Any Video Converter - All in One for Free

Any Video Converter (free version) is the most renowned free video converter for converting video files between various formats, with fast converting speed and excellent video quality. While there are many competitive products on the market, many of which are freeware as well, Any Video Converter offers a winning set of impressive features, making it the utility of choice for many users.

Input formats:
.3g2 3GPP2, for CDMA-based phones
.3gp 3GPP, for GSM-based phones
.amv Anime Music Video, A modified version of AVI, produced for mp4 players and S1 MP3 players with video playback.
.asf Advanced Streaming Format or Active Streaming Format, it is Microsoft’s proprietary digital audio/digital video container format.
.avi Audio Video Interleave, known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology.
.avs AviSynth Script, the script language deals primarily with videos as a primitive data type.
.dat Digital Audio Tape, a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony in the mid 1980s.
.divx Digital Video Express, a brand name of products created by DivXNetworks, Inc.
.dv Digital Video, a digital video format created by Sony, JVC, Panasonic and other video camera producers and launched in 1995.
.dvr-ms Microsoft Digital Video Recording, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition and the Windows Vista version of Windows Media Center create files in this format. Also .ms-dvr.
.flv Flash Video, the name of a file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player
.m1v MPEG-1 Video elemantary stream, no audio.
.m2ts Sony high definition video file type. M2ts files are raw AVCHD videos recorded using Sony, Panasonic, Canon and other brands of AVCHD camcorders.
.m2v MPEG-2 Packetized Elementary Stream, normally destined to be multiplexed before use, mostly no audio
.m4v Raw MPEG-4 Visual bitstreams, commonly used in Apple’s iPod, iPhone, iTunes store and Xbox 360.
.mkv Matroska video file with subtitles and audio
.mov QuickTime multimedia file format
.mp4 MPEG-4 files with audio and video
.mpe Video encoded in MPEG format, a commonly compression applied to digital video files
.mpg MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Video, in NTSC or PAL format for different TV systems.
.mpv MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video elemantary stream, most mpv files have no audio.
.ogm Ogg Media file. It can do a few things the common AVI format cannot.
.qt QuickTime multimedia file format
.rm RealMedia, a multimedia container format created by RealNetworks.
.rmvb RealMedia Variable Bitrate, a variable bitrate extension of the RealMedia multimedia container format developed by RealNetworks.
.vob Video Object, a container format contained in DVD-Video media.
.wmv Windows Media Video, a compressed video file format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft

Output formats: avi, mp4, wmv, flv, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, mpg (PAL or NTSC), mp3, wma, ogg, aac
One of the most important features for many users is the FLV conversion. Just about any video you wish to put on the web works great in FLV. Or if you have an FLV and want to edit the file in Windows Movie Maker, just convert it to AVI, or WMV. Through the program, you can also easily pull out and convert the video clips directly from You Tube and Google.

There is a free version and a paid version of the Any Video Converter software. So far, I noted a single limitation for the free version: the conversion to the Archos video player format can be performed only with the professional software version.

Any Video Converter features include:
* User-friendly interface that is easy to use.
* Converts all video formats to Apple iPod Video, Sony PSP and more
* Batch convert any video formats including avi, wmv, asf, mpg, mp4, etc.
* Support DivX and Xvid avi format as importing and exporting video
* Support default video/audio settings or user customized parameters for video and audio.
* Has the option to preview the video in real-time before conversion .
* World’s fastest video conversion speed with stunning video and audio quality.
* Supports adjust many video/audio options for MP4 files. For example, video/audio sample rate, bit rate, video size...

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

How to Convert DVD to iPod Format

Do you have a ton of DVD’s? Are you interesting in watching them on your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV? The free multi-platform open-source software Handbrake is everything you need to rip DVD’s into MPEG-4 video files for these purposes.

System Requirements:

• An iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.
• 500 MHz processor or better with at least 16MB of video RAM.
• QuickTime 7.0.3 or later.
• iTunes 6.0.1 or later.

1) Download and install HandBrake. If you download version 0.9.2 you must be running Leopard. If you are using Tiger or older, you should download 0.9.1

To download installation files for other operating systems, go to the developers Website: http://handbrake.fr/

2) Place the DVD you wish to rip into your DVD drive and open HandBrake you just installed. If your computer tries to play the DVD automatically, close the program so that only HandBrake is accessing the DVD.

3) Click the Source button in the top left corner. Then choose your DVD drive and click Open. At this point HandBrake will begin to scan the DVD. This could take a couple minutes.

4) Click the drop down box next to Title and choose the longest title if you wish to copy the entire DVD (this does not apply to Episode based DVDs).

5) The default Destination is the Desktop. Change this to wherever you wish to save the DVD file.

6) If the presets are not already displayed on the right side of the window, click the Toggle Presets button in the upper right corner to display them.

7) For the iPhone and iPod Touch you should choose iPhone / iPod Touch.
If you have an iPod video or iPod classic and want high resolution (much larger file size, good for 160GB versions) choose iPod High-Rez.

Lastly, if you have an iPod Video or iPod classic and want smaller files (good for 80GB versions) choose iPod Low-Rez.

TIP: For better quality, choose 2-pass encoding. This will take longer to encode but will look better.

8.) Click the Audio & Subtitles tab. Here you should choose the language you prefer under “Track 1:”. Also, be sure toset Subtitles to None. The Sample rate should be between 32 and 48 while the Bitrate should be set between 112 and 160.

9) At this point you should be ready to begin ripping your DVD. Click Start to begin.

10) Once your DVD is finished ripping all you need to do is add it to your iTunes library (or whatever iPod manager you use) and then transfer it to your iPod.

Troubleshooting 

If you have trouble with the video and audio settings from the presets, you should try the following settings instead. These settings are more strict and should work on any iPod with video capabilities.

File format: MP4 file Codecs: MPEG-4 Video/AAC Audio Average bitrate (kbps): 700 (again lower numbers mean less quality and smaller files) Check 2-pass encoding Picture settings -> set Width: 320 and the height will auto adjust to something close to 240 (will be lower for widescreen movies).

Once you find the settings that work the best for you, you can save them as a custom preset.

Additional Reading:
http://wlmtips.com/2008/06/02/how-to-rip-dvds-to-your-ipod-using-handbrake-mac-monday/
http://ipod.about.com/od/addingvideotoyouripod/ss/ipod_dvd_ih.htm
http://www.methodshop.com/gadgets/tutorials/handbrake/index.shtml

Video Tutorial: