Video Converter

Blu Ray Ripper

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 05:10:00 +0000

Looking for Blu Ray Ripper Software? Learn More About It Here.

If you want to transfer your Blu Ray discs to your other devices, you need to install a Blu Ray ripper software program on your computer. A Blu-Ray Video Converter will quickly rip your BDs over to your computer’s hard drive in 4 easy steps. From there you can convert each movie to any video file format you want and upload it any other device:

1. Burn your BD movie to a blank DVD-R so you can watch it on your computer, laptop, or DVD player

2. Extract clips from your Blu Ray disc and post them on YouTube, Facebook, and other social sites.

3. Convert your BD movie to watch on all devices:

iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and other smartphones
iPod, Zune, Creative Zen, and other media players
iPad and all netbooks
PSP, Wii, and other gaming boxes

Blu Ray Ripper Free Download

Check out all the features and see how easy it is to convert your BD movies into any format you want.

Rip Blu Ray

So why would you want to go to all the trouble to rip a Blu Ray disc when you can just watch it on your BD player with your HD-TV? I rip Blu Ray because if I’ve paid $15 to $20 for a movie, I feel it’s my right as the owner of that disc to watch it wherever I want. The developers of this technology have tried to lock the consumer into the Blu Ray player, and it’s really frustrating, at least for me. For example, if I buy a Blu Ray disc, I can’t watch it on a DVD player. That means I also can’t plug it into my computer hard drive, notebook, or netbook. If I want to watch a BD on a conventional DVD player or other device, I have to buy the DVD version of the same movie, which doubles the price and is very inconvenient for me.

Bluray ripper software lets me watch my movies wherever I want. Sure, they look best when I watch them on my Blu-Ray player hooked up to my HD television, but I don’t always feel like watching movies in my living room. Sometimes I want to curl up in bed in my jammies with a cup of hot chocolate and watch a chick flick on my netbook. And it’s great to upload a couple of movies to my iPhone for when I’m riding to work with my carpool. I also load them onto my iPod when I work out at the gym so I can hear the soundtrack.

What Is BluRay?

Blu Ray discs are the newest version of high-density data storage and were developed to take the place of DVDs. There are a lot of advantages to this new format:

They store a lot of data: up to twice as much as a standard DVD
Unbelievable quality when played on a HD television, with sharp definition and deep, rich colors
True 3D capability, which previously was only available in theaters.

Blu Ray also has some real disadvantages:

It only plays on a specialized player. Most Blu Ray players will play DVD, but no DVD player will play Blu Ray, so you have to maintain two players and two disc libraries.
The DRM (digital rights management) protection is stronger than any other format.

This format is so new that nobody seems to know how to spell it. Variations like Bluray, Blue Ray, and Blueray are common, but the right way to spell it is Blu-Ray. Its abbreviation is BD, which stands for Blu-Ray Disc.

Blu Ray Converter

Because BD format is still brand new and has enhanced DRM, Blu Ray converter software is hard to find. I’ve tried many brands, and quite honestly, none of these converter programs gave me quality as good as the original disc. I don’t see this as a problem, though. If I want HD quality, I’ll use my BD player and sit in front of my HD-TV. Quality just isn’t as big an issue when I’m watching a movie on my iPhone.

You’re probably wondering, what is the difference between a ripper and a converter? Very little, actually, so don’t let it confuse you. When you “rip” a disc, you’re simply making a mirror image copy. The important thing is that the copy now sits on your computer’s hard drive, where you use converter software to change it to other file formats.

Here’s a list of common formats and the devices they work with:

VIDEO FORMATS

DVD: this is the format for conventional DVDs and DVD movies.
VOB: DVD movies are made up several VOB subfiles that are wrapped up together to make a single unit.
MP4: sometimes abbreviated MPEG-4. This is the best format to convert your BDs to. The quality is fine, and just about any device can recognize it.
MOV: this is Apple’s trademarked version of MP4. Your Apple devices will recognize either MP4 or MOV.
AVI: same as DivX and Xvid. Similar to MP4 in file size but supports HD (high definition) video. Not all devices recognize AVI even when they say they do. You must convert to AVI if you do any work in Camtasia software.
WMV: this is the format favored by Windows Media Player, which comes standard with your PC operating system.
FLV: this stands for Flash video and is the standard format used on Facebook, YouTube, and other online sharing sites. These sites also accept MP4, AVI, and WMV but will convert them all to Flash when you do your upload.

