With the wealth of devices capable to render video I don’t think there will be shortage of video converters any time soon. On the contrary, the diversity of resolutions as well as the need for an application that compresses all the options needed under a single interface has oiled the process of creating video converting applications.
Developers strive to make the process of readying your clips for the desired device as seamless as possible. And it looks like some of them have found the magic formula to push all advanced options an advanced user likes to tinker with in the back and leave only the essential in front. Thus the three-step formula was born (well, in some cases you had to go through 2 and a half and 2 and three quarters to get to step 3).
Hamster Free Video Converter follows the same pattern, but it brings something special to the table: simplicity and lack of complicated settings. Its name is more than a clue as to what it does and the price you can get it for. It is free of charge and no ads to bother you while using it.
Installation process completes with no bumps like stops to opt out of installing this or that toolbar. What you will see at the end of the process is a nifty looking interface that presents the basic three steps you have to go through in order to complete converting your videos: load files, edit settings and convert.
In the case of Hamster Free Video Converter these steps are also the only ones you will follow because there are no settings to slow you down, no complicated settings, and no elaborate conversion options. Part of making everything easy to use is drag and drop support for adding files; you can also add the data the traditional way, by browsing to the desired location and picking the files you want (multiple selection is also supported).
The application shows in this screen the video and audio details of each loaded item. Information like compression, total duration of the clip, resolution, average bitrate, framerate, sample rate or number of channels is available in the right part of the main application window. There is also
the possibility to preview the video file, but only for popular formats (AVI, MPG and WMV). We tried to pull this with MKV, MOV and MP4 and it did not work.
“Edit” tab of any video converter is generally where all the action happens and the most dreaded part by beginner users. In Hamster Free Video Converter this is a breeze. Everything has been simplified to the maximum and instead of adjusting codec settings or other sort of elaborate options this video converter has everything already set and all you have to do is select the either the format or the device to convert your clip to/for.
As simple as all seems in
Hamster Video Converter, there are some settings to be made if you choose to convert into one of the video formats mentioned above. But it is minimum configuration you go through: set the level of quality, the codec to be used in the process, resize options and audio codec.
The set of file formats supported includes the popular AVI, MPEG, WMV, MP3 and FLV, but also offers the possibility to turn your moving picture to 3GP. As for devices, the list is more extensive and comprises portables such as iPod (Classic, Touch, Nano), iPhone, iPad, readies the files for Apple TV, HTC, Nexus, Nokia or Blackberry smartphones. Players like iRiver, Creative Zen, Microsoft’s Zune have not been neglected either; and neither game consoles XBOX, PS3 or PSP.
In step number three, “Convert”, there is nothing else to do than start the actual process. A progress bar shows where the conversion operation is currently at work, while the preview area displays the completion in percentage. Batch processing of the files is supported and the application will simply take each video at a time and convert it. At the end of the operation you will be given the opportunity to open the folder storing the output results.
The location for storing the output result is set to My Videos folder on the system drive, but you can change this to whatever path you feel more comfortable with. This can be done from the step two of the conversion process.
Hamster Free Video Converter does a good job preparing the videos for quite a variety of portable devices. It moves fast on an average system and the quality of the resulting video is within normal limits: it all depends on the quality of the original file, resolution set for the output result and the conversion settings you make.
The Good It sticks to the 3-step conversion plan advertised by plenty other video converting software. It simplifies all the settings leaving only the essential parts that can be easily understood by the majority of users with absolutely no problem.
You can use the same settings for multiple conversions by adding them to the Favorites section (store them as a profile). The set of
supported conversions is quite impressive as it covers the most diverse formats.
The Bad Advanced users need more tinkering, which is not available in Hamster Free Video Converter. We noticed that after you convert one clip you cannot load it again in the program to start a new conversion for a different device or into a different format and you have to restart the program to do that.
The Truth Hamster Free Video Converter is designed as a simple solution to ready your videos for a plethora of devices and formats. It does a great job with average impact on system resources.
The application makes for one comfortable way to quickly turn your videos to a different format or make them fit a portable device.
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Hamster ofrece una perspectiva fresca a la conversión de los vídeos en 3 pasos Follow me on Twitter @Ionut_Ilascu
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Version reviewed:
Features:
(4/5)
