Video File Converter FREE

U heard me hotshot. Free. Oh, and super uncomplicated to use.

(As usual, double-click on any image to enlarge.)

Searching For A Free Video File Converter

(Windows only; sorry guys!)

Proof that newer software apps aren’t necessarily better or magnanimous.

I recently tried to convert my .WMV file to .MPG-4 to show a video to all you fine folks on my Twitter stream.

Why the converter? Because half of America uses Macs. I wish I had the ca$h for one, but times are hard and money’s tight. And when was the last time you heard of anyone opening a .WMV video on a Mac? Exactly. But that doesn’t mean my followers should not have access to view my videos either!

So I convert them. To a more universal file format.

1st – I tried to use VLC Player to do the conversion. With absolutely no luck. If you can figure it out then you must be some kind of frickin’ genious.

2nd – I tried to use the Real Player Converter. Which would’ve worked had I upgraded for a fee. And you just know SuperMunk thinks it’s stupid to waste ca$h on something you’re only gonna use once or twice.

3rd – I remembered this old app I used on many previous computers called Super C. Yes, it’s a weird name but, works easy squeezy. So I used it and voilá!

Presto-change-o, we now have an MPEG-4 video file. Hooray!

Hi. My name is SuperMunk, and I approve the following message.

Super C Video File Converter

A couple of things before we get started on the download and tutorial:

1. Super C is FREE
2. A lot of folks on forums claiming it ‘comes bundled with viruses’ and ‘dumped mysterious files into my system32 folder’.  Bullshit. The makers of Super C; eRightSoft; highly insist you download it straight from their site only, and they make a very LOUD point about it. If you download Super C from anywhere else chances are it’s most likely an old version/ corrupted/ infected file.
3. Downloading Super C from the maker’s site is ANNOYING. You click on 3 links before it actually takes you where you need to do the actual download. And along the way, eRightSoft shows you various  disclaimers in gigantic red fonts all about how you should only download their software from their site, and nowhere else. This is because they don’t want your computer getting infected with virus’ that they’re not responsible for.
4. I wish the site WAS NOT complicated, but it is. Visually speaking.
5. There’s no direct support offered for this software, save for whatever’s already on their site, ie. Forums. Don’t complain – it’s FREEWARE.
6. People in various forums have complained they can’t download it through Firefox but only in Internet Explorer. Horsefeathers! I got it straight through FF just fine and you can too cuz I’ll show you how. Just keep reading.
7. If you have K-Lite Codec Pac or any other multiple codec bundles loaded onto your computer it may interfere with proper installation. Fair warning.
8. Super C is intended to work all the way up to Windows XP but some have claimed it works on Vista as well. Not sure about W7  or Linux, you guys’ll hafta tell me about it.
9. You can do conversions for smart phones and video game consoles as well. It’s that awesome.
10. I said it’s FREE.

Ready? Let’s go!

(whoosh!)

How To Download Super C

Now pay attention son!

Go to their URL, http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html and it looks like this image below:

Notice it looks like it makes no sense? Yep, you are right.

But wait, it gets weirder!

We’re gonna click on the following to get to the Download link. Follow my diagram in pink arrows:

To reiterate, you clicked on the FreeWare button > Super C > Download > where all it did was jump you to the very bottom of the same page to the Start Downloading Super C link > click on it.

After all that, it takes you to the 2nd page. So scroll a little ways down when you get there:

See what I mean? About the disclaimers? Yea. My guess is they’ve had conartists rip off their product, re-sell it with spyware and virus. Can’t blame them for taking precautions since every cracker out there loves to take advantage of Windows security exploits 😦

See where I wrote Download on there? Click on that download and use link and it takes you to the 3rd page.  Scroll down to the very bottom when you get there:

So what I circled in pink, the Download SUPER C setup file link, well click on it and save to your computer.

Installing Super C

Once the download is done, scan the file with whatever anti-virus program you have loaded on your computer. You will see none of it’s infected. Run your anti-malware software on it too just for good measure.

When you open the file to install, it looks like this, kinda:

I actually didn’t disable anything and the installation worked fine.

And as you can see, I did this download in FireFox 😉

The Super C Console

What does Super C look like? Behold!

(I’ve circled the most important frequently used options)

Circled in pink is everything you always use.

Circled in blue is frequently used options.

So we have the following somewhat conveniently labeled in numbered steps:

1. Select the output container
2. Select the output video codec
3. Select the output audio codec
4. -VIDEO
5. – AUDIO
6. – OUTPUT
7. Drop a valid multimedia file here (window)
8. Encode (Active Files)
9. Play (Active Files | Streams )
10. Player Options

So to use, only steps 1, 7, and 8. And that’s it.

