VideoProc Converter – Never be hindered by an incompatible format

by Marcel Dufresne

April 25, 2024

     VideoProc Converter is your one-stop audio and video conversion application. Capture and convert video from the Internet into a compatible device format. Audio can be converted to over 400 different formats. You can edit, cut, merge, crop, rotate, slow down, and speed up videos with the built-in toolbox. Record your computer screen and webcam in various modes. VideoProc is an easy and fast solution for all levels of users. Read on to have a better idea of all this application can do for you.

     The first reason I needed to use VideoProc was to convert a video from one format to another so that I could open it. Not all formats are created equal and some are unusable by my Mac. VideoProc can quickly convert those pesky rare formats into a usable form. The trickiest ones are the older, obsolete formats. VideoProc can handle almost all of these. Simply drop the file into the VideoProc window and choose the desired output format. Press ‘Run’ and watch the progress bar quickly work its way across the screen. You can even do batch conversions by dropping several files into the window at once. 

     Another task I found useful was to remove the visual part from a clip and convert the video to music for listening. VideoProc will quickly and losslessly extract the audio track from the video and save it as MP3, AAC, OGG, FLAC, WAV, PCM. or whatever. VideoProc is also able to change a video to an image sequence or snap an image out of a video to use as a thumbnail. VideoProc supports video conversions for YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and other mainstream websites with no further adjustments required as the presets are already there for you. 

     Another handy tool of VideoProc is the ability to convert video into other sizes and formats. Encompassing 320 video codecs and formats, VideoProc allows you to change video to the target format and make it easy to play. Without any further adjustment, you can play the video directly on your devices after converting. As an example of how easy it is to use, I will walk you through converting video to an iPhone-supported format. First, open VideoProc and click on “Video” on the homepage. Hit “+Video” to import the video that you are going to convert. Next, look at the bottom of the window, and in the “Device” panel, select “iPhone”. Alternatively, you can go to the “Target Format” in the bottom left, where you can find well-organized device formats to work with. Select Apple Device > to iPhone Video, and choose the one based on your device model. Lastly, click the Run button to convert your video to an iPhone-supported video.

     I have been using sounds on my computer for over 30 years. As such, I have some very antiquated and obsolete formats. VideoProc can convert almost any audio from one format to another. The process is virtually the same as my previous example. Just open the application, and click “Video Converter” on the main interface. Next, drag your audio file to this software or click “+Music” to manually select it. Select your output format like WAV, WMA, M4R, etc. according to your needs. Click the “Run” button and wait for a few seconds. Presto, you have a converted audio file.

     Compressing video can effectively help reduce file size and save computer space. VideoProc supports high-efficient codecs allowing you to compress large video files to the target size while keeping the best picture quality. I was able to compress a 1.2 GB video to 0.8 GB and play it with no noticeable quality reduction. Many compression apps require that you play the compressed file through their app. This is not the case with VideoProc.

     VideoProc gives you full editing control. You can quickly add various effects, subtitles, and watermarks to make your video stand out. If you click “Effect”, then you’ll see a window to adjust brightness, contrast, hue, gamma, and saturation. Click “Subtitle” to add (srt, ass, ssa) subtitles from your computer, or search for suitable subtitles online and then add them to the video. With “Watermark” you cannot only add text but also images to personalize your video. You can adjust transparency, position, size, font, and colour, etc. You can cut, crop, change the play rate and so much more. The toolbox provides users with a lot of options, including the most commonly used functions, such as trim, split, and merge. It can help you rotate videos by 90, 180, or 270 degrees and also mirror/flip videos vertically and horizontally.

     VideoProc comes with a free downloader engine which lets you download videos, audio, and playlists from over a thousand sites. VideoProc allows you to bulk download media with original resolution and the downloading speed is fast. If you wish to download a full playlist/channel just copy and paste the URL of the playlist, then click “Download Full Playlist” to save all files offline. In your browser, you can search for a movie, a song, a product name or anything you want, get the URL and paste it in. Click “Analyze” and a few seconds later, VideoProc will show you a list of relevant results. Just select the files you need and click “Download Selected Videos” to save them on your computer.

     The recording feature of VideoProc Converter AI is free yet versatile. You can record the whole or part of the screen on your computer with HD quality. Click the gear icon on the upper right corner to personalize the recording settings, such as recording quality and whether to show mouse clicks. VideoProc enables you to record both screen and webcam, which is very convenient for you to make professional tutorials, reviews, or presentations for sharing with others or uploading on YouTube.

     If you have some DVD movie discs, you should convert these to digital. The CD/DVD external drives are the only means to play these at present and new computers do not have this hardware installed anymore. Quickly digitize your disks into popular formats like MP4, MOV, AVI, etc to play on any modern devices and media players. 

