Top 10 Free Video Rippers and Video Converters

So many video file formats, so many handheld video players, so many online video sites, and so little time. To have your favorite clips how you want them—whether that's on your DVR, iPod, PSP or desktop—you need the right utility to convert 'em into the format that works for you. Commercial video converter software's aplenty, but there are several solid free utilities that can convert your video files on every operating system, or if you've just got a web browser and a quick clip. Put DVDs on your iPod, YouTube videos on DVD, or convert any video file with today's top 10 free video rippers, encoders and converters.

10. VLC media player (Open source/All platforms) Ok, so VLC is a media player, not converter, but if you're watching digital video, it's a must-have—plus VLC can indeed rip DVD's, as well as play ripped discs in ISO format (no actual optical media required.) VLC can also play FLV files downloaded from YouTube et al, no conversion to AVI required. Since there's a portable version, VLC's a nice choice for getting your DVD rips/saved YouTube video watching on wherever you go.

9. Video Converter Platinum (Share/Windows)Supports video formats such as MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, WMV, RM, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, FLV, ASF and also HD video formats including TS, TP and TRP. It also supports audio formats including M4A, WMA, WAV, MP3, AAC and AC3. With the video joiner of this all-in-one video format converter, you can even merge multiple files into a single video file, and can trim or crop to edit your videos according to your need.

8. Avi2Dvd (Freeware/Windows)Make your video files burnable to a DVD with Avi2Dvd, a utility that converts Avi/Ogm/Mkv/Wmv/Dvd files to Dvd/Svcd/Vcd format. Avi2Dvd can also produce DVD menus with chapter, audio, and subtitle buttons.

7. Videora Converter (Freeware/Windows only) Videora Converter is a set of programs, each designed to convert regular PC video files into a format tailored to your favorite video-playing handheld device. The Videora program list includes iPod Video Converter (for 5th gen iPods), iPod classic Video Converter (for 6th gen classic iPods), iPod nano Video Converter (for 3rd gen iPod nanos), iPod touch Video Converter, iPhone Video Converter, Videora Apple TV Converter, PSP Video 9, Videora Xbox360 Converter, Videora TiVo Converter, and Videora PMP Converter. Lifehacker alum Rick Broida used Videora in conjunction with DVD Decrypter to copy DVDs to his iPod.

Honorable Mention: Ares Tube for Windows converts YouTube and other online videos to iPod format.

6. Any Video Converter (Freeware/Windows only) Convert almost all video formats including DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI to MPEG-4 movie format for iPod/PSP or other portable video device, MP4 player or smart phone with Any Video Converter, which also supports user-defined video file formats as the output. Batch process multiple files that AVC saves to a pre-selected directory folder, leaving the original files untouched.

5. Audio Converter (Share/Windows)The converted audios can be played on popular audio players including iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod classic, iPod touch, Zune and all kinds of MP3 Players. This excellent Audio converter provides you with various audio settings such as bit rate, audio channel, and sample rate and so on to adjust the output audio quality.

4. VidDownloader (webapp)When you don't want to mess with installing software to grab that priceless YouTube clip before it gets yanked, head over to web site VidDownloader which sucks in videos from all the big streaming sites (YouTube, Google Video, iFilm, Blip.TV, DailyMotion, etc.), converts 'em for you to a playable format and offers them for download. Other downloaders for online video sites buy you a Flash FLV file, but VidDownloader spits back an AVI file.

3. iSquint (Freeware/Mac OS X only) Convert any video file to iPod-sized versions and automatically add the results to your iTunes library. iSquint is free, but Lifehacker readers have praised the pay-for iSquint upgrade, VisualHub, which offers more advanced options for a $23 license fee. Check out the feature comparison chart between iSquint and VisualHub.

2. DVD Shrink (Freeware/Windows only) Copy a DVD to your hard drive and leave off all the extras like bonus footage, trailers and other extras to save space with DVD Shrink. Download Adam's one-click AutoHotkey/DVD Shrink utility to rip your DVDs to your hard drive for skip-free video play from scratchy optical media.

Honorable mention: DVD Decrypter (beware of advertisement interstitial page), which Windows peeps can use to copy DVDs to their iPods.

1. Handbrake (Open source/Windows, Mac)
Back up your DVD's to digital file with this open source DVD to MPEG-4 converter app. See also how to rip DVDs to your iPod with Handbrake.What's your favorite way to convert video to the right format? Did we miss any good ones in this list? Let us know in the comments.