IT’S EASY!

Wait, what?

Super C Menus And Options

Before proceeding further I need to tell you guys.

Once you’ve selected what format you wanna convert your video to (in step #1) then Super C automatically selects the rest of the options for you as a default.

Of course you can modify them but unless you know what you’re doing I don’t recommend so much tinkering.

Right then! Let’s go:

So to recap, a list of all the available output conversions we can apply to our videos.

Video File Formats Available:

3GP, 3GP / 3G2, ASF, AVI, AVI (for Pocket PC), DV, FLV / SWF (Flash), MKV, MOV, MP4, MPG, OGG Multimedia Format, TS (Transp) / M2TS (BluRay), WMV, AAC, AC3, AMR, APE, FLAC, MMF, MP2, MP3, MPC, OGG, SHN, TAK, TTA, WV, WAV, WMA, Apple – iPod / iPhone (MP4), Microsoft – Zune (MP4), Microsoft – Zune (WMV), Nintendo DS (DPG), Sony PS3 (MP4), Sony PS3 (BluRay), Sony PSP (MP4), s1 AMV Player (AMV), SigmaTel Motion Vid (SMV), GIF (for making Avatars) Sequence Of Images.

I’m gonna toss on there a few images so you can see the options for the drop-down menus:

This menu above shows up when you right-click or, click on the M icon at the top right corner. Some of the options are dimmed out since I haven’t dropped any video files into the window for conversion.

So this is the 2. Output Video Codec dropdown menu. It adjusts accordingly depending on whatever file format you select in the 1. Output Container, so you don’t have to lift a finger.

This is the 3. Output Audio Codec dropdown menu above.

When you scroll over each section, corresponding menus pop out. This one’s for the audio section. I pretty much ignore it.

Video Scale Size is only if you wanna enlarge or shrink your current video. Most video editing software will enlarge and fix the resolution automatically so mostly this would be useful for resizing to fit onto your social platform of choice.

See the More box checked? When you check it, more options come up.

I promise you it only looks overwhelming, but to encode a video lasts about less than 5 minutes. Lemme show you how.

How To Use Super C

Let’s bring up that window again so you can see what I’m referring to:

INstructions on using Super C

• Drag ‘N’ drop your video into the pink circled box there, the one underneath where it says DROP A VALID MULTIMEDIA FILE HERE
• Go to 1. Select the Output Container and select whatever format you wanna convert to
• Leave all the other options alone. You’ll be tempted to fiddle with them but NO TOUCHY-TOUCHY. Stop it.
• At the bottom of screen, click the Encode (Active Files) button. Sit back, have a beer.
• It’ll save to your desktop so check it to see your newly encoded video file. Enjoy!

When I encoded, I converted from a .WMV format to a .MPG-4 format. And my window looked like this while it was in progress:

And that’s pretty much it. File encoded.

Then I uploaded to my TwitVid account:

TwitVid spends a few min. reading your file then uploading it. And did it work?

Yes!

That’s http://www.twitvid.com/G8ESK (login with your Twitter acct. to view) and once it posts on TwitVid, it also posts to Twitter:

Done and done!

Some links to check out:

eRightSoft. Their official website.

VLC Player. For Mac & PC. It’s good for playing just about anything due to a huge library of codecs.

Real Player Converter. For Mac & PC. Makes Quicktime look like crap. I’ve had luck converting .MP3 files to .WAV with it. Don’t ask.

Product Wiki. Not a whole lot of info there but you may add to it yourself.

Gilluminate. The reader’s comments are illuminating. (did I really use that word? ew)

How To Make People Notice Your New Blogpost – TwitPWR

When I announce *NEW blogposts* via Twitter, I want people to take notice. I have to retweet my announcement over & over the same day I debut the new blogpost. That’s  just crap! A redundant waste of time 😦  But tweets move so fast in Twitterverse it’s hard to keep up. Even if I post links to my latest blogpost in Twitter, how am I supposed to know if people are noticing?

Several (PAID) services offer to announce for you. But today, I’m gonna touch on  TwitPwr. Best of all? It’s FREE.

Send New Blog Posts To Twitter Using TwitPWR

TwitPwr is one of the first URL shorteners ever made, long before standalone Twitter  apps like TweetDeck began including URL shortening devices. I began using it since the beginning and saw all the benefits.

Currently I use Destroy Twitter instead of TweetDeck, and it does come with several brands of URL shorteners. Unfortunately I don’t see any real time results with those, and that’s just not good enough. When brand-building is at stake, it is absolutely necessary to be able to access and view real-time results. I get that from TwitPWR almost immediately after clicking; THAT’s what I want to see!

