Help with converters (freeware best but paying is ok)

[rawdawg]

Hopefully I can get some of best Tech people to help me out with converting software.

I'm not a power-user when it comes to converting knowledge. Normally If there's a video I like Ill convert it so I can fit it to either my Iphone or PSP. about 90% of the time ill get the video with exact timing and length. 5 percent of the time the result video is shorter but the sound still is in sync with the video.

for those 5% that DON'T.....I need some help. I don't know if its because of duplicate frames, improper frame rate selection or not every frame is encoded properly or whatever but in these cases its that the video comes before the audio. (i've tried playing with the settings of the various programs to when these issues happen but no luck)

Recently, I download a compilation video from here and it was about 3 1/2 hours...when I used my converter to try to make it into iphone format the resultant video was only 3 hours...WTF!!...OUCH!

So, I implore anyone for some advice on whats great to use and doesn't kill a huge amount of time to convert something (id say the worst I can go is double the actual viewing time but id prefer real-time speed)

Oh...I currently use 3 programs for my converting needs. One called "YouTube Downloader" and the other is called "WinAVI mp4 converter" and another called "AlltoAvi" (for the hard to convert .rmvb or .rm files)

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[lowleg26]

For conversions I, myself, prefer handbrake. Its free, works with most vid formats, and (depending on the dvds security) can often rip straight from the disk. It was also designed specifically to spit out "apple friendly" videos. Its been a while, but i'm pretty sure I converted a Rio Hamasaki vid that was in .rm format with it, so you should be ok with the "hard to convert" formats. :relief:

Old versions can convert to xvid and such, but the most recent version converts to ONLY mp4/m4v and mkv. Has a some pre-sets too (for ipod, apple tv, etc), so you can just click on the device you plan on transferring to and let it go. Just google for "handbrake" and it should come up (or search it on download.com, its on there too).

Aaaaaaaaand of course, you could always try out the highly touted MeguIV encoder:

http://www.akiba-online.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90966

Its not the fastest, but ask around here and we'll all say the results speak for themselves! :grassdance:

You mentioned you use youtube downloader. Have you considered switching to video download helper? Its an add on that can download flash vids as mp4s. Comes pretty highly rated, too. Its usually ranked as a top firefox add on.

I hope this was of some help to you! Good luck!

EDIT: Don't make the mistake of paying for conversion software (unless you need a commercial license for a business or some other extenuating circumstance)! If there's one thing I've learned on the web, its that almost all software has some kind of open-source (FREE!) alternative.

 

[elgringo14]

There is "Super ©" as a free all-in-one converter, though it's not very user-friendly (at least the old version that I still use).

http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

 

[EzikialRage]

Hopefully I can get some of best Tech people to help me out with converting software.

I'm not a power-user when it comes to converting knowledge. Normally If there's a video I like Ill convert it so I can fit it to either my Iphone or PSP. about 90% of the time ill get the video with exact timing and length. 5 percent of the time the result video is shorter but the sound still is in sync with the video.

for those 5% that DON'T.....I need some help. I don't know if its because of duplicate frames, improper frame rate selection or not every frame is encoded properly or whatever but in these cases its that the video comes before the audio. (i've tried playing with the settings of the various programs to when these issues happen but no luck)

If you are converting something like a tv show,movie ,hardsubbed anime or a anime dubbed in your own language then there is program called "Aiseesoft Total Video Converter"(pay program.I used that program to convert files that that wouldn't get done on Alltoavi or the audio gets out of sync. The only downside is that it does not do subs(which is why I said hardsubbed).

http://cometwarez.clan.su/news/


Now with alltoavi there is a "Hard code all duplicate frames" and a "Force no skipping frames" options that should be helpful if out of sync audio. This can take a awhile and this size can be much larger that usual.




Here is a old post of mine of where I explain how to convert to MKV to simple avi.
http://www.akiba-online.com/forum/showpost.php?p=381204&postcount=17

Here I uploaded a program called ultravideo converter(pay program).

http://www.akiba-online.com/forum/showpost.php?p=376098&postcount=64

Recently, I download a compilation video from here and it was about 3 1/2 hours...when I used my converter to try to make it into iphone format the resultant video was only 3 hours...WTF!!...OUCH!

