Online Conversion

I was doing some googling on stuff, and I found this site which has tons of mathematical conversions:

OnlineConversion.com

Another AVI encoder — AutoGK

As most of you know, I usually use avi.NET for encoding MPEG/VOB files to AVI. However, I had heard about another tool called Auto Gordian Knot (or AutoGK for short), and decided to give it a try.

It works pretty great — and one feature I like is the option to select the output size (either a predefined size, a custom size, or a target quality).

Need an MPEG file? Try gui4ffmpeg

I was having some difficulties trying to encode an AVI file into a MPEG-2 to make a DVD. And I heard that ffmpeg was good, but it was late and I didn’t feel like learning a bunch of new command-line commands thingys. (I still am a bit tired; forgive me if I come out weird.) Then I found gui4ffmpeg, a freeware program which is…. a GUI for ffmpeg! (How obvious.)

use winLAME to create MP3s

winLAME is a GUI for the LAME MP3 encoder.

English: It converts other audio files to MP3.

Although there’s only alpha versions available, they work great without problems (at least for me.)

Converting VHS to DVD

Here is an interesting site:
How to Convert VHS to DVD

Five Emails That Convert Documents

Today I’m not feeling so good, so I’ll just link to another article.

Five Email Addresses that Convert Documents

MediaCoder — Universal Media Transcoder

Recently, a friend of mine was looking for freeware to convert her DVD’s to an MP3. After a bit of searching, I found MediaCoder.

Although it’s still in beta, and has a slightly complicated interface, it seems to be worth it. Not only can it transcode many different types of media, it’s highly flexible.

Do give it a try, and tell us what you think in the comments.

Need to convert a file? Do it online!

If you have to convert a file (for example, FLV>AVI, DOC>RTF), there are several options to do it online.

My first choice is Media Convert. But sometimes, I will use Zamzar.

If you know of any others, feel free to post in comments.

Note: I don’t recommend doing it online if the file contains sensitive information. Use at own risk.

Have Protected WMA’s? Convert them to MP3.

NOTE: This tutorial is only meant for legal uses, such as putting the songs on an MP3 player. Always check copyright laws in your area before doing this!

So, you’ve got some WMA’s protected by DRM, but you want an MP3? I discovered this method completely by accident, although it is floating around the web.

If you use Audacity, an open-source audio editor, you can do it. (However, you may need to do it a few times, to find the right settings.)

Install it, then find the protected song and open it in a different audio player, such as Windows Media Player or Winamp. You’ll need the license for it, or it won’t work.

Open up Audacity. At the top, there will be some buttons and drop down menus.

You see this?

Change the “Microphone” to “Stereo Mix.”

Then hit the Record button, the red circle. Play your song. When the song ends, stop the recording (yellow square.)

Edit out any “dead air” (silence) at the beginning and end.

Now, you have to export it. If you want to download the lame_enc.dll file, you can export directly to MP3. If not, export to WAV, and use one of various converters to change to an MP3.

Good luck!

Need a scientific calculator? Here’s one for you.

Sometimes we need the benefit of a scientific calculator, but the Windows Calculator is too confusing (for me, anyways.)

eCalc is one alternative to the Windows calculator. And as a bonus, it comes with unit conversion!