AUDIO FORMATS

MP3: same as MP4, but audio only. Compatible with the iPod and other music player devices.

HANDHELD FORMATS

H.264: this is the HD version of MP4 used by the iPhone and most other smartphones
3GP: if your smartphone doesn’t use H.264, it probably uses 3GP.

Obey the Law!

If you live in the United States, you should be aware that copyright law forbids you from ripping or converting any copyrighted material that you haven’t purchased legally, and that you can't share copyrighted material.

Convert MOV to AVI

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:45:00 +0000

Looking for the software that works best to convert your Quicktime MOV files to the AVI format? Look here.

MOV means QuickTime movie. Files in this format are appended with the extension .mov.

Software to convert MOV to AVI works the best if you spend a bit of money and purchase it from a third-party developer. The free versions online aren't reliable.

QuickTime is Apple's proprietary video software, with versions released for both Mac OS and for Windows. If you own an Apple desktop or laptop machine, or you have a friend who uses it to record videos, then you're much more likely to own video files saved MOV format. Videos download from Apple's iTunes store also show up as MOV files on the Mac.

Windows users don't see MOV files as often. Apple regularly updates its QuickTime 7.7 for Windows, but the program isn't very popular with Windows users. On the Windows side, most video software defaults directly to the MP4 format, which is the open source version of MOV. Files in this format are appended with the extension .mp4.

MP4 can be played on just about any device, and is acceptable for upload to online video sharing sites like Facebook and YouTube. Although MOV files and MP4 files are very similar, occasionally you'll find MOV files that won't play unless you own QuickTime.

Why would you want to convert an MOV file to AVI? Because AVI is the HD version of the MOV and MP4 formats, and HD videos are becoming the industry standard. YouTube is strongly pushing its users to do their uploads as HD files, and has adapted its upload interface to accept AVI. So far, less than 5% of YouTube videos are in HD, but that number is growing.

Although HD video is a great thing, AVI files can cause problems. If you don't need your QuickTime vids saved in an HD compatible format, you'd be much better off saving them in MP4 so you can play them on other devices that don't have QuickTime installed. AVI format is notoriously buggy, and it saves in a larger file size than the less troublesome MP4. And while ou don't need AVI to upload your videos to Facebook or YouTube, either. Both sites accept uploads of MP4 files, and even MOV files for that matter.

The one place where an AVI file might be your only choice is if you want to import it to a camcorder and carry it with you. A number of video cameras only accept AVI format, including the now-defunct but still popular Flip and Flip HD.

Convert AVI to MP4

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:05:00 +0000

Your guide to the best AVI to MP4 converter software.

AVI is a popular video file format that frustrates a lot of users because it sometimes refuses to play back, even with video players and devices that are supposed to read the AVI format. There's a reason for this: AVI isn't really a video file format. It's a "wrapper" that bundles all of the separate files that work together to make a video file play. These separate files - called codecs - come in many obscure types. Most of the time, the video player on your computer or hand-held device has no problem reading all the codecs wrapped up together into an AVI file. Then along comes the odd codec that your player doesn't recognize, and you get an error message.

The solution is to purchase a software program that recognizes all possible codecs that might go into an AVI file, and use it to convert the AVI to MP4. The MP4 video file format is sometimes called MPEG-4 or just MPEG. With its relatively small file size and simple set of codecs, this format is probably the most reliable video format available today. It plays on the most devices, including all Apple products (iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Mac laptops). Mac's QuickTime player (which is also available for Windows) recognizes MP4 because QuickTime and MP4 are one and the same; QuickTime is just Apple's proprietary version of MP4. And it's just about guaranteed to play back on your computer.

