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Author Topic: In search of ... A/V converter  (Read 9382 times)

barney

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In search of ... A/V converter
« on: December 23, 2011, 08:39 PM »
There are several threads extant on this subject, but none recent for what I thimk  :-\ I need  ;).

On this thread I talked about hardware for converting VHS to DVD.  That is finally in process, and I should be able to report in a week or so.

However, this is a bit different.  I need opinions on software - preferably free, 'cause I won't be the only one using it, there's a tightwad involved  :P - that will convert anything to anything, or at least close to that.  I just tried Any Video Converter, but it keeps choking:  any time I attempt to load a file for subsequent conversion, I get a runtime error, request to terminate in an unusual way.  There's a query with the source site as to what I might do, but I've no idea how quickly - or if  :huh: - they'll respond, and I'm in somewhat of a time crunch.

At the moment, I need to convert a .wmv file, prolly to .mp4, for embedding on a Web site.  There'll be two (2) conversions:
  • a full clip to be played at user discretion
  • two (2) short segments of that clip to be looped on the home page.
The full clip will have sound, controls, all the normal bells and whistles.  The looping segments will be silent, no controls.

Oh, yeah, it would be nice to be able to control the sound format as well.  This'll be done in HTML5 with a degrade, as yet undecided but prolly .swf, for browsers that don't understand HTML5.

I've never done anything of this nature before, so I'm running blind.  Any opinions/suggestions on conversion software? 

4wd

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2011, 09:21 PM »
FWIW, I use Freemake Video Converter for a lot of conversions - just don't blindly click-through on the install.

It's simple and has the output formats you want - I found it produces very good quality, (as it should using the ffmpeg engine).

The offline installation files are found here.

barney

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2011, 10:19 PM »
I'll try Freemake next.  I saw some bad press on it, so downloaded Hamster instead.  Had to be very cautious with the install, and it still installed some stuff I didn't want or need - 7Zip works just fine, I don't need Hamster Zip  :mad:! - but it's taking an abominably long time to convert a 47K .wmv file to .mp4.  System went to sleep on it the first run, so I restarted, but hope for this one is diminishing rapidly.

Off to find Freemake.

4wd

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #3 on: December 23, 2011, 10:37 PM »
I should of mentioned, you need .NET v4 for Freemake Video Converter.

When installing FVC, choose Advanced and deselect all the optional crap, (Bing!, etc) - it didn't install anything extra on my machine when I did that but it has been shown that sometimes some of these 'optional' items are region dependent.

barney

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #4 on: December 23, 2011, 11:00 PM »
Don't like .NET, but that's not a problem - have too many other things that need it  :(.  Installed OK - at least it, unlike Hamster, was honest about the optional installs.

But ...

Freemake won't even load the file I have to convert.  Doesn't say why, just says it can't load.  This after a reboot, so not a residuals problem, although might be a problem with other stuff running.

This simply is not my night, ya know?  Kinda like the techies idea of Hell - everything looks perfect, but nothing works  :P.

OK, off to find another converter  :o.

barney

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2011, 11:36 PM »
OK, Prism Video Converter cannot load the file.  This file is from a video camera, a Canon I think.  That may account for all the failures so far.  But ya can't have much of a converter if it can't load a file to be converted.  I'm feeling very depressed  :'(.

Haven't tried any of the online services yet, but that'd be kinda useless:  the machine where this will [primarily] be used does not, will not have an internet connection.

4wd

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2011, 11:54 PM »
Does the file play OK in whatever player is installed in Windows?

Any chance of you running MediaInfo Lite on it and providing the output here?

oversky

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #7 on: December 24, 2011, 09:15 AM »
I use iWisoft Free video converter.

MerleOne

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #8 on: December 25, 2011, 12:11 PM »
XmediaRecode is very powerful and has a wealth of profiles for many portable players.
.merle1.

