Anything better/faster than WinAVI?

I'm on a lookout for an all-in-one video converter tool (prefer freeware). I would be using it mainly to convert videos to 3gp, mp4, dvd and psp formats. Back in 2006 I purchased WinAVI Video Converter and had been very pleased with it speed and performance. However WinAVI does not work properly with Vista and 8 out of 10 times it either freezes, hanged or just stop responding. I had already tried it with the Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode but it poses another problem (flv video got converted but without any sound). I had already tested format factory (freeware), Any Video Converter (freeware) and Xilisoft Video Converter (trial) but none came close to the speed of WinAVI. My main concern is speed over performance. WinAVI seems to be at least 2 times faster than its next nearest rival.

 

Try Handbrake. Seems to run pretty well for me, and it will use multiple cores.

 

I tried converting a 700MB avi file into mp4 (IPOD video format) and it took nearly 28 minutes using Handbrake whereas WinAVI took a mere 7 minutes. I also tested the quality of both conversions and they were near identical. Handbrake didn't work as well for me but thanks anyway .

 

I still use WinDVD in Vista32 it does crash and give a blank preview, but it works, I also use ConvertXtoDVD it`s very good and fast but it`s not free.

I have tried all the free ones and they take far to long to convert, and are a pain to setup.

 

All the converters should be the same speed more or less if they are using the same codec I would think.

What may bring them apart is the actual settings that the program is using for the codec.

Higher quality encode settings are slower but probably worth it.

Handbrake is good, but it didnt work for some input types for me and it had a rather limited calculation function and it was the only encoder I ever saw that did not use offical CRF factor numbers and instead some oddball % of quality slider.

If you do use handbrake here is a tool set I made for it :

http://rapidshare.com/files/188032764/HandBrake_Tools.xlsm

It made up for some of the shortcommings I found in the program and it will help you understand CRF if you ever move to a different encoder.

I think the strongest encoder bar none is MeGUI as it has the most support and its incredibly up to date. Its basicly moving side by side with x264. It supports everything and is easy to use while giving you full control over all the advanced stuff.

If you want to get serious about this stuff, bookmark this page:
http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings

Also you may want to google for some other x264 guides, there is a lot to know about that encoder.

MeGUI lets you import many presets though so you dont need to know anything to get started. StaxRip is like the brother to HandBrake, I feel it covered all the shortcommings of Handbrake but yet also had a few of its own as it tries to be too easy to use, now allowing me to manually control some of the things I would have wanted.

Avidemux is one to try also because of all of them its the only one I know with a built in editor so you can cut off credits/intros and things like that. Or just render a short portion of your clip to test some render settings. AviDemux was my favorite until it broke on me one day, and then MeGUI took over.

 

How fast are WinDVD and ConvertXtoDVD? WinAVI for instance could convert a 700 MB avi file to mp4 in less than 7 minutes or just over 15 minutes to DVD. Conversion speed is my main priority and if any of the 2 programs you mentioned are as fast as WinAVI and compatible with Vista, I don't mind paying .

 

I'm just doing some simple video conversion and nothing complicated . I own an IPOD Video, a PSP and a cell phone. I usually convert videos to these formats and occasionally to DVD. Quality is not really my main concern but rather the speed. WInAVI seems to be the fastest (at least 2-4 times) but unfortunately it's not really compatible with Vista. Anyway thanks for your inputs .

 

It depends entirely on how you twiddle your settings. You can make things go fast as heck if you want, but you'll lose some quality then. Heck, just doing a single pass instead of two will take 25% off of your encoding time. That's probably part of what WinAVI does. Handbrake also defaults to H.264, so you could change the codec to MPEG-4/AAC and that would speed it up a lot, too, at the expense of file size. Really, Handbrake is not significantly slower at doing the same thing as any proprietary app. You just have to make sure it's doing the same thing.

 

ConvertXtoDVD only converts to DVD not mp4, but in converting an AVI to DVD , WinAvi is still faster, but i like ConvertXtoDVD ability to boost the audio when mking a DVD from a quiet file.

 

I didn't really mess with the settings on WinAVI or Handbrake (I guess everything is at default). As I had mentioned earlier, the quality are near identical. I even hooked up my IPOD to a 24 inch LCD TV and still couldn't tell the difference in video quality. I will try twiddling with the Handbrake's settings and see whether it helps with the conversion time. Thanks .

 

Yeah single pass saves time and thats why I took the time to make a tool for handbrake so I could use CRF encoding, its 99% as good as a ABR 2 pass encode in most cases but with just 1 pass, also its easier to pick a CRF you want than it is to know what ABR to use unless your doing a conversion you have done before and already know that number.

H264 is fast if you cut out some of the more advanced options.

My favorite Xvid encoder is AutoGK for the reason its so freakin simple and it has never failed me ever, its worked on every file without fail and produced perfect results, but I will never use anything but H264 & AAC until something better comes along.

 

does handbrake support pause function during encoding?

 

I have not used it in a while, I know it has the usual "low priority" for cpu so if your doing other things while encoding it wont eat all your cpu up allowing you to do other stuff while its working.

I can comfortably play a pc game while encoding if I wanted too.

 

I wonder why nobody here mentioned FormatFactory. It can convert all the popular video formats into all popular video formats; for example AVI to MP4/MKV/3GP/PSP AND vice versa! Plus, it's free! Download it at www.formatoz.com.

 

I encode videos on my netbook (Acer Aspire One) so even at low priority will almost lag my netbook. If I could reserve 60% cpu ussage (including the hyperthreaded core) as an idle process, that would work. I encode when I'm asleep and pause the encoding when I wake up in the morning.

 

id never dream of encoding on my little EEE its almost the same as your aspire one.

I hate even encoding on my old dual core laptop. I use my quad desktop or new quad laptop now.

 

Encoding on my netbook is actually not that slow. It's about 1/25 the speed of my quadcore desktop, but it doesn't use as much energy.My quadcore 2.2ghz, 4gig ram, 250+599gb hdds uses about 25w idle and 75w at full speed. where as my netbook consumes around 10w at full speed.

Encoding with quadcore would be too fast for me since I can't download movie fast enough even though I can download atleast 20Mbit/s through torrent. I have lots of time to spare when i'm sleeping and my netbook can encode the videos when i'm not using it.

 

Well atleast your making good use of it!

I use my EEE pretty often, as I am right now it was a good investment. Resolution is a big limiting factor thats why I do not video/photo edit on it.

 

i think winavi is the fastest for single file conversion but.....when i use winavi it crashes from time to time where as convert x dvd may take a bit longer but never crashes and can combine files alot better then winavi so for fastest i would say winavi but most stable convert x plus it also does more formats

 

My version of convert x dvd cannot join video file , maybe new versions can, but i know WinAvi can.

 

Anyone here uses Total Video Converter or Format Factory?

Maybe we can hear a little bit on that.

 

Yes. I typically use it under Linux so I don't even worry about it (multitasking actually works pretty well under Linux), but I know the button is there.