Review of new iPod touch 2

 

Different new iPod touch:
New iPod touch 2 gets new volume control buttons, full Nike+ integration and a built-in loudspeaker. It's not a radical change, but it's better.

First Look: iPod touch 2

When Apple first released the iPod touch, it was with its Wi-Fi capabilities and touchscreen interface - much more than an iPod. With new iPod software updates, Apple brought the apple iPod touch 2’s applications in line with the iPhone.

And there is also third party iPod software update as new iPod apps: Wondershare iPod Video Suite - http://www.dvd-ripper-copy.com/iPod-video-suite.html, which convert DVD and all popular video formats to iPod Nano new, new iPod Touch, iPod Classic and iPhone.

 

About how to convert DVD video to iPod, please go to http://www.dvd-ripper-copy.com/guide/ipod-video-suite-guide.html

 

 

Price:
The latest iPod touch 2 model:
8GB capacities for $229;
16GB costs $299;
32GB costs $399

They also ship with the latest iPod touch 2.1 software.

 

Nike+ iPod integration:
First and foremost I love the Nike+ iPod integration.

The iPod touch 2 is quite thin and would work well as a small waist - or arm-banded device for workouts and not having to have a tiny little dongle hanging off the end is excellent.
Apple will also be selling the little Nike+ pucks separately now.

 

New iPod touch 2 game:
The second chance is gaming. This is a great opportunity for Apple to enter the casual handheld gaming market as a winner, not an also ran. Some of the other Apps are hit or miss, but it’s nice to have choice.

 

Volume controls and built-in speaker:

1. Volume controls

Press the top of the rocker switch and the volume goes up. A press at the bottom of the switch causes the volume to decrease. Apple’s headphones that carry the Play/Pause switch and microphone— the Play/Pause switch works with new iPod touch 2. (It doesn’t on older iPod touches, even with the new 2.1 software.)

 

1. Built-in speaker

As Steve Jobs said, this speaker is for “casual listening.” It clearly sits on the bottom left of the device and is fairly directional, the sound from the iPod touch 2 comes from no particular location—it seems to just seep out of any holes on the device.

 

In the Sound setting, where you can find the addition of the New Mail, Sent Mail, Calendar Alerts, Lock Sounds, and Keyboard Clicks entries. You can also hear a camera sound when you take a screenshot of the display by pressing Home and Sleep/Wake. It's less springy, more plasticky, and noisier.

 

The Genius playlist:

1. What’s Genius playlist

Genius playlist is one of the marquee features of the new iPod nano and iPod touch 2. It is a scheme for selecting a track in iTunes library or iPod and intelligently creating a playlist of related music. The Genius feature is also available from within the Now Playing screen.
You can read more about the Genius feature in this first look at iTunes 8.

 

 

There is a list of all the songs on your iPod touch, when you first invoke the Genius playlist. Tap the Music icon at the bottom of the Home screen, tap Playlists, and at the top of the Playlists screen you can see a Genius entry. Tap a track and the iPod creates a list of 25 related tracks and starts playing the track you originally selected.

 

1. Create Genius playlist?

How to create a different Genius playlist based on that same track?
Just tap Refresh and the playlist is created. And you can also select this playlist and edit it by tapping the Edit button. How much the playlist is refreshed depends on the tracks on your iPod touch 2.

Note: The new iPod touch is possible to stump the Genius.

 

After creating a Genius playlist you can refresh it with new material based on the same source song or start over by tapping New.

When you sync your iPod with your computer, any Genius playlists you’ve created are synced to the computer and appear under the Playlists heading in iTunes’ Source list.

 

The new iPod apps:
The new iPod touch 2 includes the iPod touch 2.1 software, which is a free update for those who’ve purchased the 2.0 software update and a $10 update for those running the older 1.x update.

It’s availables for both the original iPod touch and the new iPod touch 2, software 2.1.1 introduces the Genius automatic playlist generator to the device, as well as complete Nike+ integration.

 

More:
Apple claims that the 2G iPod touch offers better battery life than the original touch. I haven’t had the 2G iPod touch long enough to test its alleged audio playback time of 36 hours and video playback of 6 hours, but will as I delve deeper into the device in preparation for my full review.

Best video converter Review

Hey guys and gals, I’m back with another installment in my series on video conversion programs to be used to transfer your movies to the Tilt!

