If you have ever done any video editing or sharing, you know how difficult it is to find an affordable conversion option for your files. Most video software is either expensive or limits the file types they can handle. FFmpeg is an open source, cross-platform option that converts files between many popular formats. While ffmpeg is a command line program, it is easy to use. For those of you who may prefer a GUI, WinFF is available.
FFmpeg is able to handle virtually every popular (and not so popular) video formats like: mpeg, avi, flv, mp4, wma, RealVideo, Theora, Vorbis, AC-3, Speex, ATRAC, On2, etc. It is also utilized by software manufacturers to handle conversions, although some implementations don't take full advantage of it's power or flexibility. This is as close to a "universal" transcoder as you can get. The package also includes ffserver (for live broadcasts), ffplay(simple player), and ffprobe (a multimedia stream analyzer).
WinFF provides a simple GUI for ffmpeg for those of us who prefer to work visually. Although video conversion can be as simple as typing in "ffmpeg -i input.mpg output.avi", WinFF provides a fast and simple interface to access input files and applying different options (like video size and frame rate). This can be particularly useful for Windows users who may not have a "Terminal Here" script in their context menu ;).
I have found ffmpeg to be extremely useful, and the price is right (free). The developers of this application deserve a big thank you. It takes a huge amount of time and effort to provide this much functionality in one package, and I am truly grateful to them for their efforts. If you are planning to edit video, this is one tool that can't be overlooked.
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