I regularly meet with faculty who need to convert their videos from one format to another (e.g., they might have old wmv files that certain users can’t access). While I often start by recommending using a tool like YouTube (e.g., for its ease of use and the public / sharing nature of the tool) to convert videos into an accessible format, faculty often have a number of reasons why they don’t want to use YouTube (which perhaps the best reason is that their video is longer than 15 minutes long).

For some time I was recommending that faculty use either Handbrake or Hamster. While  both of these tools have their benefits (e.g., Handbrake offers a ton of options and Hamster has a nice user friendly interface), I found over time that Handbrake was a bit too technical for some faculty and Hamster didn’t offer enough formats in their basic menu. So I began looking at  other (ideally free or very inexpensive) options and these are some that I have come across. Please comment on your experience using any of these video converters.

Real Player Converter for Windows
http://www.realplayerconvertermac.com/real-player-converter-windows.html

AVS Video Converter
http://www.avs4you.com/

Any Video Converter
http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

Prism Video Converter
http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/index.html

Squared 5
http://www.squared5.com/

Zamzar
http://www.zamzar.com/

Media Converter
http://media-converter.sourceforge.net/