want to convert/compress a video, try HandBrake….

Here is one beautiful software…. “HandBrake“…

it’s a “FREE and OPEN SOURCE” video conversion and compression software… and is available for following platforms:

windows – download link

ubuntu linux – download link for 32 bit, download link for 64 bit

mac os x – download link

source code – download link

now a days, whenever i look for any software….  my search string begins with “open source” instead of “freeware” or “shareware”… and i am gaining confidence…

i found this software quite handy and useful..

just now converted a 730 MB movie file into a 198 MB (i asked it to make 200 MB) mp4 (H264 based)….

it took around 20 minutes for 2 pass conversion, which is fine for me…. and the video quality better than what I was expecting.. 🙂

Supported sources:

Any DVD-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD (unencrypted–protection methods including CSS are not supported internally and must be handled externally with third-party software and libraries), and some .VOB and .TS files

Most any multimedia file it can get libavformat to read and libavcodec to decode.

Outputs:

File format: MP4, MKV, AVI or OGM

Video: MPEG-4, H.264, or Theora (1 or 2 passes or constant quantizer/rate encoding)

Audio: AAC, MP3, Vorbis or AC-3 pass-through (supports encoding of several audio tracks)

Misc features:

Chapter selection

Basic subtitle support (burned into the picture)

Integrated bitrate calculator

Picture deinterlacing, cropping and scaling

Grayscale encoding

Supported sources:

Any DVD-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD (unencrypted–protection methods including CSS are not supported internally and must be handled externally with third-party software and libraries), and some .VOB and .TS files

Most any multimedia file it can get libavformat to read and libavcodec to decode.

Outputs:

File format: MP4, MKV, AVI or OGM

Video: MPEG-4, H.264, or Theora (1 or 2 passes or constant quantizer/rate encoding)

Audio: AAC, MP3, Vorbis or AC-3 pass-through (supports encoding of several audio tracks)

Misc features:

Chapter selection

Basic subtitle support (burned into the picture)

Integrated bitrate calculator

Picture deinterlacing, cropping and scaling

Grayscale encoding

For more information go to their FAQ section.

here is screenshot for quick look…