Where possible, I will try to include filenames for the latest (as of this document) versions of the programs. Since links always fail eventually, filenames allow searching through FTP Search Engines even after the original authors or companies shut down their websites or remove the files from official circulation. Where filenames or links are not available, it will unfortunately be necessary to use your favorite search engine to track down copies of these programs. Links to the archives themselves, when available, will be under the "Archive Name" section. Links to web pages, when available, will be under "Program Name."
This document is updated very infrequently.
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| Program Name |
Archive Name |
Converts Between |
Comments |
| Multimedia Conversion Library | N/A |
Anything to anything. |
Not an actual program, but a conversion library (for C++, VB, Delphi, etc.) that allows programmers to get multimedia data from format A to format B. |
| AVI2MPG | AVI2MPG1.ZIP | AVI to MPG | Can convert AVIs with or without audio. Includes support for changing framerates and gives a lot of control over the process. A little technical to use for a beginner. Efficient file sizes, but slow encoding and noticed some bugs on high-color AVIs. A 32-bit Windows console program (it acts like DOS but requires Windows higher than 3.1), but his web page has a link to an interface to use with it. |
| IrfanView | iview302.zip | Still to still. | Can play most standard movies (MPG included) and edit a massive number of still image formats - more than many commercial programs - as well as extract icons from EXE/DLL files. Includes a good number of different still effects (oil paint, emboss, etc) and excellent resampled resizing functions. Also has powerful batch conversion capabilities for modifying multiple image files at once (changing their size, contrast, applying filters, etc) so an entire still image sequence can be edited. A popular utility. |
| Fast Movie Processor | FMP144.EXE | Imports most standard movie and still formats and exports to same. | Imports a whole bunch of different formats (still and movie) and includes 30 different image processing functions as well (blur, emboss, etc). Can import movies or stills and output a series of single frames or a movie. Doesn't support MPEG. |
| RealProducer | N/A |
AVI to RM MOV to RM (opt.) |
If you have QuickTime installed on your system, it can convert MOV files as well as AVIs. Although RealMedia is not really standard, it is still used commonly on the Internet. Excellent, professionally-written encoder. Works with audio and video. Amazing compression rates (even better than MPG), but will severely reduce the quality of your video. |
| Microsoft VidEdit | Possibly available as VIDEDIT.ZIP |
DIB to AVI FLI to AVI FLC to AVI |
An old program, but still good. Allows you to load and save AVI, DIB, FLI, and FLC files with different AVI codecs. Has some simple editing tools like changing frame rate, and adding and synchronizing sound. From what I read, if you have Microsoft's drivers installed it comes with a program that's supposed to allow you to capture video playing in any window! Could come in handy. Can also capture single frames of movies. Don't know how long this will be around for, and no idea where to find it on Microsoft's maze of a website. |
| MainActor | ma205w95.zip |
Anything to Anything! |
Very powerful conversion program. Allows you to work on a frame-by-frame basis, cutting and pasting and slicing and dicing. Allows you to load and save AVI, MPG, BMP, DL, FLI, FLC, GIF, IFF, ANM, PCX, MOV, TGA, and WAV. You can save series of images from animation files and vice versa. June 2, 2004 This software seems to have been upgraded greatly since the original entry, but can still be found at the MainConcept website. |
| Dave's Targa Animator | dta227.zip | TGA to FLI | An apparently old but famous animator which creates a FLI file out of a series of TGAs. Also has a lot of other features, but only for FLI which is a rather antiquated format. Can be found easily on the Internet with a search engine. Not sure about the homepage. |
| Bink | N/A |
To and from still:
BMP, GIF, JPG, TGA, TIF, PCX, PNG To and from movie: AVI, QT, FLC, BIK |
A good stand-alone conversion program, it can create and extract movies from stills or other movies. This program is mainly meant to create "Bink" files. On the plus side, Bink files are very compressed, comparatively lossless, and they play quickly. On the other hand, they take a while to encode (about the same as using an MPG compressor), and because the format is non-standard they require a special Bink player (which, so far as I know, is only made by this one company). |
| Video for DOS (VFD) | vfd16g.zip |
BMP to FLI/AVI TGA to FLI/AVI GIF to FLI/AVI PCX to FLI/AVI (others) |
A DOS program for converting a series of bitmapped images to FLI or AVI format. Shareware version only allows up to 256 colors. No web page listed in documentation. |
| DMPEG / RawRip | convmpg3.zip |
MPG to RAW MPG to TGA |
These two files can work together. DMPEG takes an MPEG and creates a series of RAW bitmapped files from it. RawRip can then convert these to TGAs. Could be used to get images from an MPEG file or to decode an MPEG, edit it, and re-encode it with a program which can convert TGA to MPG or AVI. No web page for RawRip listed in documentation. For DOS. |
| CMPEG | convmpg3.zip |
PPM to MPG TGA to MPG RAW to MPG |
Convert a series of images to MPG format. Gives good control over advanced encoding options. For DOS. Archive includes DMPEG and RawRip (see above). |
| BMP2AVI | bmp2avi.zip |
BMP to AVI TGA to AVI |
Convert a series of images (high color included) to AVI format. A 32-bit console application; runs like a DOS program but requires Windows '95, NT, or higher. Works fairly well. Web page supposedly has an interface (GUI) to use with it. |
| Xing MPEG Encoder | N/A |
AVI to MPG MOV to MPG |
Basically any movie format Windows supports can be loaded into this encoder (MOV only if you have QuickTime installed). You can also load and re-encode MPEGs with it. Doesn't give much control of the encoding process and produced MPEGs are rather large. On the plus side, it's much faster than other encoders and it's hard to make a bad MPEG with it. Nice interface. Supports audio. A commercial program; shareware version does maximum of 30 seconds encoding. |
|
Video Fun (Alternate site.) |
N/A |
MPG to Still AVI to Still |
Can capture single frames from MPGs and AVIs (possibly MOVs). Has quite a few effects which can be applied, including picture averaging (combining two or more frames to create a motion-blurred image, for example) and some standard Photoshop-like effects. Has severe interface problems on Windows '95, very difficult to navigate the windows and such. In fact, you have to learn the trick behind frame capturing if you want that to work, too. If you don't know where to click, you may think the program has crashed! Loads and saves in many still-image formats. |
| Animation Shop | N/A | Still to GIF | Every still image format supported by Paint Shop Pro (made by the same company) can be converted to an animated GIF. Excellent program with a few transition and other special effects as well. Quite easy to use. The transparency is a little difficult if you don't use their "wizard" to create your animation. Good GIF optimization. |
| GIF Construction Set | N/A | AVI to GIF | A more advanced GIF editor which can be used to animate GIFs and convert AVI files to animated GIFs. Doesn't support any still-image formats except GIF. I find it a bit difficult and tedious to use, especially on animations with a large number of frames. It gives much more control over the resulting animation because it's meant to work with GIFs only, but requires more technical knowledge than usual. Good GIF optimization. |
| QuickEditor | N/A |
MOV to MOV AVI to MOV |
More of a movie editor, this is an easy-to-use movie and clip editor which allows you to piece together clips with different transitions, effects, and sound. Excellent set of transition effects (crossfade, wipes, etc). Can record sound or load a few different formats. Has an interesting effect for making your movies look like old black-and-white films with hairs and scratches. Has some text-addition ability as well. |
|
SmartVid (Alternate) |
SMARTV.EXE |
MOV to AVI AVI to MOV |
Converts between those formats...and that's it. Slightly old and buggy. Archive comes with a DOS and Windows 3.1 version. Made by Intel. Be sure to read INSTALL.TXT after getting this (it has the password!). |