Plato Video converter

Convert video formats - free software

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Don_X,

What a cool wee tool! Thanks for the heads up, Don.

Downloading...

Does it have any hidden 'agendas' ??
I'm of the thought that nothing is for free!!

hi donx,

video-'converter' is a slightly irritating name... one might think, it is just processing some minor bytes to change the extension.

i think, it is important to know the differences betweeen container-formats, compressions and both (containers demanding specific compression).
'.avi', '.asf' '.mov' and '.mkv' (and some others) are containers, which means, they wrap streams into one file, where the streams can have a limited variety of compressions (done by codecs).
'.wmv', '.mpg', '.divx' and '.rm' are containers, which only (nearly only) can be used for their propriate codec/compression (like '.wmv' likes 'wm9'-compression most, '.mpg' needs 'mpeg1', '.mpeg' can handle 'mpeg1/2', '.divx' insists on 'divx').
'.mov' and '.avi' for example have been created to contain video-/audio-streams for playback on specific os's, which has then been made compatible to other operating-systems only after some time. both can wrap several compressions like 'mpeg4', 'divx', 'sorenson' etc (more or less good, but fe is '.avi' not able to have a 'mpeg1/2'-compressed video).
some more advanced containers like '.mkv' or '.ogg' (theora) are able to contain more codecs and even more streams ('.mkv' can have multiple audio, chaptered video, subtitles and so on, even video with different bitrates - probably the most advanced container to date).

this is important to know, as there is not very often a way to change the format without recompressing the included streams ('.avi' to '.mov' can be done in few cases depending on the used compressions, and again '.mkv' can wrap easily any '.avi' without recompressing). but there is no way to make an '.avi' from '.mpg' without recompressing, or '.wmv' to '.mov'/'.mpeg'/'.divx'/etc.
so these tools, as soon as they have to recompress (most times), need the required codecs installed and won't let have much insight of the settings, which they use for reencoding.
last (as always) any reencoding process means a loss in quality! there is no way around that. when there is advertised under 'features', that the tool supports 'avi', 'divx', 'xvid'... without quality loss, it makes me wonder, what it means - i guess, that is only about playback, any other action (like converting, which it doesn't say there is nonsense. i also wonder what that list means, like there is no 'xvid'-format to be converted.

and it is not free! to ask for 30,- $ for a tool which can't do anything, that freeware cannot do as well, and which seems to feature slogan-like, is a bit suspicious.

quote:

Originally posted by K_Freddie:
Downloading...

Does it have any hidden 'agendas' ??
I'm of the thought that nothing is for free!!

I've been getting some useful stuff from Giveaway of the Day and not found any hidden agendas, spam or the like.

Deepo-
They only offer titles for 24 hours, then it changes. Sorry you were late.

I have been using a converter from AVS4U (which will also convert to Flash), and as yet have not run a comparison. Subject to the limitations you state it still does a good job (converting clips for YouTube, converting capture to editor friendly format etc.)

The Plato converter did install some codecs, including Xvid when I installed it.

hi don,

i didn't mean to question that there is a use for it and thx anyway for the tip for that one day offer (didn't know, but 'gaotd' should have told me )

i just wanted to hint to the fact, that there is only in few cases a format change possible without recompression. since it is (and even more it was in the past) often a pain to handle all these formats and their restrictions, conversion tools seem to be the desired solution for many. however it is important to know, that those tools (or any format conversion) most times have an impact on quality.

since you mentioned 'youtube'... it is a good example of how degrading video-quality occurs on transcoding. 'youtube' recommends 'mpeg4' as compression for uploading, where it doesn't matter, which format it is: '.avi', '.mov', '.mpg', just '.wmv' makes problems (because of the proprietary packing of the format, which 'microsoft' doesn't want to be converted...).
but, whichever container and codec you send it to 'youtube', it will always be recoded to the '.flv'-container with 'vp6'-compression - there is no way someone can upload to 'youtube' and it will appear the same! only exception is uploading in '.mov' with either 'mpeg4'-compression or 'on2-vp5'-compression, done inside 'quicktime' - these can be transcoded and wrapped into flash with only low quality-loss.

i don't write this for confusion (by re-reading i don't understand myself what i have written), but to show, how important it to know about formats and codecs. when producing stuff, one often doesn't know, which distribution there will be, so chosing a pure container-format (which only muxes the streams) like '.avi', '.ogg/.ogm', '.mov' or '.mkv' and (if possible) a compression without motion-vectorising makes later conversion and it's disadvantages unnecessary.

Bump - for those that missed it, back today

Free Plato video converter