I’m having the usual problem with my mp4 files - they appear too choppy in almost any program I play them in. I’d like to convert them into something I can actually work with, but I’m having a hard time finding a free downloadable program to convert them.
Does anyone know how to convert mp4s into avis or something else that won’t look choppy?
You could try Any Video Converter
http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/
Free version works very well. Can also be used to download and convert videos from YouTube.
I found this on my own
and it seems to work.
It sounds to me that your real problem is that these .mp4s are too high resolution (HD) for your video card and/or other system resources to handle. So, what you really need is to “downsample” the resolution to something your system doesn’t choke on.
I don’t have a whole lot of hands-on with doing such, but look into programs called Handbrake and/or AVIdemux. (don’t worry, should work for .mp4’s)
There might also be video players capable of real-time downsampling so that you don’t necessarily have to go through the step of converting them, which can be time consuming.
Freemake is free as the name implies, not crippled or nagware and has many built-in conversion profiles for standard devices. Lots of mobile profiles but there should be something to fit your needs without having to get your hands dirty.
If you have VLC, it does conversions, and you could at least try that first. Look for the “convert/save” menu. I just converted a small mp4 to mpg. However, it might not be powerful enough to fulfill your requirements completely.
I’d be cautious about converting to mpg. That is a much older compression algorithm and will take up quite bit more space for the same resolution, bit rate, etc.
edit: of course for DVD’s that is the only option since it is the standard that is used by the .VOB files.
What’s the “catch” with these free programs? (Same question for all the free converters mentioned in the thread, not just this one.)
How do they profit? Are we sure there’s no malware?
(BTW, I downloaded one converter from iorgsoft – for flv to mp4 or such – and wasted hours converting a large movie before discovering the result was unusual. It had warned about a “watermark” in the result, if I didn’t pay, which seemed OK. But the “watermark” was in fact a huge notice across the middle of every frame making the result unusable.)
I’ve used freemake a few dozen times to rip whole dvd’s and do straight conversions. I’ve had it choke on some dvd authoring situations where I’ve tried to shrink say 12gig down to 4.7, but other than that, no problems at all.
The catch with Free Software (as opposed to shareware/crippleware/trials) will vary depending on the license.
Even my wimpy Netbook (MSI Wind 1000) bought like 4 years ago had no trouble decoding full screen (1024x800-ish) MP4s without stuttering. Similarly, even first generation iPads had no problems at all.
Are you streaming the data from HD? You might have a problem with your HD-- stuttering MP4s is definitely not normal for any reasonable modern computers.
I’m sure you probably mean progressive and not interlaced, but since you didn’t specify, I wanted to mention that since there’s a big difference in the demands it will place on the system, mainly the graphics processor. 1080i isn’t a big deal, but 1080p is.