7 free video converting, ripping, and encoding utilities

Posted on November 14, 2007 at 4:05 pm

With the explosion of YouTube, podcasts from all over the Internet, and tons of handheld media players, it’s pretty imperative to have a good set of free video conversion/ripping/encoding utilities on hand so that you can play your video on not only your computer, but also your iPod, PSP, or DVD player! There are tons of commercial applications to convert video from AVI to DVD, etc, etc, but there are also plenty of freeware applications that handle the job just as well.

Using these utilities, you can convert a YouTube video to DVD format, transfer a DVD to your iPod, or convert a podcast to PSP format!

	VLC media player is not really a converter or encoder as you can tell by the name. It’s a portable player for audio and video formats, including DVD VCDs, and streaming protocols. It can also rip DVDs and play ISO and FLV (downloaded YouTube) video files.

	Avi2DVD is a great freeware utility that converts Avi/OGM/MKV/WMV/DVD files to DVD/SVCD/VCD format. It also supports subtitles and can create DVD menus with chapters, audio, and buttons.

	Handbrake is an open-source and multi-platform DVD to MPEG-4 video converter that works on Mac, Linux and Windows. It’s a great tool for backing up or ripping your DVDs.

	MediaCoder is another open source app that combines many other open sources video and audio converters into one package. Converts audio and video for digital audio players, MP4 players, mobile phones, PDAs, PSP, VCD/DVD players.

	Videora Converter is actually a set of programs to convert from one format to a specific format, such as iPod Converter, iPod Classic, iPod Nano, iPod Touch, Apple TV, PSP, XBox 360, Tivo Converter, and PMP.

	HeyWatch is a cool web service where you can upload videos and convert them to H264, MP4, FLV, WMV, DivX, HD Videos, 3GP, iPod, Archos, and PSP. You can also transfer videos from videos sites to your hard drive in a different format.

	DVD Shrink has been around for a long time and is one of my favorite programs. DVD Shrink is a program that allows you to backup DVD discs to your computer. You can also cut out stuff like extras, bonus material, trailers, etc to save space. And of course it compresses the DVDs quite well so they do not take up as much space.

I had also written in the past about how you can search, download and convert Internet videos for your PSP, iPod, or other mobile device plus how to convert from DVD format to iPod, MPEG, MP4, PSP, 3GP, and AVI for free. Make sure to check those out!

Any other utilities you use to convert your videos? Post a comment! Thanks!

[tags]video conversion, convert video, video encoders, video converts, rip a dvd, convert video to dvd, convert video to mp4, convert video to mp4, convert video formats[/tags]

» Filed Under Computer Tips

Comments

5 Responses to “7 free video converting, ripping, and encoding utilities”

Jillian said on : November 17th, 2007 at 5:23 pm

Can you do WEB DVR? Mymovo can

Ann said on : November 21st, 2007 at 4:07 am

I use MelodyCan when have a problem with drm-protection

HitMe WithIt said on : January 11th, 2009 at 6:31 pm

I must also take the opportunity to recommend a really good freeware media program that, for some reason, is hardly ever mentioned and seemingly not very well known:
Mediajoin.
I use it when I have downloaded some bootleg FLAC files and I then will encode them to MP3 for people who prefer them that way for ipods, etc.
As the bootlegs come in track seperated FLAC files even for complete shows, I prefer to have a complete audio show as a COMPLETE audio show..ie. not split.
This fine utility will take the decoded FLAC (which I first decode with the free FLAC.exe) and will join them up easily and quickly.
It also works on video files, various formats of both audio and video in fact.
I highly recommend it and always install it on a freshly installed windows!
It used to be available from the creators site (The site does have paid for software too which is possibly why this freebie they give away is overlooked by people)(mystikmedia.com) but I can’t see it there lately.
So now I just grab it from:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/M.....Join.shtml

Great article, cheers!

Brenda Smith said on : January 30th, 2009 at 4:47 pm

I have a collection of music DVDs that I would like to rip to my hard drive. Then I would like to take only my favorite videos from each DVD and create a personalized video of back-to-back favorites. Any idea how I can accomplish this?

BonkEnc - Free cd ripper and audio MP3 encoder Says:

[...] can also encode your audio files into MP3, MP4, OGG, AAC or FLAC format? The web is littered with audio converters and CD ripping programs, seven of which I wrote about in an earlier post. If you’re looking for strictly an audio encoder [...]
October 7th, 2008 at 5:38 am