Few things are more irritating than having to deal with a format that is incompatible with what you need it to do. You have to distribute your video for various outlets and it doesn’t matter if it’s a media file, an audio file or both; it’s just plain frustrating. To make your life easier, we compiled a big list of tools that will allow you to convert just about any media file.

There are lots of specialized tools out there, but sometimes you just need one good tool to get the job done. These mega tools are great for general conversions. We have bunches more listed in the Premium area of our website

Video Conversion for the Mac

1. 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.
2. Tube Sock: Tube Sock is for Mac OSX users who want to download, convert, and copy YouTube videos to their iPod, Mac, or PSP.
3. 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.
4. Video Converter for Mac is powerful versatile video and audio conversion software for Mac users specially. It can convert between almost all video and audio formats like MOV, AVI, WMV, MPEG1/2/4, 3GP, ASF, MP4, MP2, MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, M4A, WAV and AC3 etc.
5. Xilisoft Video Converter for Mac- can be Mac users’ dream tool to convert among multiform video and audio files like AVI, MPEG, WMV, DivX, MP4, H.264/AVC, RM, MOV, MP2, MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, M4A, WAV and AC3. Also batch capturing pictures from videos and creating video from pictures are both available.
6. MPEG Streamclip - You can use MPEG Streamclip to: open most movie formats including MPEG files or transport streams; play them at full screen; edit them with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Trim; set In/Out points and convert them into muxed or demuxed files, or export them to QuickTime, AVI, DV and MPEG-4 files with more than professional quality, so you can easily import them in Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Toast 6, 7, 8, and use them with many other applications or devices.
   Supported input formats: MPEG, VOB, PS, M2P, MOD, VRO, DAT, MOV, DV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AUD, AVR, VDR, PVR, TP0, TOD, M2V, M1V, MPV, AIFF, M1A, MP2, MPA, AC3, …
7. ImTOO Video Converter for Mac is a versatile Mac video converter to convert video on Mac, such as AVI, WMV ASF, MPEG1/2/4, 3GP, MP4, MOV, iPod video, Apple TV video, and PSP movie, even High-Definition video. The Mac video converter also acts as an audio converter to convert audio formats among MP3, WMA, WAV, AC3, OGG, etc., swiftly and perfectly on your Mac OS X.
8. Perian - not really a converter but if you have a bunch of Flash video files that you would like to play, but don’t have a Flash Video player, Perian is a free download app that installs as a preference in Mac OSX so that you can play FLVs inside of the Quicktime Player and save them into any format you like. This video shows you how
9. Visual Hub -Visual Hub is the nearest Mac users can get to the fantastic Windows-only Super. Providing an incredibly easy-to-use, super-speedy solution to quickly encoding your videos, it also has extensive advanced options for those who want to go beyond the presets. Visual Hub manages to outperform Quicktime Pro in terms of both speed and the formats it will comfortably process.
10. MPlayer This Mac front-end to the popular cross-platform MPlayer gives you an easy-to-use graphical interface for the quick conversion of your video files in a number of popular formats

Video Conversion for the PC

1. 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.
2. MediaCell Blackberry Video Converter: If you want to view videos on your Blackberry, check out this tool. It converts all popular video files to Blackberry video while maintaining a high standard of quality.
3. 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.
4. VidDownloader: This simple tool allows users to save streaming video and convert then to DivX AVIs.
5. Avi2Dvd: Avi2Dvd is a freeware program that converts AVI files to a format that works for DVDs, VCDs, and SVCDs.
6. Any Video Converter: Using AVC, you can convert any video format to any other video format. The tool supports AVI, DIVX, FLV and more. You can create custom profiles that for devices like the iPod and PSP.
8. SUPER: This aptly-named tool offers a simple and efficient way to convert any multimedia file to any format you need. You won’t need to download any additional codecs or deal with any time or function limitations.
9. Gearshift: GearShift can convert your m2t files to proxy and CineForm at the same time, which is very useful for slower machines. If you have a fast machine then you might find the CineForm-only workflow to be satisfactory.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. iTube: iTube is just like PodTube, but it’s made for Windows users.
13. MediaCoder: MediaCoder is a batch media transcoder. It can be used to convert to and from different formats as well as compress files.

Online Converters for Everyone

We like the idea of not having to buy or installing anything on our computer!

