Converting .wmv to .mp4 for free, online

I had a .wmv Windows Movie File that I wanted to convert to the .mp4 so that a Java platform would play it with ease.  I have a bunch of video tools on my computer, so I decided to check them out first.

VLC Media player looked like it could do the job.  Using it was one of the most frustrating exercises that I have ever undertaken and it burned most of the day.

It looks easy enough.  You choose the Convert/Save menu item.  Then you open the file, put in the destination file, and choose what codecs you have.  That was the issue.  I chose the first one (some sort of video + MP3) and nothing happened.  No error message.  Nada.

I then clicked on that menu item and tried every single damn codec listed.  In some cases I got the audio but no video.  For most of the times, I clicked OK and nothing happened.

I finally got a movie out of one of the codecs, but it was incredibly poor quality with huge pixelation.  Another one gave me a good quality, but it consistently put in a bunch of junk (huge color blocks, pixels and bits of screen detritus) at the start.  I knew something was wrong, because in each effort, I never got a thumbnail of a still from the movie.

In frustration, I did a Google search for online .wmv to .mp4 converter.  The first one that popped up was www.online-convert.com.  I went to the site, selected my video and within a minute it was ready to download the .mp4.  The conversion was fast, and the result was spectacular.  There was a thumbnail of the very first frame.

These guys should have their blood preserved for posterity. Thanks guys.   (as usual, I was not paid to say this, nor did I receive any consideration at all).

Best Free AVI to DVD Software Reviews

I have this .avi video that I created by stitching together music and still videos.  I wanted to put it into a DVD format so that friends and relatives could play it on their TV without any computer knowledge.  The .avi video is almost 20 minutes in length, clocking in at over 700 MB, so I couldn't upload it to a high-res video site like Vimeo which restricts video file sizes to 500MB if you don't have their premium package.

There are a whole pile of free AVI to DVD software packages.  I picked the first one from Google, and it turned out to be www.avitodvdfree.com and the program is called AviToDVDfree.  It was easy to use and intuitive, and the bonus feature was that it not only converted but burned it to disc at the same time.  I was amazed at how fast it took.  However, there was a gotchya.  I took the DVD to the television set.  There was an older DVD player there.  About 4 minutes into the DVD, it got stuck and wouldn't advance.  I was able to hit fast forward, and after skipping about ten seconds, it played again.  However, the same thing happened at the thirteen minute mark.  It got gonged and I went looking for another package.

I downloaded freevideostodvd by KoyoteSoft.  I fed in the avi, and the thing blew it.  It threw an exception saying that there wasn't enough room on the disc to burn the DVD.  Since I had previously burned a DVD with the same file, I knew that this was BS.  I tried again, and this time it just mysteriously quit with no message.  I gonged it and moved on.

The third package that I downloaded was AVI2DVD by Trust FM @ http://www.avitodvd.ws/freeware/
I was a little disconcerted because it wanted to download all of these filters and codecs.  I checked them out and one of them was from sourceforge, so I knew that it was legit.  The program is massively localized, meaning that it operates in a whole variety of languages.  Plus it invokes .bat files so windows open and close.  It took a fair bit of time to process and it didn't burn the .iso file to my DVD drive.  However, I opened the temp folder, right clicked on the iso file and it invoked the disc burning utility that came with my laptop, and Bob's your Uncle.  It worked perfectly.  It is the one that I recommend for quality, convenience and just plain works every time.

Hope this helps.

Best Open Source, Free Blogging Software

We are a java shop.  We are committed to J2EE, Java, JSP as the best web delivery system for what we do.  Recently I was asked to implement blogging software.  Without a doubt, the best open source JSP blogging software is Apache Roller

Apache Roller is a full-featured, multi-user and group-blog server suitable for blog sites large and small. It runs as a Java web application that should be able to run on any Java EE server and relational database. Currently, Roller is best supported on Tomcat and MySQL -- but users have reported success running Roller on Glassfish, Websphere, JBoss, Resin, Geronimo, Derby, PostgreSQL, and Oracle.

Here are some of Roller's key features:

• Multi-user blogging: can support tens of thousands of users and blogs
• Group blogging with three permisson levels (editor, author and limited)
• Support for comment moderation and comment spam prevention measures
• Bloggers have complete control over blog layout/style via Apache Velocity-driven templates
• Built-in search engine indexes weblog entry content
• Pluggable cache and rendering system
• Support for blog clients that support MetaWeblog API
• All blogs have entry and comment feeds in both RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 formats

You can get the software here:

http://roller.apache.org/

Giving Thanks for the Free Software

Today, I just want to give props to some free software, freely available on the web that has helped me. Yesterday I mentioned the DivX codec pack, and you can download it for free from here:

http://www.divx.com/en/software/divx-plus/codec-pack

Another bit of software that has helped me tremendously is converting DVD to AVI. A small free tool is fast and quick. Here is a screen shot:


The URL for downloading this tool is:

http://convertdvdtoavi.com/

And props also go to CoolUtils.com. I needed to convert a jpg pic to an .ico icon file for Visual Studio, and it was done promptly and easily online at:

http://www.coolutils.com/online/image-converter/

Thanks a bunch. Readers of my other blog will know that I reciprocate, putting up code for RFID and mag card readers etc.

And this was lying on my desktop. If you need a green light pic for any development that you do, I created this one pictured below. Please take it if you need it.

Microsoft Codecs Bite

I just finished my rugby video application, and one huge area of risk was the Microsoft video codecs. The ones that they ship with their operating systems don't play in the sandbox well with .Net video playing code.

Specifically, when I would pause a movie, and programmatically advance the frame counter, oftentimes I would get a black screen and the movie was playing but the graphics were not being painted.

I connected a slider bar to navigate the video, and the slider bar sometimes worked and at other times, I would move the slider to a new position and hit play, and the movie would resume playing at the old position. It was hit or miss.

I finally got fed up, and converted the video .avi to div(x). Then I downloaded the DIVX codec from DIVX (quel surprise) and after installation, the video software components worked better than expected.

Not only did I get better screen resolution, but the slider worked as smooth as butter, and the degree of accuracy in frame positioning was an absolute precise delight.

You can get the free DIVX codec pack from here:

http://www.divx.com/en/software/divx-plus/codec-pack