Please see my reply to comment #6 ric. That's just one way that I use it. I usually turn the video to a Charlie Chaplin type movie or like a Key Stone Cops movie. They can be lots of fun to do and the kids like them. They usually share them with their friends.
Let me share this one idea with you:
I wanted to teach my kids how to paint a room. So I created a series of videos and converted them to GIF. In the videos I ALWAYS do something wrong. My wife walks in after the mistake and chases me around the room with a rolling pin. Then I stop and have an idea. At this point I run the video backwards to the beginning (This is funny too. this is actually part of the training video). Then I start all over again but this time I put down a plastic sheet. My wife walks in and is happy and give me a hug and a kiss (lots of hearts flying everywhere). The video is fun to make and fun to watch.
Hope this helped.
Save | Cancel
animated GIFs can be used as avatars in some forums, they can liven things up over a static avatar image!
Save | Cancel
@ Eliot&tom & others. I use the free portable GifCam http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/ which stays over all windows so anything on your desktop can become a Gif. Free portable, what have you got to lose?
Save | Cancel
I recently love sharing some of my interesting clips in GIF with my mates. So I grabbed it and activated the program successfully. Thank you GAOTD in advance. One of the most stunning features I adore is frame by frame previewing, really handy in the process of editing. It supports quite a few mainstream video formats, like mp4 avi flv even mkv 3gp. But *mod and *tod is not listed in their supported formats. So I tested with a piece of my Cannon JVC HD camcorder video clip, alas it didn't work. So I converted this video file *tod to avi with WinX Video Converter, knock yourself out if you also need this type of freeware for video format converting http://www.winxdvd.com/video-converter/ Then I converted avi to GIF smoothly with thundersoft. I'll keep trying this video to GIF converter by dealing with my video clips.
Save | Cancel
But there are just too many freeware offline software or online utilities that can do this. An animated GIF can only have 256 colours. It raises two fundamental questions:
1) why would a modern day user want to convert a video to an animated GIF?
2) when there are so many powerful free online utilities and offline downloadable freeware that can do the same or better, what is the commercial viability of such a software product, although the cost is low at $19.95.
Save | Cancel
1) why would a modern day user want to convert a video to an animated GIF?
You can use movies to make your very own meme, put up fun little animated emoticons or other animations on web pages, etc.
Remember, not everyone has high speed internet, and some people hate/can't use flash
2) what is the commercial viability of such a software product There's a saying about fools and their money :)
Why do we still get Nigerian banker scams, or "enlarge your member" emails? At least here, you get an actual product. From the reviews, looks like not much has changed, so not a lot of money invested in this product. Put it on GAotD and if a few people decide to buy it later, profit!
Save | Cancel
"why would a modern day user want to convert a video to an animated GIF?"
If you mean why Animated GIFs, they can be much tinier than video, & can often be used where video cannot, e.g. forums &/or message boards. A good Animated GIF can reproduce or at least mimic most any color [that 256 color palette does not have to be the std. 256 colors in Paint], and similar to video compression, it can store only changes from frame to frame.
If you mean why convert video rather than do it more-or-less manually, it's easier & faster, & compared to an Adobe CC subscription, cheaper too. Sometimes the results may not equal a good artist's work, but then not everyone can or wants to. Other times you may capture something on video where the attraction is the fact that "This actually happened" -- in today's YouTube world anything other than video [or video -> GIFs] would be seen as & called fakes.
Save | Cancel
My 2 cents:
"why would a modern day user want to convert a video to an animated GIF?"
A modern day user might want to turn a boring video to something fun to watch.
Example: I often use video to try to get a message across to my children and as you probably know, kids Know Everything. They'll watch a funny video especially if it involves me. I get the message across and sometimes they don't even know it.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents and how and why I use video to animated GIF but I sure wouldn't pay for it given that there are so many free options.
Hope this was helpful.
Save | Cancel
From one of the free tools mentioned just above:
"There are several reasons why someone would want to convert a video into a GIF animation. The main one is so that people can put an animation of a video online without streaming the video itself. For those not acquainted with the process, it can seem difficult. Free Video to GIF is a great free tool for users to transfer their video files to GIF which can be integrated within webpages, used as avatar, screensaver for cell phone, cool element on website, or to be added to your signature in forum/email."
Save | Cancel
This is a straightforward and simple piece of software with an intuitive interface to convert video files to GIF format. It allows you to preview the loaded video frame by frame, set up the frame rate and modify the GIF speed. Almost all popular video formats are supported. Also the video file can be cropped by setting the dimensions. A handy and reliable tool for converting video files to GIF format.
Freeware Alternatives :
* 'Free Video to GIF' by LightBox Tech - http://www.freevideotogifconverter.com/products.html
* Cute Video to GIF Converter - http://www.videotool.net/video-to-gif-converter-free-version.htm
* Movie To Gif - http://en.zxt2007.com/video-tools/movietogif.html
* Free Video to GIF Converter - http://www.video-gif-converter.com/
Save | Cancel
Thank you Jahid for coming back and posting again your awesome comments and suggestions. Your input is very much appreciated by many of us, who visit this site daily to check out new offers, as well as to learn a lot from people like Karl, mike, MikeR, tomcat, XP-man, and many many others. Too bad, we do not see here Giovanni anymore.
Regards,
consuella
Save | Cancel
I have the previous version 1.3.1 given here. It does a good job and its use is intuitive, thumbs up from me.
For this newer version 1.4.3 two obvious questions come to mind:
1 What are the improvements from the previous version? The site doesn't seem to give this basic info, I'd advise the developer to include it.
