New Video Converting And Audio Ripping Tool With GUI

A new tool called WinFF does a great job of converting videos and ripping audio from videos. It is available in .deb packages, exe for Windows, RPM's for Red Hat and source code for other OS's.

Since I updated to Ibex and have the newest VLC, I have encountered a serious problem when converting videos. That problem being that I have no audio.
My previous tutorial on how to convert videos is now confined to VLC version 0.8.6

I'm not really sure whether the audio problem is with VLC or with the ffmpeg codec. There are many posts saying that due to patent conflicts, ffmeg no longer supports ac3 or mp3 audio streams. I can't verify that info at this time.
My feeling is that the problem is a bug in VLC.
WinFF however solves this problem, makes it much easier to convert a video, offers many more formats and rips audio with a few clicks.

The GUI is intuitive. It's only a matter of choosing what video you want to convert, what format you want it in and where to save it.
And the list of presets is extensive. It offers the user a choice that will suit almost every need.

The presets are as follows;
Audio formats include Mp3, m4a, Ac3, Wav and WMA
AVI including MS compatible, Xvid 4:3 and 16:9
Creative Zen in Xvid 4:3 and 16:9
DV in Raw DV 4:3 and 16:9
DVD that includes almost every format in Pal and NTSC
iPod formats in Xvid and H.264
Mobile Phones in the 3g2 and Blackberry formats
Mp4 uses the H.264 format
Other presets include formats in the Palm, PSP, Quicktime, Rockbox, VCD, FLV and WMV

As you can see, this provides you with plenty of options.
And it also rips and converts audio!!
Of course you will need all the extra codecs to access all the features.
Ubuntu users can get those codecs from Medibuntu.
Windows users can check out the packages at Free-Codecs.

Where do I get it from?
I'll give you some links that you can check out and download it from.

The creator's blog can be found here;
BiggMatt
Stop by and post a thanks for this handy tool.

Deb packages can be downloaded from this page;
WinFF .deb Downloads

Click on the arrow next to winff-0.43 to expand it then select the .deb package for either the !386 or the AMD64 depending what platform you are using.


The download page for OS's other then Ubuntu or .deb packages can be found here;
Winff Non-Deb

This is where you will find the exe, rpm and source packages.


I am very impressed with this tool and want to thank BiggMatt for all his hard work in providing the community with a very handy tool.

Enjoy!

TaZMAn

Rip Audio From FLV's Using VLC

Update!
There is a new easy to use tool that will rip audio from videos with a few clicks. Use in conjunction with the Download Helper add-on in the article below.
Link to my blog post for this new tool is;
WinFF Blog Post


If you go to Youtube or one of the many video sites I'm sure you have come across a video that you wanted only the audio from.

Before I give the details I'd highly recommend that you have the Download Helper add-on for Firefox installed. I consider it the best video downloader available. You can get it from here if you don't already have it;

http://www.downloadhelper.net/

Now that we have that out of the way, here is how to extract the audio from the FLV file you downloaded.

This method allows you to extract the audio using VLC graphical user interface. The mp3 file generated will also play in other media players like Winamp, Windows MP and Real:

1. Open the flv file with VLC and stop it as soon as it starts playing.

2. Open the VLC Wizard by clicking on File> Wizard…

3. Select Transcode/Save to File.

4. Select your file from the Playlist.

5. Check only the Transcode Audio checkmark, Leave Video unchecked). Select 192 KB BRate, and MP3 as the Audio codec.

6. Next select MPEG-1 for encapsulation method. Save the file with any name, but with the extension MPG.(Don’t use MP3 at this time). Press Finish.

Once the bar runs it course, repeat steps 1 through 6, except for: a) Choose the MPG file you just created as your input file, b) Change the encapsulation method as RAW and b) Save the new file with the extension MP3.

That's all there is to it. The total time is usually a minute or two depending on the file size and your computer's horse power.

Hope this helps you to grab the song from those music videos. (Grin!)

TaZMAn