Comparing Video Conversion Software Freemake And Handbrake

[k_nitin_r 8]

I had been using the Xilisoft Converter for converting my videos across different formats but after a recent re-installation of Windows, I can't seem to find my serial number so I finally decided to look into the free options out there for converting my videos.I have an old iPhone that I occasionally upload videos to using iTunes but iTunes does not support every format under the sun and so it needs a conversion. I have a Nokia E72 that is picky about the formats that it accepts and since most videos out there use H.264, I have to convert them to get them onto the Nokia E72, apart from shrinking them in size for the phone's 600 MHz ARM processor to handle.After some Internet researching, I arrived at two options for free video conversion software, Freemake and Handbrake (they rhyme too). When I looked at the user interface provided by the two, I was quite impressed by Freemake and saw it as a simpler tool but only when I did use it did I figure out that the interface may be cute but it is buggy. I used Handbrake, which had a simple interface unless you wanted to do something other than convert one video at a time, but when you do want to enqueue videos or make your own preset formats, it takes a bit of effort to figure out the user interface but when you do, it just simply works! Freemake provides you with a greater variety of formats for output and the aesthetics of the interface are commendable but it is just not ready for prime time yet. For instance, the dropdown list items in Freemake are displayed below the window instead of at the dropdown and that's one pretty serious usability issue. Then there are many output settings that cannot be modified and that was a pretty major thing that pushed me toward HandBrake. HandBrake is very popular in the open source community and you can even install it using the package manager of most popular Linux distributions. The user interface is pretty basic and it shows that it was developed as a volunteer effort and has room for improvement, but it does its job, provides me with the options that I looked for in the output format settings, and if they can make the queueing use case easier to perform through the user interface, that would have been the icing on top but apart from that, I am pretty satisfied with what I am getting and I would definitely recommend HandBrake to anyone who is out there looking for some free video conversion software tools.

[tritesh 1]

What do you think about Format Factory which is also a free conversion application for windows platform. Not even it can convert videos into several formats but it also convert images. I am using it since last 3-4 years. Opps i forget it can ripp DVD and CD also.