So, I implore anyone for some advice on whats great to use and doesn't kill a huge amount of time to convert something (id say the worst I can go is double the actual viewing time but id prefer real-time speed)

Oh...I currently use 3 programs for my converting needs. One called "YouTube Downloader" and the other is called "WinAVI mp4 converter" and another called "AlltoAvi" (for the hard to convert .rmvb or .rm files)

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Speed is determined by by what kind of hard ware your pc has.The better your hardware the faster a converting program will work. I have a quad core 2.33 GHz CPU with 8 gigs of ddr2 memory. So on the average it takes 2-7 minutes to convert a anime episode that is 24 minute .MKV or .OGM to divX and restrictive mode on alltoavi can take 30-40 minutes or longer.My old pc had a 1.7 ghz celeron cpu with only a gig of memory and it took 20-40 minutes to convert a mkv or .OGM to a .AVI and restrictive mode in alltoavi took hours.

 

[Syobon]

Avidemux is opensource and easy to use, i like it.

 

[rawdawg]

I downloaded HandBrake yesterday but unfortunately it will not work on my laptop because the resolution isnt high enough. It asks for (1024x920 and my screen is max 1024x900) - wierd....

any other freeware choices? Ill consider the MeguIV choice but since it is a laptop, its power is way underpowered (hence probably super-long encoding times) :sigh:

 

[lowleg26]

I downloaded HandBrake yesterday but unfortunately it will not work on my laptop because the resolution isnt high enough. It asks for (1024x920 and my screen is max 1024x900) - wierd...

BUMMER! Short by 20 pixels is just hard luck, man! :notagain:

I think Syobon might be on to something with that Avidemux program. After checking it out, it looks like a pretty good alternative to handbrake. And, like handbrake, it appears to be from a French site. Go France!

 

[guy]

Which conversion (transcoder) program works best depends on what the original file format is.

MeguIV is extremely high quality (and works best with a fast CPU), but it is intended for use only with interlaced content (such as NTSC 30i DVDs, ATSC 1080i TS files, etc).



Flash videos downloaded from YouTube are not interlaced. However they use proprietary FLV codec which must be transcoded (re-encoded) into H.263 or H.264 format for playback on iPhone/PSP/etc. Same goes for RM/RMVB files which use the proprietary RM codec.

However, YouTube (and some other video sites) does offer MP4 versions of some of their videos, often identified by the HD or HQ button in the flash player, or &fmt=22 in the URL. The MP4 versions use a proper H.264 codec for the video, which means you do not need to transcode it, and instead only need to remux it into a proper container (about 10~20 seconds per video) in order for it to play on the iPhone/PSP. Search Google for information on how to download MP4s from YouTube.

AVI files are tricky because they can contain any combination of codecs. Most AVI files use XviD, while some use DivX, and some use H.264. Use a program like GSpot to figure out what codecs your file is using. If your AVI file has H.264 for video and AAC for audio, you can just use freeware mp4box (with GUI interface YAMB) to quickly convert it to iPhone/PSP-friendly MP4 format. Otherwise, like FLV and RM files, you will need to transcode them.



It is also worth noting that out of the box, the iPhone only likes playing MP4 video files. However there are 3rd party apps (such as "mplayer") that will allow you to play AVIs (XviD/MP3 and some other formats) directly on the iPhone without having to convert them. Installing these 3rd party apps may or may not require jailbreaking; just another option for consideration.



If all else fails, you can try this simple little tool, which should spit out MP4s ready for your iPhone/PSP:

http://nodadev.wordpress.com/pc-projects/ipodme/

 

[rawdawg]

Well..Im not into jailbreaking though the possiblities of what I can do with it sounds nice.

I didnt know about the combo codecs for AVI's. I thought that was mainly for things like .mp4's and .mkvs. thanks for that.