1. Vixy This service allows you convert a Flash Video / FLV file (YouTube’s videos,etc) to MPEG4 (AVI/MOV/MP4/MP3/3GP) file online. It is using a compressed domain transcoder technology (outline in Japanese). It converts FLV to MPEG4 faster and less lossy than a typical transcoder.
2. Zamzar: Zamzar does all sorts of conversions, ranging from documents and images to music and video. In addition to its versatility, this tool boasts the ability to do all of your conversions without downloading software.
3. Media Convert: This tool is another great all-around converter. It can take files from your computer or a webserver and convert them into pretty much any format. The tool is web based and full of versatility.
4. Media Converter Multi-file type converter and splitter supporting video, sound, ringtones, images and documents: not just of popular audio / video files such as mp3, wmv, 3gp, flv, swf, mov, avi, mpg, mp4, divx, ipod, psp and ogg but also picture formats like jpg, psd, doc, pdf, rtf, txt, odg and even abandoned formats as WordPerfect (…?). Check File mode, click Browse, choose the file and hope for auto-detection to work. If auto-detection fails, select input format and output format, submit the form. To convert a file from the Internet check URL mode, enter the file URL, select input and output format and go.
5. 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.
6. Movavi - Free Online Video Converter. No software to install. No ads to interrupt.
7. VideoCodeZone - Convert Flash video files from Youtube, MySpace, Google Videos, IFilm, Break, Dailymotion and Metacafe to popular formats and download them to your computer. Copy and paste the URL of the video, select the output format and click Convert/Download. To convert local Flash video files select the file and click Convert/Download.
8. Mux - With a somewhat over-texted design but still simple and easy to use interface Mux is a new beta service allowing you to convert media files from major player websites such as youtube, dailymotion and google and download to your computer. Here you can also share it privately with friends & family or send it to your mobile phone.
9. Convert Direct - Online flv converter for Flash video files such as those used by Youtube. Supported output formats include avi, 3gp, mp3, mp4, wmv, mpeg, mov and psp. You can watch your vids on PC, iPod, Zune, PSP and various mobile phones.
10. FlvIX- Youtube Google Video dedicated online flv converter. Flvix comes from the folks who do Pingoblog, a cool ping service for bloggers. Very simple yet efficient interface. Converts Youtube and Google videos and serves them for download in avi, mov, mp4, 3gp and mp3 formats for PC, Mobile phones, iPod and PSP.
11. All2Convert - Online video converter. Copy video link, paste it in the URL video box, choose video format and press Convert. Wait for your converted video link to show up and download. Supports 3gp mobile phone format as well as iPhone and Zune videos, iPod, PSP and popular PC formats as dvd, mov, mp4, vob, rm and wmv.
12. Convert Tube - Youtube dedicated online flv converter. Allows you to convert Flash video files as used by YouTube to popular PC, iPod, PSP, iPhone and mobile phone formats such as wmv, mov, mp4, mp3 and 3gp. Same as Vixy, this service also claims to be doing its job faster and less lossy than a typical video transcoder.
13. You Convert It - Convert any Youtube and other Online Video to popular formats.
14. Mux.am - Here is an online video conversion service that supports “mobilizing” your video content to .3gp and .mp4 formats. Unfortunately, no .flv (yet)! … however, I imagine it wouldn’t be hard to add, and they really should get on that, don’t you think? One cool feature … it conveniently sends you an SMS once the conversion process is done, and your mobilized video is completed, so you can view it from your supported mobile device (which is a majority of devices these days that can playback .3gp and .mp4).

Audio Converters

If you use an MP3 player, download movies, or even just rip CDs, there’s a good chance you’ve had to deal with the frustration of having a format that’s incompatible with your device or software. These tools will make it all better.

1. Audacity: Audacity is a great tool that can be used to convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs. Check out their site to see what else this audio powerhouse can do.
2. RM to MP3 Converter: If you’ve got a bunch of Real Media files, but want to be able to listen to them on other players, check out this tool. It will convert RM files to MP3s individually or in batches. You can even save them with space-efficient VBR.
3. OSS Audio Converter: This tool is an audio format converter with a high level of customization. Using the OSS Audio Converter, you can select the coding method for VBR compression, fine-tune settings, and choose a range of frequencies to filter.
4. All Converter: Use All Converter to switch your files between popular formats like MP3, APE, AAC and many more. Files can be converted in batches, even if they’re not the same media or convert-to type.
5. Audio Converter: Audio Converter has lots of formats for conversion, including AIFF, Vorbis OFF, MP3 and more. You can convert files one by one or do them in batches, all while editing options like volume normalization and silence removal.
6. Intelliscore Polyphonic WAV to MIDI Converter: With IntelliScore, you can convert MP3, WAV, and WMA files to MIDI. It has lots of additional features, like vocal track removal and sheet music.
7. Free WMA to MP3 Converter: With this tool, you can take any Windows Media file and turn it into an MP3 that can be used with a variety of different players.
8. Zune Multi-Extension Support Mod: With this hack, Zune users can covert formats that the player doesn’t normally recognize, like AAC, DVR-MS and MPEG.
9. FreeRIP: This freeware application allows users to convert files between MP3, FLAC, WAV and more.
10. dBpoweramp Music Converter: The dBpoweramp can be used to rip CDs and convert audio files to pretty much any format you might need. This can all be done without altering tags.
11. Acoustica MP3 to Wave Converter Plus: Acoustica’s converter makes it easy to convert MP3 files to WAVs so that you can create custom CDs or edit audio.
12. Direct Audio Converter and CD Ripper: Music lovers can use this tool to convert music files to popular formats while keeping folder structures and tags intact.
13. VidToMP3 is a brand new site that allows you to download the audio from none-copyrighted video clips on video sites! We support all of your favorites, Myspace, Youtube, Google video and more. Remember to bookmark our Video to Sound converter for all your vid to mp3 needs!

Did we miss out on any? What do you use? Leave it in the comments section below.

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