About Video Converters

XP Pro, SP3, current updates, ZA, A^2, Lenovo T60p Dual CPU - 2.1 ghz, bad operator brain

Have I reached the right conclusion about video converters? "They all output files with lower resolution than the originals."

I've tried 6 or 8 converters and the result has always looked fuzzier than the original. And I always choose the best output setting available.

 

The converted video looks fuzzy or pixelated because converters take the video file you put into the conversion program and COMPRESSES it and CONVERTS it to a reasonable size and quality.

The larger the files size, the better the quality.

If you took a DVD, ripped the video from it and converted it to an AVI file, depending on the size you set output file too, the quality will be less than the original DVD; taking gigabytes of information and turning it into megabytes.

The best converter programs are the ones that have the most options when converting and compressing video files. More options requires more knowledge though. It can get complicated.

What programs are you using and what are you trying to convert?

 

And some converters lower the resolution by default. It can change the output down to 320 by 240 which isn't very good if you're watching it on a big screen. The best converters let you keep the original aspect ratio and resolution and can let you pick a custom aspect ratio.

The higher the aspect ratio, the better the resolution, the larger the file size.

 

I haven't settled on one, because they all seem to do poorly - even on files generally under 500K. I've tried:

DivX Plus Converter, FreeFLVConv, Sothink Video Converter among others. These 3 are the ones I haven't uninstalled.

I also have Convert VOB to AVI, but don't even remember trying to use it. I need to uninstall it.

My primary interest is in FLV to AVI, but some updated players are handling FLV better now, probably with the help of K-Lite Codec.

 

Yes, I've seen some with adjustable resolution and some without. I invariably set everything I can find to high or best or higher numbers.

I download a lot of back episodes of TV shows. It's interesting that different sources have widely varying file sizes of the same episode.

Higher aspect ratios. I had assumed that was about just the screen shape. Altho only yesterday I grabbed an episode that came as a wide screen show squeezed into a 4:3 format. Everybody was skinny! It makes sense that _that_ sort of nonsense would reduce resolution a lot. I dumped that one.

And I just remembered seeing a converter with which you could do that squeeze. I can't imagine why anyone would want that.

 

A week after a dozen local tornadoes I finally got my cable broadband back.

Thanks. I'll check out the converter.