Best Media Converter

Somehow I've managed to get myself included in my friends film project, and have agreed to do some video converting for him. Now I have had little experience with any media conversion tools, so something relatively simple would be good. I would like to convert mpeg to avi and visa-versa primarily, although being able to produce dvd burnable files would be useful too, anything else is just gravy.
Anyone have any suggestions? I don't mind if it's not free so long as it is worth it, though free would of course be better.

Hmm I can't think of any free ones off the top of my head right now, but I'm sure there's a few good ones (other members will know).

But, if you don't mind paying (its quite dear as well) TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress is one I've used in the past, and is brilliant IMO. Has saved me in times of need, and will convert between and to near enough everything...easy to use, powerful, fast, and has some simple cutting/editing/filtering options too.

try the trial though if it looks interesting.

I won't really need the editing features, though they could be useful. Whats the speed like in comparison to others, do you know?

I can't really compare this to others speed wise, but it is pretty fast from what I saw. Used it on a quad core, it utilised it well.

what do you mean by "avi", exactly?

most file types people throw aroud are actually just container formats that define how data streams will be stored - they have nothing to do with the compression algorithms used. a .avi can take gigs per second or gigs per hour, depending on the codecs it contains

Super: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/SUPER

Or Mediacoder: http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

Both are free

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Originally Posted by Vroomparrot

Super: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/SUPER

Or Mediacoder: http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

Both are free

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it should be noted that these are 2 different GUI wrappers around the same command-line linux tools

I've been using SUPER to convert files for my Zen, its pretty easy to get to grips with. The GUI could be better but its free and works on Vista 64bit :)

You could try AutoGK (a wrapper for Gordian Knot) which should do the job. The UI is a little trick to get use to, but is easy once you have the hanf of it.

Plus it is free - so worth a try to see if it does what you want.

http://www.autogk.me.uk/

Try some of these: how2open.com/convert-avi-to-mpg/

Because it's hideously expensive compared to £0 and about as feature rich as my mouse mat, Mr Spam.

That said, it was nice knowing you.

Been trawling old threads this_is_gav? Let me guess. New Year's Eve, have to come in to work, can't be bothered to do anything / nothing to do... going through old Hexus threads.
Yup, me too.

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Originally Posted by MSIC

Been trawling old threads this_is_gav?

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Nah, there was a spam post offering some naff-looking media converter for $30 (I won't give the name, obviously, but I'd never heard of it).

Whichever mod it was who deleted it clearly felt more fun could be had by making it out I'd lost my marbles by not removing mine too. Not saying they're wrong mind.... :P

For MPEG/MPEG2 to AVI, I would say just get virtualdubmod, drag the mpeg file into it, and save as whatever format you need. Very nice GUI, lots of editing feature (and preview).

VirtualDub can only use VfW codecs as far as I know. For simple conversion you're usually better off using something like AutoMKV (my personal favourite at the moment) or the aforementioned AutoGK, MediaCoder and SUPER and I'll add StaxRip too, though I've not used it extensively (if at all, but it looks like another option).

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Originally Posted by this_is_gav

VirtualDub can only use VfW codecs as far as I know. For simple conversion you're usually better off using something like AutoMKV (my personal favourite at the moment) or the aforementioned AutoGK, MediaCoder and SUPER and I'll add StaxRip too, though I've not used it extensively (if at all, but it looks like another option).

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Yes it only does VfW, but the old x264 VfW should still be sufficient for the OP's purpose. VfW Xvid/Divx works perfectly. Not to mention the OP wanted to convert back to MPEG2 so non-VfW codec may pose a problem.

I personally use Avisynth+DGIndex/DGAVCIndex+x264 command line and use VDM to set trim points.

But he wasn't doing editing, and frankly, if it's taken him 6 months to get it done, I think he may have bigger issues. ;)

Best Media Converter is Super !

http://www.erightsoft.net/SUPER.html :bowdown: