I need a nice universal media converter such as FormatFactory, preferably portable.
Any recommendations?
Thanks!
New: Run-Command (Dec 2, 2024), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, 2024)
1,100+ portable packages, 1.1 billion downloads
No Ads Nov/Dec!, Please donate today
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on BlueSky
MediaCoder or, if you're comfortable on the command line, MEncoder.
Vintage!
the New VLC 1.0.0 does as well
VLC's conversion capabilities are very basic. Why would you recommend it as a general purpose converter?
Vintage!
They are not basic anymore. they have as much capability as Handbreak and Roxio Creator 9 Platinum Corprate Edition.
You're joking, right?
You choose a video codec and a bitrate, an audio codec and a bitrate, and a container. That's about it. There are "profiles" in 1.0.0 to make the selection easier. Still very basic.
Vintage!
Does it need to be more complex and complicated?
If you want it to be good, then yes. If you don't know diddly squat about video conversion and want it to be quick and dirty, then I suppose not.
Vintage!
I have an iPod and i´d like a portable converter with a lot of quality, thank you very much. Sorry if I´m wrong with my english because I´m not from England or America.
Thanks for the recommendations.
I've tried MediaCoder with the portable launcher some time ago but had some issues with the program.
So I'd like to give MEncoder a try but I don't quite get how it works... do I have to download the whole MPlayer? If yes - does it have a portable version?
Get a build from http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php . The package has MPlayer and MEncoder. You should only need the one file mencoder.exe. FFmpeg can be useful as well (I use it to decode audio which I pipe into Nero's AAC encoder).
I haven't done any real testing but it should be portable since it doesn't save any settings AFAIK. Should be the same for MPlayer, but I can't say for sure. MPlayer will read settings from a user folder, but it shouldn't write any. If you want to "save" settings, you should make a batch file and work with that. MEncoder isn't newbie-friendly, but it allows a lot of control. There's a ton of information in the HTML man page included in the package, so you shouldn't have trouble learning how to use it.
Vintage!
I've been using BonkEnk. It works great, and is even an official portable app! If you're working with WMA, you need to use the Winamp WMA OUT plugin from Winamp 5.21 or older.
Hey! Where'd it go?
Try Super: http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
Recommended by Gizmo: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/top-freeware-picks-category-edit...
"It has two great strengths: first, it's reasonably easy to use, and secondly, it converts a large number of different file formats."
Is it portable?
There is a portable version being worked on.
It is unclear if a specific version is working for all users.
This may require more than just a portable app download.
https://portableapps.com/node/13727
SUPER is one of the very few applications capable of converting video to the .dpg (DS MPEG) format that is the only video format a Nintendo DS (with a microSD to Nitro adapter, colloquially known as a flashcart) is capable of playing. It isn't very good at it, but it's a start. (MEncoder is capable of doing so as well, but there's no preset, you have to spell out all the details on the command line, it's generally frowned upon unless you really know what you're doing.)
Haven't had a portable video player since the shoulder buttons on the DS went out, though, and I don't count my phone. Screen's just too small. The DS was barely OK. I need at least a PSP or iPod before I can even think about portable video. (iPhone's out, it's AT&T exclusive, and their coverage pretty much ends at the city limits, and I live, work, and do most of my driving outside the city limits, so... yeah.)
The PSP is awesome if you want to play games too (and homebrew makes it even sweeter). iPods are way overpriced anyway.
Vintage!
Ipod videos work quite well on the PSP and vice versa.
I would have to say WinFF, which is a GUI to ffmpeg. There was a portable version once upon a time, but the link's dead.
Homepage: http://winff.org/html_new/
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
ffmpeg is somewhat limited IMO. I would consider it a great decoder, but limited as an encoder.
Vintage!
I don't know mencoder and other utilities uses it a) yes for decoding b) also for encoding iirc
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
They use the same base libraries, but most video codecs are not very configurable in FFmpeg.
Vintage!
This is true. I use a program at home called Handbreak which used MEncoder. a good number of the closed source programs actualy use MEncoder. I found out that Roxio 9 Platinum used several bits of OSS code in their product including MEncoder and LAME.
Gizmo recommendations:
Best Free Audio / Video Format Conversion Program
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-audio-video-format-conversion-...
Portable versions available.