Keep Your, Old/New, Video Recordings Up-To-Date

Convert Video Recordings Into Popular/Different Video Formats

In the previous section I showed you how to set up and use Easy (Desktop) Screen Recorder so that you have a recommended desktop screen recorder that you can use for video tutorials and so on. In this section I am going to show you how to set up a program called Leawo Video Converter that will allow you to convert the .avi video files produced from easy screen recorder, and other video softwares too, into .wmv (Windows Media Player) files, .flv (Flash) files and so on.

Leawo Video Converter also allows you to trim a video's size, make its audio volume higher and join two video files together. At $25.95 (approximately £18) it converts to a high enough quality for you to sell your video tutorials, if you wanted to sell them.

These days it is very difficult to find a video converter that can convert so many different file types like leawo video converter can, especially at this price (sometimes offered at $19.95) and with the support and free upgrades you get. This is why I think leawo video converter is excellent value for money. Anyway. If you have not tried it yet why not Download It Now.

Assuming you have downloaded and installed leawo video converter the next thing to do is launch (execute) the video converter by double clicking on its LEAWO VIDEO CONVERTER desktop icon. Doing so will bring up its main window (Fig 1.1 below) where you can then select one or more video files to convert.

Fig 1.0  Double click on the LEAWO VIDEO CONVERTER desktop icon to continue




Fig 1.1  Click on the ADD button to continue

To convert a video file it must first be added to the Source List (Video Conversion List). This is done by clicking on the ADD button (above), which brings up the ALL VIDEO FILES file requester (below) that requires you to select one or more video files to convert.

In this example I have only selected one video file, called Video-001.AVI. To select more than one video file simply hold down the CTRL keyboard key as you click on each video file you want. Once you have selected your video file(s) continue by clicking on the OPEN button. Doing so will add your selected video file(s) to the source list (Fig 1.3 below).

Fig 1.2  Click on the OPEN button to add the selected video file(s) to the source list




Fig 1.3  Click on the video file format you want the selected video file(s) to be converted into

With your video file(s) in the source list the next thing to do is pick a video file format for it/them. In this example (Fig 1.3 above) I have added an AVI (.avi) video file, called Video-001.AVI, to the source list. To convert it from the .avi file format into the .flv file format I need to click on the STYLE (format) drop-down menu and then select the .flv menu-item.

Once a file format has been selected click on the SETTINGS button (Fig 1.4 below), if need be, to change one or more of its settings. Otherwise, either click on the CUSTOMIZE button to customize your video file(s) or click on the big green START button to start converting your video file(s).

A couple of things to note here. Even though there are plenty of other styles (formats) to choose from, not all of them will suit your needs. Maybe because of the file size they produce and/or because of the media software they use.

For example. Leawo video converter can convert to .mov (QuickTime) format without the need for quicktime to be installed on your computer, but to view that converted video means you will need quicktime installed on the viewing computer. And with file size, a .flv file tends to be smaller than a .wmv file and a .mov file tends to be smaller than a .flv file. Examples: 447MB (.avi file), 129MB (.wmv file), 126MB (.flv file) and 101MB (.mov file).

Just because a .mov file is quite smaller than a .wmv file you still have to consider that many Windows users can play a .wmv file with their built-in Windows Media Player whereas with the smaller .mov file they would need to download/install QuickTime. Advantages are also something to consider. For example. A .flv file can play directly (stream) on your web page, as can a .wmv file, but it is the way that a .wmv file only needs an EMBED Object instruction that gives it a slight advantage over a .flv file that needs extra Player files put inside your web space (website public_html folder).

Fig 1.4  Click on the SETTINGS button to continue




Fig 1.5  Change your settings accordingly and then click on the OK button to use them

The settings in the Profile window (above), and settings in general, are normally set to a MEDIUM level upon first launch of the video converter, but this can be changed by setting up and saving your own Profile.

The profile window allows you to change either the Video settings, Audio settings or both. In the above example I am changing the Video QUALITY setting from Medium to High. This is done by clicking on the white box space to the right of the Video QUALITY setting and then selecting the High. Note that each of the remaining settings all have a drop-down - None of them are edit boxes for example. Therefore, they are all preset values/settings.

At this point you can still change the video file format if you wish. Simply click on the FORMAT drop-dowm menu (above the settings), which is currently displaying as FLV-Flash H.264 Video Format(*.flv), and change it to MOV-QuickTime(*.mov) for example. If you then want to change some of the settings for that format and save its profile as MOV-HQ for example you can do so by clicking on the SAVE AS button (Fig 1.6 below).

When the SAVE AS requester appears (Fig 1.7) give the profile a name and then click on the OK button to save that profile. That new profile will then be placed inside the User Defined menu of the SETTINGS menu, viewable by clicking on the main SETTINGS button (Fig 1.4 above).

Fig 1.6  Change the settings and then click on the SAVE AS profile button to continue




Fig 1.7  Click on the OK button to save your settings

The key to successful settings and profile creation is to test them through trial-and-error. Meaning. Change certain settings, convert a video with them and if you are happy with the results save those custom settings as a profile.

