Freemake Video Converter is a
freemium entry-level
video editing app (in spite of its name) developed by Ellora Assets Corporation. The program can be used to
convert between video formats,
rip video DVDs, create
photo slideshows and
music visualization
Music visualization or music visualisation, a feature found in electronic music visualizers and media player software, generates animated imagery based on a piece of music. The imagery is usually generated and rendered in real time and in a way ...
s. It can also burn compatible video streams to
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
or
Blu-ray Discs or upload them directly to
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
.
Features
Freemake Video Converter is an entry-level
video editing app. It can perform simple
non-linear video editing
Non-linear editing is a form of offline editing for Audio editing, audio, Video editing, video, and image editing. In offline editing, the original content is not modified in the course of editing. In non-linear editing, edits are specified an ...
tasks, such as cutting, rotating, flipping, and
combining multiple videos into one file with transition effects. It can also create photo
slideshow
A slide show (slideshow) is a presentation of a series of still images ( slides) on a projection screen or electronic display device, typically in a prearranged sequence. The changes may be automatic and at regular intervals or they may be manu ...
s with background music.
Users are then able to upload these videos to
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
.
Freemake Video Converter can read the majority of video, audio, and image formats, and outputs to
AVI,
MP4,
WMV
Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: The original video compression technology ...
,
Matroska
Matroska is a project to create a container format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture, or subtitle tracks in one file. The Matroska Multimedia Container is similar in concept to other containers like AVI, MP4, or Advanc ...
,
FLV
Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver digital video content (e.g., TV shows, movies, etc.) over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There are t ...
,
SWF,
3GP,
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
,
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
,
MPEG
The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by ISO and IEC that sets standards for media coding, including compression coding of audio, video, graphics, and genomic data; and transmission and f ...
and
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
.
The program also prepares videos supported by various multimedia devices, including
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
devices (
iPod,
iPhone,
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating ...
),
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...
,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...
PlayStation, and
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
,
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...
,
BlackBerry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...
, and
Android mobile devices. The software is able to perform
DVD burning and is able to convert videos, photographs, and music into
DVD video
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs. DVD-Video was the dominant consumer home video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia in the 2000s until it was supplanted by the high-definition Bl ...
.
The user interface is based on
Windows Presentation Foundation
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a free and open-source graphical subsystem (similar to WinForms) originally developed by Microsoft for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications. WPF, previously known as "Avalon", was initia ...
technology. Freemake Video Converter supports
NVIDIA
Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...
CUDA
CUDA (or Compute Unified Device Architecture) is a parallel computing platform and application programming interface (API) that allows software to use certain types of graphics processing units (GPUs) for general purpose processing, an approach ...
technology for
H.264
Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also referred to as H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10, is a video compression standard based on block-oriented, motion-compensated coding. It is by far the most commonly used format for the recording, compression, and distr ...
video encoding (starting with version 1.2.0).
Important updates
Freemake Video Converter 2.0 was a major update which integrated two new functions:
ripping
Ripping is extracting all or parts of digital content from a container. Originally, it meant to rip music out of Commodore 64 games. Later, the term was used to extract WAV or MP3 format files from digital audio CDs, but got applied as well to e ...
video from online portals and
Blu-ray Disc creation and burning. Version 2.1 implemented suggestions from users, including support for
subtitles,
ISO image
An optical disc image (or ISO image, from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media) is a disk image that contains everything that would be written to an optical disc, disk sector by disc sector, including the optical disc file system. ...
creation, and DVD to DVD/Blu-ray conversion. With version 2.3 (earlier 2.2 Beta), support for
DXVA DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) is a Microsoft API specification for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 platforms that allows video decoding to be hardware-accelerated. The pipeline allows certain CPU-intensive operations such as iDCT, motio ...
has been added to accelerate conversion (up to 50% for
HD content).
Version 3.0 added
HTML5
HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...
video creation support and new presets for
smartphones.
Version 4.0 (introduced in April 2013) added a
freemium "Gold Pack" of extra features that can be added if a "donation" is paid. Starting with version 4.0.4, released on 27 August 2013, the program adds a promotional watermark at the end of every video longer than 5 minutes unless Gold Pack is activated. Version 4.1.9, released on 25 November 2015 added support to Drag & Drop functions which was not available on prior versions.
Since at least version 4.1.9.44 (1 May 2017), the Freemake Welcome Screen is added in the beginning of video and the big Freemake Logo is watermarked in the center of the whole video. This makes the free outputs useless and users are forced to pay money or stop using it. Version 4.1.9.31 (11 August 2016) does not have this restriction.
Licensing issues
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a free and open-source software project consisting of a suite of libraries and programs for handling video, audio, and other multimedia files and streams. At its core is the command-line ffmpeg tool itself, designed for processing of vid ...
has added Freemake Video Converter v1.3 to its ''Hall of Shame''. An issue tracker entry for this product, opened on 16 December 2010, says it is in violation of
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...
as it is distributing components of FFmpeg project without including due credit. Ellora Assets Corporation has not responded yet.
Bundled software from sponsors
Since version 4.0, Freemake Video Converter's installer includes a potentially unwanted search
toolbar
The toolbar, also called a bar or standard toolbar (originally known as ribbon) is a graphical control element on which on-screen icons can be used. A toolbar often allows for quick access to functions that are commonly used in the program. Some ...
from
Conduit
Conduit may refer to:
Engineering systems
* Conduit (fluid conveyance), a pipe suitable for carrying either open-channel or pressurized liquids
* Electrical conduit, a protective cover, tube or piping system for electric cables
* Conduit curre ...
as well as SweetPacks
malware. Although users can decline the software during install, the opt-out option is rendered in gray which could mistakenly give the impression that it's disabled.
[http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/620/753/original.jpg ]
See also
;Related software
*
Freemake Audio Converter
Freemake Audio Converter is an ad-supported audio conversion utility developed by Ellora Assets Corporation. The program is used to convert across different audio formats, merge audio files, and extract audio from video files. Freemake Audio Con ...
*
Freemake Music Box
Freemake Music Box is the fourth software application developed by Ellora Assets Corporation and is currently in pre-release status. It is a freeware program designed to stream free music to users without the need to create an account or set u ...
*
Freemake Video Downloader
Freemake Video Downloader is a crippleware download manager for Microsoft Windows, developed by Ellora Assets Corporation. It is proprietary software that can download online video and audio. Both HTTP and HTTPS protocols are supported. Users mu ...
;Comparison
*
Comparison of video converters
Video converters are computer programs that can change the storage format of digital video. They may recompress the video to another format in a process called transcoding, or may simply change the container format without changing the video for ...
*
Comparison of video editing software
General information
This table gives basic general information about the different editors:
Active
Discontinued / inactive
Definition
* professional: used for full length Hollywood movies;
* professional (small): mainly used for paid ...
References
External links
* {{official website, http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/
Video conversion software
Windows-only freeware
Video editing software