This week I’ve got an ‘official’ review, the folks over at Wondershare emailed me and asked me to check out their video conversion software, this isn’t a DVD ripper but just for converting your already existing videos to a format compatible with your Tilt or other phones of course.
Wondershare Video Convertor Platinum can convert to many formats and not just to PPC, so it’s actually a very useful program for any of your video conversion needs.

So, read on to check it out…

As usual we start off with the Specs and Features of the program, this is just the basics grabbed from their site, if you wish to read everything they’ve got about Wondershare Video Converter Platinum, stop on over
HERE to read all about it.

Wondershare Video Converter Platinum Free download

version: 4.0.3.0
Price: $35.00

Features:

Directly convert video for playback on all popular portable video/audio players ( Zune, iPod,Apple TV,iPhone, PSP, etc).

Convert video to most popular video formats with powerful video editing functions including video crop and video trimming and file merging.

Customize video/audio quality with various video and audio settings.

Wondershare Video Converter Platinum is the best video format converter that can convert your video files including FLV video to various formats to meet different format requirements and for playback on most popular players including iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Zune, PSP, Pocket PC, Creative Zen, and Archos and so on. It is the best video converter that can convert WMV to AVI, VOB to AVI, and this YouTube Video Converter even convert video to Youtube or convert Youtube to video with excellent quality.

The best video converter supports video formats such as MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, WMV, RM, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, FLV, ASF and also HD video formats including TS, TP and TRP. It also supports audio formats including M4A, WMA, WAV, MP3, AAC and AC3. With the video joiner of this all-in-one video format converter, you can even merge multiple files into a single video file, and can trim or crop to edit your videos according to your need.

After installing the program just hit the shortcut on your desktop to load the program, we are greeted with a graphical interface, with simple instructions on how to use the program in the main window. The are only 4 steps to get your video converted easily, of course if you wish to change the settings etc you’ll add more steps to the process.

To pick your format click on ‘Profile’ near the bottom, a slide out menu appears and you’ve got several choices, of course since I’m converting for the Tilt I’m using the option for ‘Windows Mobile’, with that you’ve got three more choices, and for our use I picked ‘General Pocket PC Video’

Click ‘Add’ to add your video, just navigate to the file you wish to convert as you would in windows, very easily. I’m using Stargate again as I’ve used with all of the reviews in this series, I’ve already ripped it from DVD to AVI/Divx/Xvid format and it’s 1.5Gb in size. Since this software isn’t for DVD ripping you’ll basically only use videos that are already on your hard drive, so you’ll have to rip the DVD first with another program

if you wish to use one of your DVDs. Once you’ve got the file loaded, you’ll see the the ’settings’ option next the the profile selection box is now available, clicking it opens up further video options. For the General Pocket PC Video, you’ve only got the choice to convert to WMV format, and of course you can change other options as well like Frame Rate, Bit Rate, Resolution, and Audio options.

You can pick other formats, personally I like AVI or Xvid, but the estimated size was 1.5gb even for the 320×240 resolution, and that’s a bit big for me, so we’ll just stick with the WMV format that is the default for the PPC profile.

Once you’ve got all of your settings straight just click ‘Start’ and the conversion process will begin, a window pops up and gives you a preview, along with status of the conversion process. You can also select options to shutdown the computer when finished and open the output folder.
So here’s some stats for you:

Time to convert: 28:27
Output Size: 815MB
CPU Usage:
Average: 41%
Peak: 55%

The software estimated the output size at 957MB, and the actual output size is 815Mb, so it’s smaller which is nicer, still though 815mb is rather large, but with the cost of SDHC cards coming down most people can afford larger capacity cards, so you’ll be able to fit a few movies on your card at this size.

The time to convert is pretty good as well, coming in under 30 minutes to convert a movie that’s over 2 hours long, that’s about the average time for most conversion software packages out there today. Yes some are quicker, and of course so do take longer, but 28 minutes isn’t bad really.

So it doesn’t matter how fast or how big the converted video is if it isn’t any good right? Well I threw the converted Stargate over to my phone and fired it up, quality was very good, and the audio was synced fine with the video. What more could you ask for? So Wondershare Video Converter Platinum works as it it should, it gives us a viewable movie that looks good and plays fine.

