video downloader converter reviews free Freemake Video Converter review. If you're using a different video encoding tool, try Freemake and be converted. By Cat Ellis 10 January 2018. Our Verdict. Converting media files can be a tricky process, but Freemake Video Downloader makes it a piece of cake thanks to its well designed interface and convenient presets. No specialist knowledge required Ready-made output profiles for different devices No ads. Against. Some features must be activated using a Web Pack after three days. FreeMake Video Converter is enormously popular, with over 93 million users, and until recently it was easy to see why. Its name implies that it only encodes videos in different formats – and it does that very well – but it's also capable converting audio files and images, and ripping video from DVDs. Freemake Video Converter provides a good selection of output options, including AVI, WMV, MPG and MP4. It can also burn videos to DVD or Blu-ray, and has preset profile for games consoles, smartphones and tablets. You can even export the video straight to YouTube (if you need even more tools, take a look at our roundup of the best free video editors). Note that when you first install Freemake Video Converter, some features (including converting YouTube videos) will be locked. After three days you'll receive a free Web Pack as a gift, which will lift this restriction. Look out for a notification in the System Tray to see when the Web Pack is available. User experience. To convert a file from your PC or a DVD, simply select the appropriate button from the list along the top, then pick an output format from the list at the bottom. Options include. You'll then be prompted to choose a few settings to ensure the converted file is the necessary quality. You'll be offered a set of handy presets that you can adjust manually if necessary, with options including frame size, video and audio codecs, bitrate and sample rate. Before converting your file, you can use Freemake Video Converter's simple cutting tool to make a few small edits, avoiding the need for a separate video editor tool. It's all extremely easy to use, and no specialist knowledge is required. The only real downside is the need to wait three days for the free Web Pack to unlock all of the advanced features, but if you can live with that, you'll be hard pressed to find a more straightforward and convenient video downloader and converter. Freemake Video Converter review. Freemake Video Converter is a comprehensive package, but one that hides features behind paywalls. By Ian Evenden 09 March 2020. Our Verdict. Freemake Video Converter bundles ripping with all sorts of transcoding tools to make a comprehensive package. However, despite being advertised as freeware, it walls off some of its best features behind complex pricing tiers. Comprehensive set of tools Plenty of presets Basic editing functions. Against. Constant ads Confusing payment structure Needs an update. When you first open Freemake Video Converter you’re presented with an advert, and that rather sets the tone for the whole experience. Freemake is not free, at least not in any meaningful sense, but the basic package can be treated as a free trial while you decide which of the many registration packages you need to purchase in order to keep using it. It’s certainly not a bad app, the layout is intuitive - sources at the top, destinations at the bottom - but it takes every opportunity to push an ad at you, from the ‘Speed Up’ that appears on the handy always-on-top notification that appears in the bottom corner of your screen while converting, to the red ribbon that wraps the ability to add subtitles to your video and which can only be removed for a fee. Outside of its attempts to sell itself to you, there is a good, if slightly out of date, application here. Freemake is still one of our best DVD ripper picks, but is at the bottom of the list. If you need presets to convert video to Blackberry and Nokia phones, then this is the program for you. Windows Media Player’s few remaining fans can rejoice too - there’s a preset with your name on it, along with ones that prepare your video for upload to YouTube, as well as the more common AVI and MP4 container formats for h264 video. H265 isn’t supported. Freemake Video Converter review: Ease of use. Price: Free/Various Free trial: Yes GPU support: Yes H265: No CD ripping: No Blu-ray ripping: No OS: Windows Device presets: Yes. Easy to use Very confusing upgrade options. By putting its source choices along the top of its interface, and a selection of common presets along the bottom, Freemake Video Converter makes it as easy as possible to get started in DVD ripping and video converting. Beyond the presets, there isn’t a great deal of tweaking to be done. You have a choice of one-pass encoding, which is faster, or the better quality two-pass method, and can choose where the resulting file will be saved, but that’s about it. If you find yourself making significant changes to a preset then you can save your own custom one, choosing between MPEG4 or h264 video encoding, setting custom framerate and bitrate, and then doing the same for sound, with three codecs on offer. The free version of the software embeds its logo into the resulting video file, and therefore is really only any use to test the program out and see if you like the way it works. The ‘Remove Branding’ link pops up a window offering features such as faster conversion speeds and DVD menu authoring in return for upgrading your copy. There are so many levels of unlocks available, with one-week, one-month, six-month and unlimited tiers, plus special offers and huge original prices, that it’s easy to get confused about how much you’re being asked to pay for which features, and for how long you’ll have them for. Buying five of these unlock packs for