Windows 7: Video Converters, what's the best?

Hey all,

I use WinAVI to convert my videos to DVD & other formats, but it causes Windows (Vista & 7) to revert to the Basic theme. I was wondering if there was anything better out there as I have a lot of Vids I'd like converting. Or, is there anything designed specifically for Windows 7 yet?

Thanks in advance

Format factory is the mutts n***s when it comes to video conversion, and the best thing is that it's free. Easy to use, reliable, supports every format i've ever thrown at it and utilises 4 cores aswell.

As for dvd authoring, i'd have to say ConvertXtoDVD as the all time best. Again, it utilises 4 cores and is as simple as pie, whilst giving professional options but without all the pissing around with too many sub menues etc.


It's not free but you can get a serial anywhere, if you don't want to pay for it that is.

You can use it without a serial, but you get an annoying print in one of the corners of the screen.

However the trial lets you see just how easy and versatile it is to use




A normal 1.5hr dvd will take my Q6600 at 3.4 about 8-12 mins to author it. All that is then needed is to burn it with whatever tool you like.


It does have it's own burning tool built in f you want to use it aswell

Look around on doom9.org forums or videohelp.com

Those are the 2 sites I've been digging. I learn about backing up DVD videos into HDD though, so can't help you much here

Back-up software...

That's easy.... Imgburn Full size backups that is.


Or dvd shrink if you want to save space and delete extras, menues, trailers etc...

Well that's not all of it There's also converting the MPEG-2 on DVD to H.264 which compresses more efficiently. The goal is to produce nearly visually identical copy of the movie at less than half the original file size.

Ahhhhh

I didn't think about compression as i prefer full back-ups myself..

I did have some really good software for doing that, but i never used it so i deleted it to save space funnily enough

Of course bit-by-bit identical backup is better. But for backing up to HDD so you don't have to get up and dig out the DVDs, you can get away with some compromise.

Both MPEG-2 (used on DVD) and H.264 (used on Blu-ray) are lossy compression methods so there's bound to be some quality loss when converting from one to another. If the conversion is done right, most people won't notice the loss. The file size savings, however, is noticeable.

Convertxtodvd is working nicely with windows 7.

I have friends at school (college students - they may not be the best informed but they are informed) and a lot of folks rely on MediaCoder....

I have also heard info about AviDemux being good....

I have tried neither product myself, as I save .ISOs myself :P

HDD space is incredibly cheap so unless you've loads and loads of DVD's why even compress them.

Backing up bit by bit to HDD can be done easily with Ultra ISO -- this just makes an ISO of the original DVD -- even if it's > 4.7 GB.

You can mount it and play it in any applicable software.

For example to copy Mel gibsons APOCALYPTO DVD (7.75GB)

-- see images

Cheers
jimbo