The cost of the software is about right, coming in at $35.00 it’s worth the cost in my opinion as it can do more than just convert to your PPC, you can use the software for most all of your video conversion needs.

If I had to rate this software I would give it a 4.5 out of 5 score, and I think I could recommend it as well to anyone looking for a program that’s very easy to use, but does offer the ability to customize your output files and convert to many formats.

Pros:
-Easy to use
-Convert to many formats
-Customizable settings
-Relatively fast conversion

Cons:
-Large output size

Free Download,Viewing and Video Converter Tools for Youtube, GoogleVideo, Yahoo Video…

In my last post I have mentioned that we have a bunch of really cool posts lined up such as video converter which can convert video really, I really meant it. And below is the first of them, it lists
a) different tools that let you download desired videos from popular video sharing websites(incl. youtube, googlevideo, metacafe, myspace, dailymotion…),
b) flash media players to view and manage these files on your desktop and
c) tools to convert these files from one format to another so that you can transfer video to your Ipod, PSP, Mobile phone and whatever portable device you want. Ooh, and most of these tools are free.

WEBSITES that let you download content from popular video sharing sites: here you simply enter video URL, select source website and press search. Once file detected you’re given direct file download link. Websites listed in no particular order. ‘extra’ refers to additional features available on the website .

Best Video Converter : Convert all video files including FLV video to various formats to meet different format requirements and for playback on most popular players including iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Zune, PSP, Pocket PC, Creative Zen, and Archos and so on.
Keepvid.com - extra: most popular section
VideoDownloader (Javi Moya) - same as above
Youtubex.com - extra: most popular section
Savetube.com - extra: latest saved videos section
Video to iPod Converter: Convert all kinds of video formats for Apple® iPod®, iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano players, powerful video editing functions: video trim, effect adjusting and partial conversion supported(shareware).
Youtubia.com
iPhone Video Converter :Support converting all popular video formats to iPhone 3G video and audio.
Video to Creative Zen Converter: Convert all video to Creative Zen ( includingAVI, MP4, MPEG, WMV, DAT, MOV, ASF and FLV, etc ) to Creative Zen AVI，WMV，MPEG(shareware). .
Clipnabber.com - extra: top videos from each video website by dates(last 7 days, last month,…)
Youtube Grabber
LeechVideo.com
Viloader.net
max.subfighter.com
wish.kuso.cc - Youtube / GoogleVideo
Videodl.org
GetVideo - downloads video (firefox)
DownloadHelper - downloads videos and images, incl. lots of cool features (firefox)
Ook? Video Ook! - firefox plugin to download videos (features include downloads queueing, auto-renaming and more…)
UnPlug - downloads video and audio (firefox)
VideoDownloader(by Javi moya) - download videos (firefox)
FastVideoDownload - fast video download(firefox plugin), works with downthemall (download manager/accelerator for firefox) and flashgot (browser plugin that integrates allmost any external download manager into your browser)
OrbThis - plugin for downloading videos to your mobile, works with Orb 2.0 freeware
Clipnabber - downloads video (firefox)
All In One Video Bookmarklet - downloads video (firefox, mozilla, opera browsers). Also lists a bunch of greasemonkey addons with similar features
Viloader.net - only video(IE, firefox and Opera)
Greasemonkey scripts - in case you have greasemonkey installed, check out these 2 addons (only for youtube and googlevideo)
LeechVideo - downloads video( firefox and IE), includes converter
PROGRAMS that you can install and use to download desired videos from video websites.
Youtube-Download - downloader + .integrated .flv player (share videos option)
Tubesucker - same here, downloader + .flv media player, basic version is free however there is also non-free version with awesome features(ex; unlimited simultaneuos downloads)
YoutubeGrabber - simple downloader
YouRipper - downloader + integrated ShoutCast Radio Player(so you can actually use it to listen to radio) and MovieZone (lists movies available for download from youtube, googlevideo, dailymotion and other major sites)
Downtube - downloader + mpeg converter.(english, spanish and portuguesse)
DownUtube - downloader + basic file manage options + search feature
Media Suite - downloader + VLC media player
Online Video Downloader - downloader with an option to save files as .avi OR .flv
VideoDetect - only download
OrbitDownloader - downloader with integrated download accelerator
TubeSock - downloads youtube videos and store them on iPod, Mac, PSP(PlayStation Portable) and iTunes. (MAC only)
Fireant - downloader + manager + flash player
Free FLASH MEDIA PLAYERS to play and manage downloaded videos from your desktop:
Riva FLV encoder - flash player(.flv) + video converter(to .flv)
FLV Player (by Martijn de Visser)
Z-Player
SWF.max - flash media(.flv, .swf) player with lots of features
Wimpy - cross platform (Mac and PC) flash video FLV player (.flv, .swf)
VLC media player - supports lots of formats including flash. Available for allmost any operating system
VIDEO CONVERTERS that you can use to convert(encode) video files from one format(ex; flash) to another (iPod, PSP, 3GP for mobile phone, etc)
Mediacoder - convert to and from any audio/video formats (avi, PSP, Ipod, mobile phone, PDA…etc)
Vixy - FLV converter - web based video converter from .flv to avi, mov(Mac), 3GP(mobile), MP4(ipod, PSP) and mp3 formats
Total Video Converter - convert video to popular formats(avi, mpg/mpeg,..) from allmost any other format, includes cool media player with lots of supported formats incl. flash
Video to PSP Converter: Provide a PSP Movie Manager to transfer files between PC and PSP.
SUPER - very good converter + media player.
LeechVideo - convert for Ipod, PSP and Cellphone
Podtube - encode videos for Ipod, includes ‘add to Itunes’option. (MAC only)
ffmpegX - integrates 20 powerful Unix open-source video and audio processing tools, including ffmpeg fast video and audio converter (MAC only)
Updates:
YoutTubeCrazyVideos - Free windows application bundle to enhance Youtube experience. Browse, search and play Youtube videos directly from your desktop. Download and convert videos to any popular format. Extract background music. And more …
(from:makeuseof.com)

