[ChrisTheFeral]

Hi gang,
This is my first review or post for that matter on the NoteBooks.com website so make sure to let me know what you think and tell me what I can improve on in this review

PLEASE NOTE: This is a review/tutorial - I'll tell you my recommendations for various conversion needs at the bottom of this post

Introduction

Have you ever wanted to convert a video from one format to another or audio from one format to another or even strip the audio from a video and put the audio into a mp3 of it's own? Well now you can!

With this FREEWARE application called SUPER (made by eRightSoft.com) it converts practically any video container and codec to any other video container and codec!

Here is a list of types of files you can convert from and to:
-3gp
-acc
-ac3
-amr
-asf
-avi
-gif
-mmf
-mov
-mp2
-mp3
-mp4
-mpc
-mpg
-ogg
-swf
-flv
-vob
-wav
-wma
-wmv

It also has presets for the iPod, PSP etc and can also convert a movie into a sequence of images!

Just off the top, THIS BEATS ANY PAY FOR SOFTWARE CONVERSION TOOL! It converts practically anything to anything, most pay-for conversion tools only convert one file type to another and actually cost money. This is totally free, contains no spyware, adware or any other malware.


Review

My experience with the program in one sentence is: Iit is FABULOUS seeing as it's free and most of the time gets the job done, though it can be a little technical.

Basically, for new comers to video conversion and audio conversion, this MAY be a little difficult to understand and may need some experimenting to find out what suites you best but for the people who know what I am talking about, here is basically how you use the program.

Step 1) choose the file(s) that you want converted (you may need to show all files as .mov files don't always appear yet still can be converted)

Step 2) tick the ones that you want converted and un-tick the ones that you don't want converted

Step 3)Choose an output container, such as .mov (quicktime player) .wmv (Windows Media Player) .avi (For burning dvds) .mp3 (audio only) ---- These are the basic 4 that I use, I also use mp4 sometimes for youtube uploads

Step 4)Choose a codec, if h.264/AVC is available then choose it, at this point in time it is the BEST codec for both quality and file size!

Step 5)Choose an audio codec, mp3 or acc are the typical codecs you should use, ac3 can be used for multi channel outputs (eg, 5.1 surround) for DVD burning (make sure your burning software supports ac3)

Step 6)Choose a resolution (again, I'll be posting at the bottom various conversion methods for different needs) The resolution is basically how many pixels (dots on your screen) horizontally and vertically you want to be used, for example if you have a full HD tv you would want 1920 x 1080 as you're TV's resolution (typically for full HD) will be 1,920 pixels going across and 1080 going down, this is where the 1080p sign comes from on your tv.

Step 7)Choose an aspect ratio, for example, if you are going to be using this for tv, if you have an old tube, chances are you want 4:3 (aka Center Cut) this is a squarish video, if you think about it in measurements of feet you can think of a tv being 4 feet wide and 3 feet high - 4:3...
If you are on an HD TV or a widescreen set, you want 16:9 - WOW that sound's very different from 4:3 you might say, but it's not, think about it like this - 4:3 x 3 = 12:9, 12 feet wide by 9 feet high, 16 by 9 means it's another 4 feet wider, or 33% wider. Hopefully this makes some sense to you.

Step 8)Choose a frame rate, frame rate (fps - frames per second) is the amount of pictures that are flashed on to your tv set in one second, for example 30 fps would mean the picture updates 30 times in 1 second, to create the illusion of a moving image. Generally speaking PAL systems (Europe, Australia) are 25fps and NTSC (America) is 30fps (though NTSC with a smaller sized picture.)

Step 9)AUDIO SETTINGS:
In your audio settings there will be, generally speaking, 3 different boxes to fill out.
1, the sampling frequency, 2 the channels and 3 the bitrate.

Let's get started with the Sampling Frequency, the sampling frequency is generally set to 44,100 Hertz (CD quality) and 22,050 (or more) Hertz for speech. The sampling rate is calculated by the second, so if you had a 1 minute clip (60 seconds) at 44.1KHz (Hz X 1000 = KHz) it would be 44,100 X 60 = 2,646,000 samples in 60 seconds, 22Hz would be half of that resulting in lowered quality as there is less information.

