Digital
video is admittedly much easier to transfer between formats than
old-fashioned video kept on big, bulky tapes, but that doesn’t mean that
changing formats is a pain-free process. It can be particularly
difficult on Windows computers because the available free movie maker
software –
Windows Movie Maker - doesn’t offer that large a selection of output formats. Uploading a
YouTube video in HD has been particularly difficult, for example.
Enter
Freemake,
a free video converter that was designed with ease-of-use in mind. I’ve
used different free video converters before in an effort to resolve my
issues with publishing movies only using Windows software and have
walked away unsatisfied, leading me to simply publish videos using my
Mac instead. Freemake has made me consider using Windows for video
again.
Just one quick note, however – this free video converter does require
the latest installation of Microsoft Windows .NET – and it can be quite a
sizable download if you don’t already have .NET.
Video Conversion
The main use of Freemake is, of course, video conversion. The program
will accept virtually any video file you can dream of as an input.
Selecting a video for conversion is as simple as hitting the large Video
button at the top of the program and then browsing to find the video
file that you want to convert.
Once the video file is selected it will appear on a list in Freemake.
You can select numerous files at once and convert them in a batch. Once
you’ve selected one or more files you can simply click on one of the
output options at the bottom of the program to begin the video
conversion process.
While a wide variety of inputs are accepted, the outputs are more
limited, but still very robust. AVI, MP4, WMV, 3GP, DVD, MP3 and Youtube
output is supported. The AVI and WMV options allow you to chose from a
variety of quality options including 1080p, 720p, DVD quality, TV
quality and mobile quality. The MP4 conversion is optimized for mobile
devices including the iPhone, iPad, the Sony PSP, and smartphones. The
3GP format is also targeted towards mobile devices.
The DVD option will, as you might expect, burn video to a DVD
if you have a burner installed in your computer. The MP3 option also
does what you might expect, stripping out video data and hanging on to
audio, effectively turning a video file into a podcast.
Last, but not least, the Youtube option automatically uploads the
video files you’ve selected once you enter your Youtube username and
password.
Audio, DVD & Photo Conversion
Freemake’s greatest strength is its ability to accept a wide variety
of input video files, but its capabilities extend beyond accepting
traditional video formats. Audio, DVD and Photo formats can also be
accepted.
Being targeted towards video conversion, there are not a lot of audio
conversion options. You can convert to the video file formats, but
there are no real options available in regards to audio quality. MP3
conversion is the only real audio conversion option.
However, one nifty feature is the ability to add audio tracks to
video files, which can be done by adding a video file and audio file and
then selecting the “
Join into one file” checkbox.
The DVD option lets you rip a DVD to your computer. Once you have
selected the DVD in your DVD drive, you can convert it to any of the
available formats. You can also press the Edit button on the right to
cut out any advertisements or other non-essential video content included
on the DVD.
Finally, the photo option makes it possible to create movie slideshow
files out of a set of photographs. Clicking the Photo option lets you
browser and select multiple photo files. Once selected, you can convert
them into any of the available formats to make a slideshow. The Edit
button again lets you modify the video, although in the case of photos
you can only change the interval between photos and add music into the
background.
Download link