Best Video Converter download free

Following are best free video converters:

Koyote: This tool can covert FLV, DIVX, AVI and other formats to an iPod video format. That means you can download YouTube videos and put them directly on your video iPod.

Video Converter Platinum: best video format converter that can convert your video files including FLV video to various formats to meet different format requirements and for playback on most popular players.

PSP Movie Manager: Transfer MPEG4 videos and movies to Sony PSP and export PSP MPEG4 videos located in your PSP to your computer

Video Converter for BlackBerry: A very powerful video to BlackBerry conversion application. It can convert any video formats to BlackBerry video with flexible settings and high conversion speed.

Videora: With Videora, you can convert pretty much any video file into an iPod format. The tool includes an auto-resize feature that chooses the best resolution for you.

VidDownloader: This simple tool allows users to save streaming video and convert then to DivX AVIs.

Video to iPod Converter: An excellent solution for iPod users to convert video to iPod video and audio formats for iPod classic, iPod touch and iPod nano.

Avi2Dvd: Avi2Dvd is a freeware program that converts AVI files to a format that works for DVDs, VCDs, and SVCDs.

Video to iRiver Converter: Professional video to iRiver converter application that can convert regular video formats to iRiver WMV for playback all types of iRiver players.

iSquint: Mac iPod users who want a way to convert videos to something that works for their device will be happy to find iSquint. This tool converts videos to the correct format and also optimizes their resolution.

Tube Sock: Tube Sock is for Mac OSX users who want to download, convert, and copy YouTube videos to their iPod, Mac, or PSP.

Video to Zune Converter: Perfect solution for Zune users who want to put their regular video files on Zune players.

Grand Theft Auto Mission Converter: Use the Grand Theft Auto Mission Converter to convert GTA1’s INI mission to GTA2’s .MIS mission.

Mplayer: Mplayer is an open-source video player, but it also has an interface called mencoder that allows users to convert between lots of formats, including TiVo’s tystream.

Lathe: With Lathe, you can convert TiVo files to play on a variety of media devices, including Archos, PDAs, smartphones, and more.

Hey!Watch: You can upload videos from your hard drive or online video sites to Hey!Watch, then use the tool to convert the files to pretty much any format you’d like.

PodTube: Mac YouTube enthusiasts will love the convenience of PodTube. It allows users to point to a URL, then let the program get to work by downloading, converting and adding the file to your iTunes library.

iTube: iTube is just like PodTube, but it’s made for Windows users.

HandBrake: HandBrake is a free, open source application that rips DVDs to a number of different formats, including those supported by Apple TV, PS3, Quicktime, and more.

MediaCoder: MediaCoder is a batch media transcoder. It can be used to convert to and from different formats as well as compress files.