VideoConverter
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Miro 4 bumps up media management & Android sync
The Mac media management application formerly known as Democracy Player has been around for a good while; since 2007, it's been called Miro and has offered solid podcatching, BitTorrent and video viewing features in a convenient open-source application. The current version of the app, 4.0.1, rolls the media library features of iTunes, the codec support of VLC and conversion capabilites of Handbrake into a single application. Miro can import your iTunes library automatically and lets you convert downloaded media into an MP4 or H.264 format compatible with your iOS device. You can also use Miro to download media directly from YouTube, a podcast feed, Amazon, BitTorrent and more. Mac users with an Android handset can sync to Miro and make purchases from the Android Market and the Amazon AppStore for Android. Miro is open source, free and available for OS X, Windows, and Linux. An iPad version is in the works and should be available soon. [hat tip 9to5Mac]
MacX Video Converter Pro available free until November 15
There is no shortage of video source material available both on and off-line these days, but not all of it is playable or editable on every platform. Free tools like Handbrake (here's our look at Handbrake 0.9.4) are great for ripping content from DVDs but the number of available output formats are limited. Back in the day, VisualHub was the ultimate tool for converting pretty much any video codec into another. Plus, it allowed you crop, resize, adjust video quality and even stitch files together. Unfortunately, it's no longer available. There's also good news. Digiarty is currently making its MacX Video Converter Pro software available for free until November 15. Video Converter Pro offers what is probably the widest codec support we've seen in a while including output to FLV, WMV, MPEG4, H264 and more. There are dozens of pre-defined profiles for portable devices like phones, the Sony PSP and even DVD VOB files. It lacks some of the capabilities of Visual Hub, like cropping and ability to define a maximum size for the output video and let it pick the encoding settings. However, if you have Final Cut (express or pro) you can convert odd-ball formats into files that can be edited and then crop and set export settings. MacX Video Converter Pro is available for free until November 15, 2010.
Elgato ships 1080p-friendly Turbo.264 HD video conversion dongle
Remember that brilliant Turbo.264 video conversion dongle that shipped like, two whole years ago? Yeah, it's successor has just hit the streets, and it's as ready as ever for 1080p content. The predictably titled Elgato Turbo.264 HD plugs directly into one's Mac and converts files up to 1080p (from camcorders, digital cameras, etc.) into files that are perfectly formatted for iPods, PSPs or other media players. The bundled software also lets users preview and trim video clips before converting, and it saves folks the time and hassle of importing into iMovie, learning commands, rendering and exporting. Reportedly, a video that would take an hour to convert to an iPod-friendly file takes just 15 minutes with this here dongle, and if that's worth $149.95 to you, you're one click away from brightening your own day.[Via Electricpig]
ADS Tech's Instant Video To-Go offers up iPod / PSP video conversion on a USB stick
Sure, there's a myriad of fairly technical methods to convert DVDs, media clips, and TiVo captures to files that play nice with your iPod, PSP, or other portable video player, but ADS Tech is hoping to give us all an easy way out of transcoding every file in our ever-growing media library. Touted as the "industry's first hardware-based H.264 conversion solution for PCs," the Instant Video To-Go comes in a handy USB stick format, and houses a "hardware accelerator" that enables consumers to convert videos for handheld playback "up to five times faster than real time." The device reportedly supports MP4, MP3, AVI, WMV, MOV, RM, JPG, TIFF, and MTP, and provides a "two step procedure" for getting your videos ready for your PMP. Moreover, it can supposedly squash 100 minutes of MPEG2 / VOB into a 320 x 240 H.264 file in "approximately 20 minutes," which ain't half bad if things really work as described. Nevertheless, ADS Tech's sure-to-be-popular device will set you back just $79.95, and should be available on the web right now.[Via CNET]