So if AVI is so unreliable, why does it keep popping up all over the place? Because the software to create it is very cheap to develop, and because it supports HD (high definition) video. One of the first places where AVI reared its ugly head was in the Flip video camera. The makers of Flip had a good thing going with their camera, which took great quality video and sold for under $100. When they came out with the HD Flip, they made a good thing even better. The problem with the Flip was that the manufacturers kept the price low by skimping on the software. The Flip's AVI videos looked great, but they were a pain in the neck to transfer to a computer hard drive, and sometimes they wouldn't play back.

Other low-end video cameras followed suit, and before long, AVI format was everywhere. Even YouTube has started accepting it because it wants videos uploaded in HD format whenever possible, and AVI supports HD. Just because everybody else is doing it doesn't mean you should too, though. If you buy an AVI to MP4 converter program and make sure all of your videos are stored in the MP4 format, you'll have a lot fewer problems with videos that won't play, and experience far fewer frustrations.

Convert YouTube to MP4

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:40:00 +0000

Can I download YouTube videos to my home computer? Find out here.

To convert YouTube to MP4, you need to install a YouTube video downloader software program on your computer. Flash format is great except for one thing: you can only play it on your computer. Software solves this problem for you. It converts your YouTube Flash videos to MP4 so you can upload them to your phone, iPod, iPad, or PSP and watch them anytime you want.

Here are some things I love about this software:

It's fast! Videos download in less than 2 minutes each.
Download an unlimited number of videos at once.
Easy to use - one-click convenience.
Works with YouTube's new HD video format for the best quality.
Automatically names each video exactly as it shows up on YouTube.
Sorts downloads in the built-in Flash player window so you can keep track of them.

YouTube to MP4 converter

To convert your videos to MP4, you need the full version of YouTube Mate, which gives you a full-featured video converter along with the capture and download functions:

Start with virtually any type of input file: YouTube FLV, SWF, AVI, DivX, XviD, RMVB, MOV, MP4, MOV, WMV, and more
Convert to any output file format
Supports nearly all types of portable devices, or you can create custom profiles if you own a device that's not on the list
Has a preview window so you can make sure you're converting the file you want

YouTube Mate runs on any version of Windows with DirectX 8.0 or later installed. Sorry, no version for Mac is available at this time.

Can I Get in Trouble?

Before you use this software, it's a good idea to read YouTube's Terms of Service to make sure you're not violating their rules. YouTube has always had a strict no-downloads policy but in 2009 they decided to make selected videos available for download in MP4 format - probably as a trial balloon for selling some of their content.

YouTube is the biggest video file sharing site on the internet and many of their users download content in violation of their terms of service. YouTube managed to lock out a number of third party browser add-on tools that viewers had been using to download videos. Most of these tools were open source and worked as add-ons to the Firefox browser.

That wasn't the end of people downloading vids from YouTube, but it was the end of open source downloading software. Third-party software developers have stepped in and are marketing inexpensive software that will do the same job as the old open source add-ons used to do.

The future of YouTube video capture is uncertain. For now, it's a game of cat and mouse as software developers work around YouTube's terms of service and YouTube responds by upping the ante. In the end, if enough YouTube users pressure the company to allow them to take their content open source, then it could end up running the third party software developers out of business.

Cheers,

MP4 Converter Software

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:20:00 +0000

Best prices on video converter software that works for all formats.

The MP4 video format is also called MPEG-4 or sometimes just MPEG. MP4 is known as the universal format because it plays on the widest range of devices and works across the Mac and Windows platforms. (On the Mac, MP4 files are called Quicktime files, but the two formats are identical; only the names are different.) MP4 quality is great, and the file size is reasonably small.

I decided to buy an MP4 converter because I'm constantly switching back and forth between devices. My Flip Video Camera records in AVI format. I have a Macbook Pro laptop that plays MP4/Quicktime files, and so does my iPod. My iPhone also plays MP4, but some of my friends have the Blackberry, which requires 3GP formatting for video. And I like sharing my home videos on the internet. Facebook and YouTube can handle the MP4 format, but uploading goes a lot faster if I convert MP4 to FLV. I also like to convert DVD to MP4 so I can watch movies on my computer without having to dig out the disc.

I saved myself a lot of trouble and extra expense by buying an MP4 converter that will handle all formats. It cost me a bit of extra money up front, but at least I know when I find a new video file to watch, I'll be able to put it on any device that I choose and get an excellent quality result.