Avanquest ConvertMovie worth buying?

[guitareth]

I occasionally need to convert videos to other formats or edit and join them and don't have a great deal of knowledge or experience in this field. Have just bought a new Panasonic Lumix DMS-TZ5 camera which records high def videos in Quicktime .mov format only, so will want to convert these to other formats.

Have just received an offer to buy Avanquest ConvertMovie for only £9.99 ($20). See here for more details of this software.

Sounds like a suitable product at a good price, but just wondering if anyone would recommend any alternative products that are cheaper (or even free?!!), and offer me better or more extensive functions?

[guns1inger]

There are plenty of good, free alternatives, depending on what you want to do. While it purports to record HD, it doesn't quite. The resolution is 720p, but the compression is, like most still cameras, motion jpeg in a quicktime MOV container.

For most conversions, including to true 720p HD ready for BluRay, try Xvid4PSP. For ocnversion to DVD, try FAVC. Both are free, and I would suggest superior to some cheap payware.

[guitareth]

Thanks for your suggestions.