This is what TwitPRW front page looks like:

1. Just punch in your blogpost’s URL address in the box with the HTTP://
2. I put my Twitter ID (supermunk) in that box there.
3. I hit that Create Twitter Short URL button and that’s it.
4. Now you see on the right-hand side how TwitPWR created the short link for my blogpost, AND *BONUS* automatically lists my blogpost under Recent URLs column! X-tra exposure!!!

So now I take that short URL link it made for me, and I post it on Twitter like you see below:

1st tweet = I used TwitPWR; 2nd tweet = I posted my blog link manually

It’s that damn simple! (^-^)

Again, below the TwitPWR front page:

Below I circled in pink my Twitter name and my new blogpost that TwitPWR created for me:

And see what I underlined in pink there?

• Your TwitPWR Profile Link:
• Your TwitPWR URL Info Page:

Records Your Links

Well when I click on those, it brings up the window below with all the previous web links I have used URL shorteners for. Yep, TwitPWR keeps a sort of record for them.

It even tell you ‘where from’ you posted such links. For example, I always post from Destroy Twitter, that’s why you see it listed there. If you used Tweetie, Hootsuite, or Seesmic it’ll show up:

Below you can see I circled the link I posted to Twitter using the ol’ TwitPWR:

Evidence Of Results

So to demonstrate results:

• Posted on 28th of April/ almost 7:00 AM
• My blog had only 4,790 hits by then:

Same stats a few hours later:

• Posted on 28th of April/ almost 10:30 PM
• My blog had only 4,804 hits by now

And this was without submitting this post anywhere else.

I will continue onward reviewing other methods of making people notice your blogposts. Don’t shy out on me and feel free to  comment. Try this out and lemme know how it goes!

Twitter App For Who’s Following You

Want a Twitter app to see who’s following you and who isn’t?

It’s called Friend Or Follow and it is 100% USEFUL.

(unlike other Twitter apps…!)

• Friend Or Follow has shown me which of my Followers I’m not following back/ which of the people I follow aren’t following me.
• Friend Or Follow can tell me this info via an Excel spreadsheet I can download to my computer.

• Friend Or Follow can sort out all the Followers and Friends by Username/ Name/ Location/ Followers/ Following/ Last Tweet/ Account Age –via dropdown menu

Let’s go!

So I go to their web address, http://friendorfollow.com and this page displays. I typed in my Twitter name:

Of course after I hit the Submit button, it takes me to the following page below. Notice it resembles like a mini version of my Twitter profile, complete with my customized background wallpaper:

So a couple things to notice…

1. At the top is my name, SuperMunk, with a little round symbol next to it.
2. Click on my name>takes you to my Twitter profile.
3. Click on round symbol>takes you to my blog (I put down my blog name for a web address on my Twitter profile)
4. It contains the following tabs: Following, Fans, Friends
5. The Following tab is the one that automatically displays. Notice it says supermunk‘s following these 60 people, but they’re not following supermunk back. These are the folks you follow but they’re not following you.
6. Notice below that, it says Export as CSV.

So let’s click on the next tab, Fans. Fans are the people who follow you but you have no plans to follow them. Please note the dropdown menu and spreadsheet link I mentioned.

And when I try to Export that spreadsheet file,

It downloads to my computer no problem. And this is what that file looks like when I open it:

Notice I highlighted the two columns, Followers_Count and Friends_Count. It’s helpful in helping me determine which followers to befriend and which to nix.

It gives you some very important info, like when those accounts where created, bios, location, etc. For business purposes, these vitals are pure demographic gold!

You can find out more details on each Fan (or Follower) just by rolling the cursor over any given profile. Just like I did below:

See? I highlited so you can see which person I clicked over, someone by the name Grisanti. And you can see their stats in a mini-window like you see here.

And the Friends tab:

Friends, are the people you follow that follow you back.

Now, you can get a Featured Profile by forking over some ca$h, as shown in the window below:

The Featured Profiles get shown in an animated banner that stretches across, like that ErikJHeels you see above.

So if you click on that right-hand side mini link, FeaturedSponsors.com, you get the window below:

But I haven’t tried it so if you do, you gotta tell me!

Bottom line: This Twitter app is GOLD for digging thru mines of wasteful spammers and separating them from the real Followers!

Pros: You can do this in your regular Twitter account, but you’ll be sifting thru Twitter’s long lists clicking on each and every single Follower and waiting for those pages to refresh so you can read their stats and hope to God that Twitter doesn’t crash in the meantime, or hope other API features deter you.

Friend Or Follow helps you see who you want to keep before you log into your Twitter profile and start deleting.

Cons: I only wish I could do the deleting right from Friend Or Follow. Oh well. Will be looking for updates in the future.

Enjoy. I gotta go delete some spammer’s asses right now!