GOM Encoder

GOM Encoder is a tool that can encode various video formats to AVI, MP4, WMV, FLV and OGM files.

After a brief installation in which you can enable the program to download some codecs, you have to select presets every time you initiate the application (e.g. Apple, Sony, Android, Blackberry, Microsoft).

You can add one or more files (batch conversion is supported), configure output format and settings, set the output destination, and start converting.

You can configure output settings for the video codec (codec name, bitrate, key frame interval, video quality, resize filter), audio codec (codec name, format), video (size, ratio, frame, color settings, video effects), audio (sample rate frequency, normalizer), subtitles (font, color, position), but you can also attach a logo to the video and set its start and end point, transparency level, position and size.

You can merge videos, use a screencap tool or create a snapshot preview (by using the right-click menu), but you can also extract audio from a video file (by setting the output type to MP3 or AAC in Output Settings).

The encoding process does not take very long - it depends on the source file size and output format. For example, GOM Encoder managed to encode a 107MB FLV file to a 172MB AVI file in one minute and thirty-eight seconds (by using the default settings).

While the software is converting a file, you can view elapsed and remaining time, conversion speed, set GOM Encoder to move or copy the output file to a specified directory, shutdown PC, minimize to tray, show an error message if conversion fails, show a message when all conversions are complete, and more.

The bottom line is that GOM Encoder is a great tool for encoding, merging video files, and extracting audio from them. The features could have been more organized for faster and better understanding of its usage.