2 Do we need to first uninstall the previous version, or can we install the new one on top of it?
Save | Cancel
Installed and registered without problems on a Win 7 64 bit system. A clean install. A simple resizable window opens, you can define a crop area color, What you can't do is remove the video you have just downloaded, you have to close the program to do another gif. As Karl says, simple for 1 task.
I hope i dont have to uninstall it.
Save | Cancel
Win 8.1.3 ? According to Microsoft there is no Update 3 for Window 8.1, only Update1 and Update2.
Save | Cancel
It's been available since November.
Save | Cancel
That's correct. KB3000850 is already part of the Windows 8.1 Update chain. Windows 8.1.3 is a myth.
Save | Cancel
If you pay attention to the comments you will discover that Karl is correct and update 3 was optional. It was in yesterdays comments along with a link to the explanation. Many people comment here without reading the often answered questions of the best reviewers like Karl and the missing Giovanni (I hope I spelled it correctly out of respect for his time, quality reviews and alternatives). To the others here please take note of my reply because your questions/replies are repeated day after day. If you question their reviews and comments then just move on to something else in life because your efforts are too weak for a reasonable review here. I don't want everyone to think that you never question a review, but if you just read them often you will find that all the common misunderstandings were answered. This does mean you might have to do a little internet research on your own. If you don't like their reviews then skip them altogether. @Steffo, If you got that information today from MS website then your comment should have been to them and not Karl. Karl and others make mistakes, but I've never seen him fail to correct them ASAP.
Save | Cancel
@1toomany, Really? Lonely or just like to hear yourself think?
@Kestrel, to help you understand what's changed in 8.1.3..
◾Refreshed language packs
◾Defence-in-depth security and Schannel hardening
◾Support for newer hardware (boot order allowance, SD card improvements, USB debugging)
◾Improved Web Services for Devices (WSD) printer support during network switches
◾Performance and reliability improvements in clustered virtual machine mission-critical environments
◾Improved manageability
◾Additional hardware support (devices that have third-party disk encryption software enabled can now be upgraded to Windows 8.1 more easily)
Can be found here: ◾Refreshed language packs
◾Defence-in-depth security and Schannel hardening
◾Support for newer hardware (boot order allowance, SD card improvements, USB debugging)
◾Improved Web Services for Devices (WSD) printer support during network switches
◾Performance and reliability improvements in clustered virtual machine mission-critical environments
◾Improved manageability
◾Additional hardware support (devices that have third-party disk encryption software enabled can now be upgraded to Windows 8.1 more easily)
Have a nice day..
Save | Cancel
Wow.. that url didn't go so well. lets try it again.
http://www.winbeta.org/news/microsoft-has-quietly-released-windows-81-update-3-november-update
Save | Cancel
Even still, throwing around a version number of 8.1.3 is somewhat odd...I work in IT and have never heard it referred to 8.1.3 by anyone. Disclaimer: I work on the server side and not the desktop side, so there may be some who call it that, but I do read quite a few trade journals and technical blogs and have still never seen Windows 8.1 update 3 called 8.1.3 by anyone but Karl on this website. Someone please prove me wrong so I can stop being annoyed every day when I read Karl's post. (Although his posts are helpful and much appreciated!)
If you want to indicate the update level in dialog, I believe most people would refer to it as Windows 8.1u3 or 8.1UR3 since technically Windows 8.1's *version* number Windows 6.3-xxxxx - Build x.x.xxxx.xxxx. I cant recall what the EXACT version number is, but it certainly isn't 8.1.3.
Save | Cancel
Even still, throwing around a version number of 8.1.3 is somewhat odd…I work in IT and have never heard it referred to 8.1.3 by anyone
Keep in mind, that might be true for the US or UK, but perhaps in the Bundesrepublik Deutschland, that may be the common appellation.
Save | Cancel
@1toomany
I, more than one hundred percent, agree with your comments.
Save | Cancel
People does it really matter? This is supposed to be about Thundersoft Video to Gif. Karl devotes a LOT of time to eval. these programs, if you really have an issue with 8.1 or 8.1.3 or even if he refers to it as monkey business. I think the bottom line is if you get the point thin hease dun what he set owt tu du.
Save | Cancel
Amazing the concern over Win 8.1.3. Who cares? This has been explained several times in the past weeks. I would hope we could finally put this to rest. Myself, I am more concerned with the review itself than the version of the Windows update Karl is using. What do you say that we give this a rest.
Save | Cancel
Installed and registered without problems on a Win 8.1.3 Pro 64 bit system. A clean install.
A company without name and address. The company does not exist any longer? LOL!
"ThunderSoft (2009-2014) is a software developer dedicated in providing innovative and easy-to-use products and service to enhance your digital media experience by converting, editing, managing, saving and sharing a wide range of popular media files."
We had a previous version ThunderSoft Video to GIF Converter 1.3.1.0 on March 30, 2014. Here are the old reviews:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/video-to-gif-converter/
A simple resizable window opens, you can define a crop area color,
The program opens an included demo video, you can use the presets to produce an animated GIF.
http://i.imgur.com/fcLIfGi.png
A preview shows you the wanted or not wanted result:
http://i.imgur.com/rJac48Y.png
This is done in a simple, working way. Does what it claims.
Wouldn't it be time to use the latest codecs? Just to be up-to-date?
http://i.imgur.com/iOr3HAv.png
If you need a simple tool for just one task, you can take this.
Uninstalled via reboot, don't need this.
Save | Cancel