Here’s a list of nine media converters from Digital Media Minute listed by OS and price, emphasizing recent releases that are either freeware or at least with free trials offered. This list is by no means comprehensive, and I have not tried all of these; my intent was more to compile a list for reference. I’d welcome your feedback and your recommendations.
1) Very frankly, here’s what got me going on this list: a Firefox extension called Media Converter released just weeks ago. Once installed, it tells you when you are on a site whose video can be downloaded and converted to the format of your choice by the extension. Slick. There may or may not be issues with overloaded servers and blockages by video providers, but in terms of usability, it’s hard to imagine a less obtrusive conversion process with fewer steps. Free, premium version $15/month, $150/year.
2) Here’s an old favorite: Media-Convert. It’s a free and web-based online media converter with a very long list of file types that it can handle. Simply browse for the file on your computer, specify the file type, then choose the output file format.
3) Zamzar is another web-based tool with an extremely simple interface, also handles many document formats. It’s free for files up to 100 MB; the paid versions priced at $7, $16, $49 per month allow you allows you to convert files up to 200MB, 400MB, & 1GB respectively, with online storage of 5GB, 20GB & 100GB respectively. I use it regularly.
4) Switch Audio Converter 1.52 for Mac OS X: Free
Converts many types of audio files into many other kinds. Extract audio from imported avi, mov, mpeg video files.
5) Switch Sound File Converter 2.01 for Windows: Free
Will convert the following file types into mp3 and wav: mp2, mpga, m4a, ogg, avi, mid, flac, aac, wma, dct, au, aiff, ogg, raw, msv, dvf, vox, cda, atrac, gsm, dss, sri, shn, dss, msv, wmv. Version 2.01 has MIDI support.
6) Easy DVD Rip 3.0.8 for Windows: Free 7-day trial, $34.95
Enables you to back up DVD to VCD, SVCD, MPEG-1/2/4, AVI, DivX, XviD.
7) Ape Ripper for Windows: Free 15-day, 3-file trial, $29.95
Will split unwieldy APE files into file formats like MP3, WAV, MP2, VOX, G726, and G723, that can be played on your MP3 player.
8) AVS Media Player for Windows: Free
Supports MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 along with DivX, XviD, AVI, Real Media video, Quick Time files, WMV files, WMV-HD, H.263, H.264, 3GP, 3GP2, MP4. Interface and support available in several languages.
9) The Easy CD-DA Extractor for Windows free 30-day trial, $32.87
Advertised by Poikosoft as ‘the Swiss army knife of digital audio’, is an extremely versatile music converter that rips Audio CDs, converts audio files from/to many different formats, edits the metadata of audio files and burns Audio CDs, MP3 CDs and DVDs, and Data CDs and DVDs.