     There is a very informative online user manual as well as a large video tutorial library. All the uses and functions of VideoProc are fully explained in these tutorials. Click here to download a free version of the application to test out the various functions available. There are some specific functions disabled but for the most part, it is fully functional. The main drawback is that you are limited to a maximum of 5 minutes of conversion at a time. If you have any audio or video conversions that you need to work on, get the free version and try it out. Once you see how useful it is you might end up buying the full unlimited version.

Downie – Easily Download Audio and Video from the Internet

by Marcel Dufresne

Aug 22, 2023

     Soundcloud, Vimeo, YouTube and so many other sites on the Internet offer audio and often video streams. Wouldn’t it be nice to have those songs or videos available to listen to or watch without having WiFi? Downie is a powerful application for downloading audio and video files from all over the Internet and storing them on your computer. Read on to see how easy it is to always have access to your favourite songs and videos.

     After opening Downie, you are presented with the main window. Initially, it is empty and contains 2 major sections. Additionally, a menu bar icon and a dock icon appear which can be turned off from the Preferences > Appearance. You can also have Downie appear only in the menu bar (without the Dock icon). The menu bar icon opens a popover which mimics the main window.

     There are several ways of getting Downie to download a link. The easiest way is to install a Browser Extension into your browser (Safari, Chrome, Opera, Firefox and others). This will install a button into the toolbar of your browser and whenever you want to download a video at the page you’re currently on, you can just click that button and the stream is added into Downie. You can also Drag & drop a link from a browser onto Downie’s main window, Dock icon or the menu bar icon. In Downie, you can select File > Open URLs… and then paste the link into the text area. Lastly, while the main window is active, you can press Command-V to load links that are in your clipboard.

     At the bottom of the window, there is a status bar. In the middle of it, Downie displays statistics about downloads. On the left, it displays Add from Pasteboard and Open User-Guided Extraction. I will go into this function in more detail later on. On the bottom right there is the Search and Top Downloads button. With this, you can search for videos on YouTube, Vimeo and others right from within the app. Clear Finished Downloads will remove finished downloads from the window. History shows the content that you have previously downloaded with the option to clear all items from the list. Lastly, Support offers a quick link to the developer’s website for any trouble-shooting you might have.

     After sending the link to Downie, it will start processing the link(s) and saving them to the selected folder. I chose my downloads folder for this. There is a magnifying glass icon next to the downloaded item for the Show in Folder function. This prevents you from accidentally misplacing the downloaded file. 

     By default, Downie will choose the best quality available for you. You can turn off the automatic download start and modify the quality settings in Preferences > General. Before the download starts, you can easily change the resolution or format of the download. You also have the option to save only the audio portion of a stream. This makes for a smaller downloaded file. Right-clicking the download, or clicking on the Actions button will produce a menu with various additional pre-download options. These options vary depending on the link and the state of the download. Have a look at the accompanying screenshot for the major features.

     Not all content on the Internet is in the format that you want. For example, some YouTube videos come in the WebM format. QuickTime Player or your iPhone, however, won’t be able to play this format. Or perhaps you want to download something as audio-only. For all these scenarios (and many more), Downie includes post-processing. The downloaded file can be converted to MP4 which is playable in QuickTime Player and on most current mobile devices. Files already downloaded as MP4 will be left intact. It is possible to have only audio extracted from the file. By default, the audio file is converted to MP3.

     If you need more advanced control over the file, then you might have to use another application. A link to Permute, which is this developer’s media conversion utility, is integrated into the app. For even more control over the post-processing actions, it is possible to create your own custom post-processing script. For example, you could upload the file to your cloud, perform actions based on where the file comes from, etc. 

     The User Guided Extraction (UGE) is one of the most powerful Downie features. It allows you to download videos that Downie would otherwise be unable to detect on its own such as embedded videos on various sites. Usually, when Downie is unable to extract the video on its own, it offers to load the link in UGE. Enter the web page address into the UGE window’s address bar and press Return. Downie will load the page in its browser and will display potential downloads in the right column. To add a download to the download queue, press the + button on the right. If all these functions seem overwhelming, never fear. Downie has a very good help manual. It explains all the ins and outs of the application.  

     Using the Preferences, you can view a list of all the sites from which you can download. The Preferences are actually quite extensive and let you customize the look and feel of Downie. This is the place to get your specific browser extension button. The Safari browser extension is automatically detected by Downie. You simply need to activate this extension. When you right-click a link, you will get a menu item to send the link to Downie. Additionally, when you click wherever else on the webpage, you get menu items to send the current page to Downie with certain post-processing enabled. This way can download some links as audio and some as video without modifying the global post-processing settings. As a bonus, Downie will (by default) download subtitles in .srt format along with the video. 

     As a teacher, I found I preferred to have some educational videos stored on my laptop so that I did not have to rely on Internet access. Downie offers a quick solution to downloading those files. I am sure you too would benefit from having instant access. Downie reminds me of the past when we would record songs from the radio on cassette tapes to replay them at our leisure. Click here to read more about Downie. Download a free trial version and see how easy and intuitive it is to use and get some of your favourites while you are trying it out.