How to Convert Digitial Videos for Free

A few of the most popular video formats are WMV, Divx, AVI, MPEG, etc. Video converting is necessary for placing movies/video on to your iPod, Cell Phone, YouTube, etc. Many websites charge a fee for video converting; however there are ways to convert your video to any format for free. Follow the simple instructions below to get started.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. To start off you will need to determine what format you need to convert your video to. A few of the most popular are AVI to MPEG, MPEG to WMV, and vise versa. If you are not sure which format your video is or if you are having trouble finding out which video code you need to convert your video to , you can always find such information in the user guide of your iPod, mobile device, etc. Alternatively you can simply Google it.
   
   Note: Assuming the video is already on your computer, if you right click on it and select "properties", the current video format will come up.

2. Once you know the video format of your video and the format you need to convert it to, you will need to download some simple video converting software. A great way to find free video converting software is by logging on to a website such as download.com, I have used this website many times and have found it to be quite helpful with any video format I need converted.

3. Log on to download.com, In the search bar towards the top of the page type in the type of converter you need. I recently needed a converter to upload video to YouTube so I needed a FLV to MPEG converter. I simply typed in "FLV to MEPEG Converter" on download.com and got many results for different software offering free video converters for the formats I needed to convert.

4. Once you have found the video converting software you need, simply download it and set it up on your computer.

5. All of these video converters are easy to use and really only require 2 or 3 steps. Once your program is set up and you are ready to go, simply select the video you wish to convert, select your video input (The Original Video Format), choose which video format you want to convert it to, and press enter. How fast the video converts is dependent on the size of your video and the speed of your computer.

6. Check out my resources section below for more websites that offer free video converting software and other information on video formats/converting.

[momose]

on 6/22/2009 This is an article I really needed and at just the right time! Thanks for the good tips on converting digital videos. *****