unlimited usage, which you’d hope would open up every locked feature in the entire program, costs a huge $170. Compare this with apps that offer similar features for $60, like WinX DVD Ripper Platinum, or even for free, and Freemake Video Converter starts to look like less of a good deal. Freemake Video Converter review: Speed. Free version is slow Decent editor. Without unlocking the ‘4x more speed’ pack, Freemake Video Converter is a dreadfully slow thing. We wonder if it’s being deliberately held back, such is the way the progress bar shoots along for its first half, before slowing to a crawl and taking 20 minutes to rip a DVD. The application was also unable to detect the Nvidia graphics card in our test machine, defaulting instead to DirectX video acceleration. Switching DXVA on and off seemed to have little effect on conversion speed, so we can only wonder what the Nvidia card could have done. Most rippers, like Wondershare Uniconverter, use GPU-acceleration to speed up rips, but this misses out. Elsewhere, Freemake Video Converter’s handling of video files is commendably swift, with the basic built-in editor able to quickly trim clips, and rotate them too. We thought for a moment about why you’d want to do that, came to the conclusion that some people burn portrait video from cellphones to DVD and want to rip it back again, then wondered why this unique feature hadn’t been hidden behind a payment demand like all the other useful ones. As there are no tooltips, it’s also possible to pass over potentially handy features without knowing what they are. Freemake Video Converter review: Cost. Confusing pricing structure. Cost is a big issue for Freemake Video Converter. It’s marketed as freeware, but its free incarnation isn’t useful as anything beyond a demo. It pops up payment offers with ludicrous original prices - we don’t think anyone paid $170 for five unlocks, and we especially don’t believe anyone paid $300 just to remove the watermarks. The pricing tiers are confusing, and the constant adverts to purchase features annoying. They’re also things you don’t get with other applications, like Handbrake. Should you buy Freemake Video Converter? If it were the only program of its sort in the marketplace, Freemake Video Converter would be bearable. As it’s not, there’s no reason you need to put up with its annoying ways. Underneath, there is a perfectly good DVD ripper and video converter, with plenty of device-specific presets and some unique ideas. Given an update to support h265 and some tweaks to the GPU support, and the removal of all the badgering ads and confusing pricing - it even pops one up when you try to close the program - it could be a pleasure to use. Ian has been a journalist for 20 years. He's written for magazines and websites on subjects such as video games, technology, PC hardware, popular (and unpopular) science, gardening and astronomy. In his spare time he has a pet tortoise and grows his own vegetables. The best free video converter 2021: save videos in any format quickly and easily. We've tested and ranked the best free video converters, so you can save clips in any format you want for playback on any device. With this free software, it's quick and easy to convert video files to virtually any format, putting an end to compatibility problems for good. Right now, the best free video converter is Any Video Converter Free, which not only converts videos from your desktop to a format of your choice, but also lets you grab and save videos from all the most popular video hosting sites. However, it isn’t the only option out there. Depending on what you might need a free video converter for, there’s quite a few out there to choose from. Whether you want to reduce the size of your video file, keep your entire video collection in the same format or change a video’s format into something more easily shared with others, there’s one out there to meet your specific needs. We've put all these options to the test and picked out the best free video converters based on their features and ease of use. Though do bear in mind that if you're converting videos from YouTube, downloading videos is against its terms of service. It's also potentially a copyright infringement, unless of course you have permission from the copyright holder or the video is in the public domain, in which case, check out our YouTube downloader for PC list as well. Any Video Converter Free review. Encode videos in any format, with built-in device profiles and attractive filters. By Cat Ellis 18 June 2017. Our Verdict. AVC covers the most important features of video conversion without becoming confusing or overwhelming you with options. Everything is organized in a logical way, and you'll have your files converted in moments. Easy to use Good format support Excellent filters and effects. Against. Includes bundled extra software. Any Video Converter Free is an amazing downloading and conversion toolkit so comprehensive, it's hard to believe it's free. You can rip files from discs, download them from YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Dailymotion and more, apply filters and effects, then save or burn them to DVD in virtually any format. Videos can be downloaded and converted in batches, and simple conversions can be completed with only a couple of clicks. If you need to edit them afterwards, check out our complete guide to the best free video editors. Any Video Converter is free to use, but when you run the installer you'll be offered a security program called ByteFence and it'll be suggested that you change your default search engine to Yahoo. If you'd rather avoid this, select 'Click here to customize the installation', then uncheck the box. Remember to only download videos that are in the public domain, or if you have the copyright owner's permission. User experience. Any Video