As a side note. I used to have installed the CCCP codec pack but recently I removed it and just installed the ffdshow tryout package. Any notes on a better codec package so the encoders can recognize what sort of file the videos are? (i dont do dvd ripping...just transcoding from video files I d/l here)

 

[guy]

CCCP (or even just ffdshow) is only used for playback. Whether or not ffdshow helps for encoding depends on the encoding program itself. Some programs will use ffdshow (or other filters that you may have installed), other programs use their own internal codecs for opening files.

A suggestion for your problem of audio de-sync: use the GSpot program (that I mentioned before) to open up the files that are giving you problems. In addition to telling you what codecs they use, it will tell you what framerate the video has, and also the audio sample rate (eg: 44,100hz or 48,000hz). Back in your encoding program, you can then manually set the frame rate and sample rate to match the original file, and hopefully that will help.

Of course if the original file has audio de-sync problems, then you will have to manually edit it -- which will be pretty complicated. It's also possible that some AVI files which use a VBR codec for the audio (such as MP3 VBR) will have de-sync problems, since the AVI format was not designed with VBR audio in mind.

 

[rawdawg]

interesting program this Gspot one..Thanks!...I like it but im not entirely sure how to read it. How would I know if the original file has problem problems that would cause de-syncing when re-encoding?.

 

[elgringo14]

Most likely desync would happen because you have VBR audio. There is no way to know this in advance, you have to watch (and listen) it to get an impression.

 

[rawdawg]

Okay so I'm nearly at my wits end. I think one of the main reasons is because my desktop is underpowered (my laptop is even more underpowered and I couldn't even install handbrake on it). It has enough resolution to use Handbrake and SUPER but it almost freezes up my whole system.

I'll admit my system is over 6 yrs old - 1.8ghz P4 with 1.5GB Ram but I do keep it clean and tidy with CCleaner and other things which wipe all bloatware and thru msconfig I also keep the number of processes my computers' running to a minimum.

The other programs I mentioned before I could use while doing some minimal multitasking (If I surfed the web, half of the time i'd get de-synced audio probably due to memory-allocation/processor problems). It would take usually max 2 hours to encode a 3 hour long movie to my Iphone or PSP.

Trying Handbrake yesterday and SUPER I would get about 5% of the movie encoded after over 30 minutes. ACK!!

When I tried to crtl+alt+del it to force quit, it'd take over 1 minute for the Task Manager window to pop up. Never happened before. So It may be because of my system but I'm just seeing if there is another solution.

For the record this is the movie i'm trying to convert which is giving me such problems (WARNING - it is an adult JAV movie...unless you like this kind of stuff like me, please DONT click)

http://www.akiba-online.com/forum/showthread.php?t=185786

If you have the solution that would convert straightthru without sync errors i'd appreciate it (Would I even go as far as to say paypal? yes I can...) . It may be because also of broken frames but I tried following the VirtualDub guides and it fried my brain. I'm not this encoding-tech savvy :sigh:

 

[Rollyco]

If I were you, I would try MeGUI out (the official builds, not the one in my signature.) Choose the "x264: Unrestricted 1pass Const. Quality Fast" Video Preset, but make sure you edit it first (the "Config" button) and change the "Quality" from 18.0 to something like 19.5. If you don't, the output filesize will be huge.

Then open the One-Click Encoder (Ctrl-F1) and proceed from there.

 

[rawdawg]

Wow...this really looks powerful. and VERY confusing as far as setups go. But ive downloaded a few guides and hopefully Ill have some good news tomorrow. I read what you said but when I opened it I didnt see that option of the x264 :unrestricted 1pass Const. Quality Fast on the encoding preset. I think im reading the wrong thing...

but...ill study more before I post for some help. THANKS Rollyco!!! Im crossing my fingers now..hehe

 

[guy]

I read what you said but when I opened it I didnt see that option of the x264 :unrestricted 1pass Const. Quality

When you first install and run it (and install the updates), you should get a prompt asking you if you'd like to import any presets. It should be listed there, although there are also device-specific presets that you can choose, which might give you more appropriate quality and filesize in your encodes.

 

[gradeAbra]

Hi,

Well i remember i use this programme, but somehow i forgotten how to convert a video into avi format. Can someone give me some hints? Thanks