The title pretty much says it all; I have a couple of short videos that are stuck in that accursed windows media file format, and I’d really like to convert them to .avi, quicktime, or really anything else that’s more mainstream and compatible. However, most of the software I’ve found is either shareware, or it simply doesn’t work… are there any obvious, free video converters for Windows?
Easiest way I’ve found to do it is to use Windows Movie Maker - you can export to a number of different formats from that.
There’s bucketloads. I think SuperC is quite good: SUPER © Video Converter | Video Encoder | Free 3D Video Converter | Free 3D Video Encoder
Stoik Video Converter 2 might be good for the right formats.
The thing is you really need to decide what you want to convert to. Particular converters tend to be good at converting to particular formats.
You probably already have Windows Movie Maker (if you run XP) and it will convert, although it’s really designed for editing.
MediaCoder is free and works well.
MPlayer/Mencoder is also good if you can use a commandline. You may need CygWin installed (a Unix-style toolset for Windows).
Si
I second SUPER, not only for wmv´s, that thing converts anything into anything; however I still couldn´t convert lead into gold… I have to keep trying.
I third SuperC
I didn’t think Windows Movie Maker would export to any format other than WMV. Maybe I’m not looking in the right place.
You can also try www.media-convert.com - upload your file and choose the output format you want.
Replay Converter used to be free for up to 5 minutes, without a watermark. Not sure if it still is. Their Replay A/V package (not free) is a goldmine of audio/video conversion/editing software–totally worth the money.
Total Video Converter also works quite well for any length but if you use the free version there is a watermark in the upper-left-hand corner. It’s the least intrusive, though, of all the watermarked free versions I’ve seen.