2, channels, channels are basically this, say you have two speakers and you want a certain sound to go through the left speaker and a different sound to go through the right. Those speakers can be thought of as channels, so you have 2 speakers (left and right) generally music cd's use 2 channels. 5.1 surround sound however uses 5 channels, that way they can have different sounds coming from different places around you, so instead of 2 speakers and sound going from left to right, with 5 speakers they can have sound going diagonally and from the back to the front, they can also have an amplifier to add bass (thumping) to the sound, like when you hear thunder in the cinemas, the room shakes slightly - that is the bass.
Generally speaking 2 ch will be sufficient.

3, bitrate, the bit rate is the amount of bits per second that contain (in this case) audio data, the higher the bitrate, the more information can be used resulting in higher quality audio, cd's generally use 128kbps, itunes downloads use 128kbps and on higher quality ones 256kbps - crystal clear audio (at least, we will think that until they start using yet higher bitrates again) So basically, the higher the bitrate, the bigger the file, the higher the quality (note, if you are converting audio from a lower bitrate to a higher bitrate - this does not mean you are improving on quality as you have only so much information to work with from the original bitrate. It will also result in bigger file size, wasting space on your storage device.)




WOW! That was a mouthful I hope you learned something from this and enjoyed this tutorial/review (more of a tutorial actually..) and please feel free to correct me on any errors you see! Questions welcome too!



Now, for people who just want to get the job done without learning much, here are some conversion setting recommendations.

Songs - use the mp3 output at 44Hz, 2ch and 256kbps (unless you know the bitrate is lower)

For DVD burning - AVI as the output container. h.264/AVC as the codec (once prompted, choose h.264 and not any other option) with mp3 encoding of audio. AUDIO SETTINGS: 44khz, 2ch, 256kbps.

For Youtube uploads - Youtube supports at higher quality versions of videos with a resolution of 480 x 320 (16:9) or 480 x 360 (4:3) or higher, they add a button under the video to watch an alternate higher quality version.
I recommend these settings (from HEAPS of experimenting)
.mov as the output container, h.264 as the codec, aac as the audio codec.
The resolution of the file should either be for widescreen, 480 x 320. For the standard square, 480 x 360.
I use 15 frames per second due to my webcam, but you should use 25 or 30.
AUDIO SETTINGS: 44khz with 2 channels at 128kbps or 160kbps.


If you are making something for TV or DVD, here are my recommendations,
Please check your TV manual or ask a friend what type of TV you have, PAL or NTSC - generally speaking, America uses NTSC and Australia & Europe use PAL

For NTSC:
fps:30
resolution (4:3): 720 x 480 (.... note, NTSC screens don't use square pixels, the stretch the pixel vertically so it is still the same sized screen - just with less dots)

For PAL:
fps:25
resolution (4:3): 720 x 576
resolution (16:9): 538 x 576

NOTE: The above NTSX and PAL resolutions MAY BE incorrect and will be updated soon!

Whats the difference between PAL and NTSC?
NTSC uses a smaller sized picture with smoother delivery, your picture is updated 30 times a second, making it look smoother and more natural.
PAL uses a noticeably bigger sized picture with a few less frames per second (25) still resulting in smooth delivery but with more pixels, generally resulting in sharper images.

I hope you enjoyed this FULL-ON guide to video conversion, I'll try adding more to it when I get time, but for the moment I need to shake my hands to get the blood flow back :P

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, I'll fix up any spelling soon

[bboy daniel]

Well you're post was more of an quick start instruction manual than it was a review. Thanks though for putting this up. I actually have a JVC HD Everio camcorder and it saves movies to its hard drive in .MOD files. I've never heard of them so yeah, kinda hard to find good video convertors.

Hey! If you also know a free movie editor, let me know. Windows Movie maker doesn't have the kind of tools that I need. (It doesn't play audio tracks during project playback. Ssshh.)