Converter Free's huge array of features are presented in a clear, slick interface that will have you happily downloading and converting clips in seconds. For basic conversions, simply choose an input option (disc, file or URL) and select the clip of your choice, choose an output device and format, and click 'Convert now'. The range of output options is very impressive, and includes both audio and video formats. If you're looking for more customization options, a clipping button beside each uploaded video opens a mini player that lets you preview the footage and select your own start and end points – perfect for trimming away long-winded intros. The magic wand tool lets you crop the video, add a watermark, and apply filters – from subtle enhancements to trippy jitter effects. These can be applied to individual videos or the whole batch. You can also take your pick from an array of video and audio options, including frame rate, sample rate and codecs. The premium version of Any Video Converter includes some extra tools, including the ability to remove DRM protection and record streaming video, but the free version is superb and will be more than enough for most users. The best free video converters for 2021. It seems like there are as many video file formats as there are devices to play them on. Flash Video, MKV, MOV, AVI, MPEG. And even if your desktop can read them, chances are, your mobile device cannot. But regardless of how obsolete the file format might be, there’s still a way that you can convert it into a more versatile and usable format. The best video converters, like Prism Video Converter, can handle various file formats and make the conversion process seamless and quick for users rather than frustrating and time-consuming. We’ve rounded them up below. Any Video Converter (Windows/MacOS) Any Video Converter (AVC) is a fantastic piece of freeware that can handle conversions to everything from DivX and MPEG4 to VOB and more than 60 other input formats (including 4K) — all within an attractive and minimalist interface. The software also features user-defined video outputs and batch processing for converting multiple files simultaneously. It saves all converted video files to a pre-designated folder for quick access and organization. AVC can directly extract and convert audio from any given video into a limited number of formats, including MP3, AAC, WAVE, etc. Plus, the program allows you to download and convert YouTube and Google videos — though these are our preferred methods. HandBrake (Windows/MacOS) HandBrake seemed to be on its last legs back in 2006 when the software’s initial creator, Eric Petit, dropped off the face of the Earth. However, its software development carried on with the help of a few ambitious folks driven to update and revise the existing software for a changing world. The open-source video converter now boasts one of the most comprehensive software packages for ripping and converting video files for playback on several popular devices, including iPhones, smart TVs, and tablets. The interface is sleek and well-designed, with plenty of menu tabs for advanced features, all housed within a traditional UI that anyone familiar with Windows or MacOS will understand. HandBrake can’t be topped when it comes to converting files to MP4 or MKV format, but, unfortunately, it also isn’t for those unwilling to learn the software. Prism Video Converter (Windows/MacOS) Prism is a converter and video editor that’s a great choice if you don’t really have a video editor at the moment, but still need to make changes to the video clip that you’re converting. The interface isn’t exceedingly simple, but it follows a familiar formula and is easy to pick up quickly, with large buttons for the various functions: Add your video file, and you can get to work. The converter works with all standard video formats and any format that uses the DirectShow codec, plus device-specific formats for smartphones and other devices. Extra capabilities include adjustable filters, brightness, contrast, rotation, creating text overlays, watermarks, and other essential features that you might need. Note that the free download for Prism includes all features, but the more advanced video editing features will stop after a few days unless you buy the full edition. The converter abilities, however, are free forever. DivX Video Converter (Windows/MacOS) DivX video converter has many useful, built-in options for inputs and outputs, along with editing tools for tweaking the videos you’re looking to convert. Although the software is a little pushy in driving you toward upgrading to the premium version, the free one works rather well. The interface is clean and gives you deep options for outputs. When adding files, you can do so from a local drive, or import them directly from Blu-ray discs. The software also supports Google Drive and Dropbox, for those looking to edit files that are stored remotely. An assortment of output profiles provides several pre-defined options, and you can further customize the resulting file if you prefer. There are options for selecting the resolution, altering the aspect ratio, and changing the bit rate. CloudConvert (web-based) Not everyone wants to go through the hassle of downloading an app for converting, especially if they aren’t frequently converting files. Web-based platform CloudConvert can convert video files into 218 formats. Batch converting and folder monitoring come included. And while it has a diverse offering, the site simply converts multiple files at once. You can also use the application as a plugin on other video or audio software hubs. CloudConvert processes files in the cloud. To change specific output settings, you can do so from the app’s web interface. Once done, you’ll receive an email that your converted file is in Dropbox or Google Drive .