Format Factory

Format Factory is one of those neat little utilities that you find for free on the net. Well actually I was lead to it by reading a Ciao review on it, and decided to investigate further. I have a Palm Tungsten and have to convert many little video gems from places such as You Tube. The software I currently have has worked pretty much 100% until I found this new video site. For some reason the conversions are garbled and pixelated so I thought I’d ...
...benefit you then simply Google Format Factory and follow the link. A fairly quick download and you as I am will be in business.

After installing the software and opening it up you are presented with a nice light blue screen in the centre of your monitor. Using the simple menu system you can optimise Format Factory to convert the files you require. You can convert pretty much all major and a good few lesser-known formats to any of ... more

Format Factory is one of those neat little utilities that you find for free on the net. Well actually I was lead to it by reading a Ciao review on it, and decided to investigate further. I have a Palm Tungsten and have to convert many little video gems from places such as You Tube. The software I currently have has worked pretty much 100% until I found this new video site. For some reason the conversions are garbled and pixelated so I thought I’d download Format Factory and give it a go. If after reading this review you think it might benefit you then simply Google Format Factory and follow the link. A fairly quick download and you as I am will be in business.

After installing the software and opening it up you are presented with a nice light blue screen in the centre of your monitor. Using the simple menu system you can optimise Format Factory to convert the files you require. You can convert pretty much all major and a good few lesser-known formats to any of the others supported. Unless you are using some obscure format from the planet Zogg that has been encrypted by an alien form Zenderblast then you are not going to having very many problems. Having said this Format Factory might well be able to convert that particular file too.

From the menu system on the left hand side of the pretty screen you will be able to decide which section you require to do your conversion, the option s here are: -

1. Video
2. Audio
3. Picture
4. Rom Device DVD CD ISO
5. Advanced

From within each of these menus you will be given another menu, which lets you choose the format specific. In the video section this means .avi .3gp .mkv .wmv .mpg .vob .mov .flv .swf can easily be convert between each format and more formats besides. A very similar selection of options is available in each menu sub catagory. It might all sound a bit complex but it is basically just like flicking through the menus on your mobile until you reach the one you require.

Once you have decided on which format your are changing from and too and have clicked the associated icon in the menu a window will open to allow you to browse to the file to be converted. Add this file or files to the list and click OK. The small browsing screen will vanish and you will be back at the main screen. Click on the Task option and then convert and hey presto you’ve done it.

The files I was having problems with were easily converted, although it did take longer than some other converters I use. The speed thing might become a bit of an issue if the converted file is quite big, in this case just minimise and continue doing something else. For me I quite like the delicate screen and the nice little graphics, which were going on on the main screen. The conversion themselves are of excellent quality, and I haven’t really found any problems with the software except perhaps the speed, but that’s no big deal really. Considering it’s free it is a great little program and even if there had been a small charge it would have still probably been worth paying for. I can see myself getting quite a bit of use from this little gem, which I have no problems in seriously recommending.
 

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