OT - Excellent video file (avi mpeg etc) conversion utility

You perhaps need VLC, the best free media player, plays anything you throw at it.

In article , Dave Baker writes

Thanks for the tip, a universal converter is the holy grail. I have downloaded it but there are some worrying aspects to the product, the organisation and website:

No version numbers available for any of the on-site software

Identity hidden behind GoDaddy, eventually resolving to DNS in China

No information provided about who is behind the organisation

It may be a gem but use with caution.

In article , mick writes

Will it run on my DVD player or hard drive media player?

I do use VLC and have done for many years but a 733 mHz Pentium won't play anything as modern as H264 or X264 because it's too fricking slow. It will play it but it's jerky and the video cuts out to the point it's unwatchable. You fancy rich guys with your 3000mHz AMD's won't be bothered by this but us paupers can only play Xvids and Mpegs properly.

The converter solves this.

No caution required. It does exactly what it says on the tin. Try it and then come back to us.

But the converter will trade off a slow CPU for a (temporary) chunk of disk space, and the time taken to do the conversion.

There is another free one here

OK, I understand, have you checked your lottery numbers yet, there is a few quillian quid going spare from last night, enough to buy you a new 'puter and treat us all in here. :-)

In article , Dave Baker writes

I didn't say it didn't work, I said it's sensible to be cautious of an anonymous Chinese outfit that's cagey about origins and code.

As does a video card with hardware assistance, i.e. almost anything new. Some will even run video conversion on the graphics units to speed up slow PCs.

I hate to say this, but that reply suggests you are easy virus fodder. Your man there has given you very, very good advice. Take it.

The fact that it does what is says it does, does NOT mean it is not happily raiding your personal data and sending back to, well, any one. This is precicely how people have their identity stolen.

FWIW, CNET didn't find a spyware in it:

I built two HTPCs from cheap second-hand office PCs with low end Radeon 9250 PCI and 4350 PCI-E video cards which are adequate to drive US HDTVs. An older single-core 3GHz P4 CPU has had plenty of power so far. A 2.2GHz was marginal.

jsw

I think the issue is what it might be doing that it DOESN'T say on the tin.

A serious concern. I thoroughly investigate the source of unexpected Internet access requests when the line is disconnected.

jsw

a better graphics car would probably make more difference than a better CPU.

Playing a linux game, I went from 3 FPS to 60 FPS for the cost of a 30 quid Nvidia card.

Actually one of the best motherboards around in terms of bang for the buck is Intels ATOM based one. I reckon it pays for itself in a couple of years on electricity savings,..

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Baker" saying something like:

SUPER is good, too.

An open source GUI for open source codecs:-

Very versatile and easy to use.

Seconded, but be aware it needs a cookie to install, which can be deleted afterwards. It's also a good idea to block it from your network using your firwall, as it likes to phone home just to check that it can. Blocking it has no effect on function that I've noticed. It's also totally open source, being a script based GUI which accesses an open source codec pack.

In article , John Williamson writes

The last version I used (02/05/10) placed it's own 'advert'[1] in the user data section of the created output file which I wasn't too keen on. That may bother some but not others.