The beauty of leawo video converter is that it comes with predefined profiles that have either a Low Quality, Medium Quality or High Quality setting as default. This means you really do not have to mess around with the settings that much, if not at all. Saying this. If you do want to configure the settings manually you can do so. In Fig 1.6 above for example I have changed the Bit Rate setting from 128000 to 384000 (the highest bit rate setting). If you are not sure about a setting simply set it to AUTO (Automatic), if its available.

To give you an idea of the file conversion sizes, here are the results for a 102 MB .avi video file I converted into .flv file format. Low Quality (62.2 MB), Medium Quality (73.6 MB) and High Quality (78 MB). Here are the same results in .wmv file format. Low Quality (36.9 MB), Medium Quality (50.3 MB) and High Quality (69 MB). As you can see, the .wmv files are much smaller than .flv files but not all the time. Sometimes, depending on the original AVI video, a .flv video file can be smaller than a .wmv file. Other variables/settings also dictate the file size. One of the popular video file formats at the moment is flv.

With your preferred file format selected, with default settings or your own custom settings, the next thing you might want to do is boost the volume, trim the video length and/or crop the video image of a particular video recording. If so, click on the CUSTOMIZE button to continue. Otherwise, click on the big green START button to start converting your video file(s).

Fig 1.8  Click on CUSTOMIZE to boost the volume, trim the video and/or crop the image size




Fig 1.9  Click on the Audio VOLUME button (slider) to boost the volume of the selected video recording

Clicking on the CUSTOMIZE button (Fig 1.8 above) brings up the Customize window which is split into five sub-windows (tabs) called Effect, Trim, Crop, Logo and Text respectively.

The Effects window allows you to FLIP and DEINTERLACE a video recording as well as modify the VIDEO BRIGHTNESS, VIDEO CONTRAST and AUDIO VOLUME of a video recording. To modify the later three simply move the BRIGHTNESS, CONTRAST and/or VOLUME sliders to the left or right accordingly. In this example I am boosting the audio volume from 100% to 500%. The APPLY TO ALL setting, when ticked, means the boosted audio volume will be applied to all the video recordings in the Source List.

The Trim window (below) allows you to modify the START TIME and END TIME of a video recording by changing its time values inside the appropriate edit boxes. Simply highlight a number and edit it (delete it/change it). When you have finished editing the time(s) click on the APPLY button next to each time value you changed. Do not worry if you apply a time and then realise you made a mistake. Just click on the RESET button and the times will be reset to the whole length of the video recording again.

Fig 1.10  Click on the APPLY button to apply the new time line to the video recording

The Crop window (below) allows you to modify the screen size of a video recording. For example. If it is a recording of a 1024 x 768 desktop screen you can adjust the size to 800 x 400 for example. This is ideal for those occasions when you want to crop (take out) a certain area of the video screen (i.e. take out the date/time stamp found at the bottom-right corner of an old camcorder recording).

In this example I am adjusting the height of the video recording by dragging the bottom RESIZE Handle upwards, from a size of 240 pixels to 150 pixels. When cropping, I find it better to play the video as you are adjusting.

Fig 1.11  Click on the RESIZE Handles to adjust the image size of the selected video recording

When using the customization windows the video recording you have selected will playback by default. This is so that you can see the results of your customization actions/modifications. If you do not like this simply stop the video playback before customizing. The LOGO and TEXT windows (tabs) allow you to add a watermark (photo and text respectively) to the selected video recording.

So to sum up. You add to the Source List all the video files you want to convert, using the ADD button and its All Video Files file requester. At this point, if you were to click on the big green START button (convert button) all of those video files would be converted into the currently selected (last selected) file format. Meaning. If the FLV file format is currently listed when you launch leawo video converter all of your video files will be converted into .flv video files by default.

So if you want/need to change the format of one or more video files, but not all of them, you have to select one video file at a time and select a different video file format for it. So you could leave most video files as FLV for example and have just two video files as MOV for example. However. If you did want to change all of the video files in the source list I would suggest you close down leawo video converter, reopen it, select your desired file format and then add your video files.

Once the video file formatting is taken care of you can then select each video file in turn and CUSTOMIZE it. When that is done you are then ready to convert the video files, by clicking on the big green START button.

Fig 1.12  Click on the big green START (Convert) button to begin converting the video file(s).

Clicking on the big green START button will begin the video conversion process, converting each video file into the file format you chose for it alongside any customizations you applied to it.

The converted video files are saved into the Destination folder specified in the OUTPUT edit box. You can change this destination folder by clicking on the yellow FOLDER icon to the right of the Output edit box. You may want to change it to the folder of your original video recordings for example so that all videos are in the same folder.

Although leawo video converter comes with many built-in codecs sometimes you may need to download and install codecs. For example. It is recommended by Leawo that you download/install Combined Community Codec Pack and also download and execute this ffdshow Registry file.

The CCCP is an all-in-one codec pack that claims you need no other decoder installed on your computer. However. I would advise you to download and install whatever codec packs are required in order for you to record (encode) and playback (decode) video files in general. If you are recording video files using Easy Screen Recorder (ESR) for example you will need to download and install certain codec packs for it (see previous section) to get the best out of it. Once recorded Leawo Video Converter should have no problems playing back those ESR video recordings, even without the CCCP codec pack installed.