[djeuro]

wow, thats not a pretty bad review. You give out the details, tell how to do it, and explain why its good. Plus it must have took you some time to do this review good job man! keep it up

[bboy daniel]

Ok, so I just tried it out. The interface if confusing as heck. Good thing you had that step by step up there, but if I could ask a question... what settings would you recommend if you were editting video. I'm actually piecing together .MOD video footage and then up edit that. Oh yeah and also how do I direct the newly encode video file? I hope it doesn't default it to the videos original folder.

[djeuro]

ya this is a little bit confusing at first, you have to get the hang of it, but once you do, its a pretty usefull program and its free

[Bernardakins]

Super is really useful, I've been using it forever. XD
It can convert just about anything into just about anything else~
One thing that I've had a problem with when I'm using it is frame rates, it sometimes makes video look really choppy when I'm using it to reduce a video from a really high frame rate that I can't play to a lower one. It also sometimes has frustrating problems with one video of a certain format, and none with the next one of the same. (And the error messages are never useful, there's only one!)
Aside from those two things, it's really nifty~

[Larrabee]

It was more like a guide, but hey I like long posts. It shows that people took some time to explain something.

I never heard of eRightSoft.com, with their program called "Super". But after reading this program, I will use it when I need it. The biggest advantage is the long list of supported types you can convert. I will only use:
- swf
- flv
- wmv
- avi and
- mov files

However, thanks for sharing, ChrisTheFeral!

[ChrisTheFeral]

Originally Posted by djeuro

wow, thats not a pretty bad review. You give out the details, tell how to do it, and explain why its good. Plus it must have took you some time to do this review good job man! keep it up

Thanks - ignore my reply in the Dragon contest, I am tired (6 am) and may have misinterpreted what you said

Originally Posted by bboy daniel

Ok, so I just tried it out. The interface if confusing as heck. Good thing you had that step by step up there, but if I could ask a question... what settings would you recommend if you were editting video. I'm actually piecing together .MOD video footage and then up edit that. Oh yeah and also how do I direct the newly encode video file? I hope it doesn't default it to the videos original folder.

Yeah, I should add in a video on the 24th/25th when I get my speed back, or some screen shots.
As for .MOD - I am not even sure if it converts that but it's worth a shot. If you right-click where you added your media files to convert, there should be an option to choose an output folder

Originally Posted by bboy daniel

Well you're post was more of an quick start instruction manual than it was a review. Thanks though for putting this up. I actually have a JVC HD Everio camcorder and it saves movies to its hard drive in .MOD files. I've never heard of them so yeah, kinda hard to find good video convertors.

Hey! If you also know a free movie editor, let me know. Windows Movie maker doesn't have the kind of tools that I need. (It doesn't play audio tracks during project playback. Ssshh.)

A free movie editor, I'll look around and reply back here when I find one
Windows movie maker is a bit under powered, heh
And no problem for putting this up, I need to update it later with some better information.

Originally Posted by Larrabee

It was more like a guide, but hey I like long posts. It shows that people took some time to explain something.

I never heard of eRightSoft.com, with their program called "Super". But after reading this program, I will use it when I need it. The biggest advantage is the long list of supported types you can convert. I will only use:
- swf
- flv
- wmv
- avi and
- mov files

However, thanks for sharing, ChrisTheFeral!

I have to use it for every video when I am uploading so it takes me twice the amount of time to render, quite funny when you aren't the person with the troubles :P lol.
Anyway.. yeah, this program still has a few glitches, but even so, it is free and that's why it beats the competition, because most of the time it can get the job done.

And no problems for sharing



Gah, this limit of four images sucks - I had to remove emoticons from quotes, sorry.

[bboy daniel]

So I've used Super pretty effectively just now. I was editting video. It as nice cuz i was able to convert video to audio then audio to video. Shame the poor thing about this software is the conversion time which is mostly likely due to the amount of complexity involved with the program.

[ChrisTheFeral]

Yes it can be a tad slow especially if you are changing codecs.

It also depends on the size of your file and the length, the amount of data.