Any good Video Converter out there?

[Berryracer]

I have Nero 11 which has Nero Recode built into it.

I tried converting a 1.9 GB MP4 video to WMV to make the size smaller at the same quality but upon choosing best or good quality in Nero Recode, the size jumped up to 3.9 GB and 3.5 GB

I then tried converting it using DVDVideoSoft Free Studio v5.6.3.723 and while the size was a little smaller, the quality was not good if you looked closely in the video you would notice there are some squares.

Is there an easy to use video converter that can change between various formats at the same quality as the source video?

 

[lxskllr]

You'll always lose quality when you reduce size/switch to a different lossy format. I don't fool with video much, so maybe someone else can help, but degradation should be expected.

 

[dinker99]

I use Mediacoder, you can set it for the same bit rate as the input file.

 

[Berryracer]

I use Mediacoder, you can set it for the same bit rate as the input file.

Thanks dude, ill try that

 

[bruceb]

Convertxtodvd is good (but it is a paid program)

Super is decent (free)

 

[shadow_k]

MP4 is one of the lowest file size format. Don't bother to convert it you will lose a lot of quality

 

[MontyAC]

You can do a MP4 to MKV. Often times the MKV file is smaller than the MP4 one. I use HandBrake to convert.

 

[Gooberlx2]

You can do a MP4 to MKV. Often times the MKV file is smaller than the MP4 one. I use HandBrake to convert.

MP4 and MKV will use the same h.264 codec, but one can certainly compress the file down with Handbrake.

I'll definitely suggest Handbrake as well, OP. Just set a target file size and let Handbrake do the rest. You can even keep your mp4 container for best compatibility with devices.

 

[bbhaag]

Handbrake is good. I use it to encode all my videos. If you really want to convert to wmv give Freemake a try.
Don't let Freemake decide the quality for you or the file size will balloon up really bad. Use the advanced options to set the bitrate so you can get a better file size.

 

[MontyAC]

For the same quality wmv are always larger than mp4 or mkv files. So, he's going to have to settle for larger files for wmv.

 

[bbhaag]

I know, I was just giving him some alternative options. I agree with you and goober. Using Handbrake to go from mp4 to mkv is the best solution. The question is does the OPs hardware support the playback of mkv files? After all he does want to go from mp4 to wmv.

 

[omarm992]

I highly recommend TMPGenc Encoder. Great video format converter

 

[Kerry56]

Handbrake and Ripbot264 are both good for conversion to mkv using H264 codec. This is the format I would most recommend.

If you need to go from avi/mp4/mkv files to dvd video, I'd recommend a free tool called AVStoDVD. http://www.videohelp.com/tools/AVStoDVD

And if you are starting with blu ray video and need to compress to smaller sizes, or convert to mkv or even convert to dvd-video, BD Rebuilder is a great tool.

 

[Diogenes2]

This was brought up in another thread:

http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/

The testing I did on a few files across several formats produced very nice results.

It offers a lot of formats, quality and resolution options..

 

[Auric]

ConvertXtoDVD is great if that's what you need to do. For everything else, I would likewise recommend Handbrake but if editing or other formats are necessary then the inappropriately named Avidemux.

 

[TheRyuu]

After reading the thread maybe it's time for a bit of a refresher on containers and codecs.

There are containers and there are codecs. Files which are encoded with the latter are often put in the former. In the OP's case the 1.9GB file is likely h264 video stored inside the mp4 container. This could just as well be stored inside a matroska file (mkv) as well.

If we wanted to simply switch the container we could just remux it. With mkvtoolnix we can simply drag the mp4 file into the input section of mmg (mkvmerge gui), hit start, and we get our matroskaified output.

Changing the codec or re-encoding to the same one (to make it smaller) is what's going to cost you those cpu cycles. If you're re-encoding something (which is already h264) there should be a reason why (e.g. you NEED to make it smaller to fit somewhere, you NEED to encode using a specific level/profile/vbv to target a device or BD player, etc). Just keep in mind that it's a forgone conclusion that if you're doing this the output is never going to be as good as the input since our input is lossy hence the various appropriate reasons why it may still be a good idea.

As for the tools, provided you want to target h264 (which you do) you'll want to use x264 (handbreak does) either through a gui which isn't stupid (probably handbreak) or just straight up use x264 directly through cli. The various x264 builds will by default use ffms2 (ffmpegsource) which can take your mp4 input file directly.

If using the cli directly you should check out:

x264 --help

You should be using the preset system and unless you ABSOLUTELY have to hit a specific size you should be using constant quality (crf) mode. If you have to hit a specific size then use 2 pass. Two encodes which have the same output bitrate where one is encoded with 2pass and the other crf should be identical.

x264 --crf 21 --preset slow -o output.mkv input.mp4

Output can be mkv, mp4, or a raw h264 bitstream (you'll want mkv or mp4). If doing it through this method you'll have to handle the audio seperately which can be accomplished by simply remuxing the (likely) aac audio from the original mp4 (e.g. mmg).

 

[Diogenes2]

OP:

I tried converting a 1.9 GB MP4 video to WMV...

They are (re-)encoding ...

The tools mentioned do a great job with a simple GUI ...

 

[AkumaX]

any reason why you'd want to go to wmv?

 

[TheRyuu]

any reason why you'd want to go to wmv?

Out of the OP I sort of just got "well that's sort of what I tried and it didn't work out so well." But yea, it's sort of an important question that I didn't ask in my previous post (but I guess I alluded to various reasons for doing it).

What's the end goal here?

 

[Diogenes2]

The OP thought wmv would be smaller than mp4, and wanted same quality ..

I think one could get similar quality and smaller file by using Handbrake and VBR . but it would depend on how the original mp4 was encoded.

But usually, any significantly smaller file = lower quality..