Curt

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #9 on: December 25, 2011, 03:27 PM »
wouldn't it be smarter to merely upload the original file to YouTube and give us the link,
and then tell what should be done?

Oh no, silly Curt, YouTube will always first recode.
Sorry!

JavaJones

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #10 on: December 25, 2011, 08:47 PM »
Both of the ones I use most are somewhat controversial and have their downsides, but I've not found anything better than their combined capabilities. Both use open source software in the back end to do all the "heavy lifting" and both have quirky, arguably crappy user interfaces. But they each can generally load most of what you throw at them and they have lots of output options. The trade-off is somewhat quirky operation at times, and perhaps *too many* options that can be difficult to understand if you don't know what you're doing (depending on the UI mode chosen; I think they both have "simplified" UI options that don't show all choices).

First is SUPER: http://www.brotherso...com/super-59461.html
I link to Brothersoft because SUPER's actual site is notoriously difficult to navigate and find the download on.

The other is MediaCoder:
http://www.mediacoderhq.com/

Both are free, I think both probably have optional bundled software in their installers too, just as most of these apps unfortunately do.

- Oshyan

Curt

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #11 on: December 25, 2011, 11:33 PM »
-the link to Brothersoft is to a downloader of the program...

Better links are http://www.filehippo.com/download_super/
or a direct link to the exe: http://www.erightsof...e.php?SUPERsetup.exe !!

Super is really good, weird but good, but hasn't been updated for half a year, which is for quite long, compared to how frequently it used to be maintained. Is the company finally being punished for their retarded site layout?


barney

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #13 on: December 26, 2011, 07:11 PM »
Whew!

Finally back in front of the keyboard!

And way too many links to follow  ;D.

OK, somehow either I or the first converter or two (2) I tried corrupted the original file.  I restored it, and FreeMake worked just fine. 

So I now have something starting to be usable.  I need to kill the sound, though.  This is going to be embedded on a Web page, so it needs to autostart, autoloop, and be quiet.  The autostart and autoloop will, presumably, be handled by the player, but I don't know about the sound.  So I prolly need to strip that before loading on the page, right?

As time allows, I'll check that plethora of links and suggestions, see if one (1) of them will strip the sound.  The video is about four (4) seconds of a boat under sail, and the wind noise is atrocious.  There are two (2) short video segments that will be shown, one a view forward along the port side that shows swells, pitch, and bow wake.  The other is a shot inside the cabin which shows water running from a faucet at about a twenty degree angle - the captain used that to estimate boat heel.  The full video will be offered as a link, but the short segments will be, hopefully, looping on each side of the page in 160x120 pixel windows.  Looks, though, that I'll need to re-sync the audio on the linked video - it seems just a hair off, a quarter of a second or so  :huh:.

Now I just have to find a good page on <shudder /> embedding the videos, prolly HTML5 with a Flash fallback.  Ran some preliminary searches, and not wild about the results I've seen so far  :-\.

(And all this while attempting to cope with a very vocal feline tonight  :o.)

JavaJones

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #14 on: December 27, 2011, 03:13 PM »
Thanks Curt! It seems my brief "sleuthing" to find a "real link" was for naught. God I hate the download scene these days.

- Oshyan

4wd

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #15 on: December 27, 2011, 09:38 PM »
So I now have something starting to be usable.  I need to kill the sound, though.  This is going to be embedded on a Web page, so it needs to autostart, autoloop, and be quiet.  The autostart and autoloop will, presumably, be handled by the player, but I don't know about the sound.  So I prolly need to strip that before loading on the page, right?

In Freemake, click the audio info for the file and choose 'No Audio' - oddly enough, the output will have no audio :)

2011-12-28_14-35-50.jpg

barney

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Re: In search of ... A/V converter
« Reply #16 on: December 27, 2011, 09:47 PM »
Good to know, thanks.  I'm still exploring Freemake, but I've got a bunch of stuff going - you might say my attention is somewhat diluted at the moment  :o :( :P.