SUPER - Best Replacement that is Vista Compatible?

[heyjjjaded]

I'd been using SUPER for months to convert our short home video clips so they can be played on our iPod. We just got a new computer with Vista and now SUPER is giving me lots of errors. Is there another free program that converts videos like this and is compatible with Vista? Thank you!

[redwudz]

I only use SUPER for odd format conversions. I don't see it listed as Vista compatible here: http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vista_Software_Compatibility_List But that list is rarely up to date.

But I have ran it on Vista Home Premium with no problems. I do install most new programs in 'Run as administrator' mode. SUPER seems to want to 'call home' fairly often, and that may be causing you problems if your firewall is blocking it.

And what kind of errors? Do you have the exact text of one? And there are probably other programs that may do a better job of converting to ipod format. But someone else will have to help you there, as I have no experience with ipods.

You would need to tell us your source video format and what output format you want. ipod may have more than one type format it can accept, I don't know. And there are likely programs that may do a better job than SUPER.

[Ai Haibara]

SUPER will work under Vista - however, you have to give it full admin privileges. The SUPER creators recommend running it only under whatever administrator account you have set up on Vista.

You may have some success right-clicking on the SUPER shortcut and picking "Run as administrator." (Note that you'll still need the admin password for that.) Also, they've recommended disabling UAC, but I'm not ready to do that.

(SUPER does some things Vista security doesn't like, such as modifying the contents of its own Program Files directories... it also defaults to saving in a subdirectory, there.)

For converting videos for the iPod, I generally recommend Videora iPod Converter over SUPER. For a more all-around converter, you can also try WinFF. (I have to admit, though, that I haven't tried installing either of those on Vista, yet. )

[redwudz]

Just to add, SUPER 'phones home' a lot. My firewall tells me that.

And if you are having problems with UAC, you should know about TweakUAC. It gives you the option to easily turn UAC on or off (Not really recommended) or put it in 'Silent mode' where it doesn't nag you near as much. I like that. http://www.tweak-uac.com/

I have the freeware Zone Alarm Firewall, AVG, Spyware Blaster, SpyBot S&D, along with a hardware firewall, so I'm fairly secure anyway with my Vista computer.

[heyjjjaded]

Thanks for the help. Our little video clips are shot with our digital camera & it outputs the videos as AVI files. I input those files into Super & try to output them with all the iPod settings selected. Everything worked fine before we upgraded to Vista. I don't recall the exact text of the error messages that I get now ... I'll try the "run as administrator" suggestion and see what I get. Thank you again for the help.

[heyjjjaded]

Tried to "run as administrator," but I'm not able to drag & drop a video file into Super as I was before. Usually, I just drag & drop my video file into Super where it says "Drop A Valid Multimedia File Here." When I do that now, nothing happens. Is there a different way to input a video file?

[redwudz]

SUPER seems to use a few 'tricks' to do what it does. Maybe all of them don't sit well with Vista. But 'Run as administrator' shouldn't have any effect on drag and drop. But if you right click on a blank part of the program screen, you should get a menu that allows you to add files and other optionsl

I would uninstall the program, get the latest version and when you re-install, use the 'Run as administrator' on the installer.

[heyjjjaded]

Thanks again. Your suggestions worked & the videos are loaded into my iTunes now. Still having trouble with 1 video which is really no different than the others. I'm getting errors/suggestions that have to do with checking or unchecking the DirectShow Decode box. I don't have it perfect yet & I'll keep trying, but it is much better now. Thank you!

[heweaver]

I just got a PC with Vista and I have the same issue with using Super. If you RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR, the drag and drop functionality is not there. However, what I did to get around it was this:

I opened Super and right clicked in the middle to get the menu, and one of the options was DISPLAY ERRORS (IF ANY) ON STARTUP. I unchecked that, and set my output folder to the same folder as the input files.

Now, when I launch SUPER without the RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR option, it opens without any errors and as long as you are not trying to save files into your PROGRAM FILES folder, it seems that SUPER works 100% so far that I have seen with outputting to the same folder as the input file. Now I have drag and drop functionality, and I have no errors on startup of SUPER!

I hope this helps. This topic is about a year old so maybe the option to hide errors was not available in older versions, but anyway this worked for me and I hope it works for everyone else!

--
http://haroldweaver.com - Tech Support, Entertainment, and Gaming Forums!

Tried to "run as administrator," but I'm not able to drag & drop a video file into Super as I was before. Usually, I just drag & drop my video file into Super where it says "Drop A Valid Multimedia File Here." When I do that now, nothing happens. Is there a different way to input a video file?

[redwudz]

Thanks for the update. I rarely use SUPER and even less with Vista. Normally, you don't need to run any programs in 'Administrator' mode with Vista. That is more often used with installer programs. 'Administrator' mode just bypasses some of Vista's scanning and checking processes.

I do, however, use TweakUAC to bypass some of Vistas frequent queries, when yes, I really want to do that. TweakUAC in 'Quiet Mode' is usually a better choice than turning off UAC completely as it does still give you some malware protection and will reduce the Vista queries to a bearable level.

With most programs you want to output to other than your input folder to speed up drive accesses and transfers. But if that's what works..... SUPER is a assemblage of many freeware programs that don't always perform well with each other. I reserve it just for 'odd' formats as, IMO, there are better tools out there for more common operations.

[ricardouk]

... I reserve it just for 'odd' formats as, IMO, there are better tools out there for more common operations.

there is a better and "odd format ready" program outthere, have you looked into Avanti? Have a look at all the menus at the top, templates/options and since it uses ffmpeg its bound to be "odd format ready".

did i mention it doesnt mess with other codecs already installed like Super does?

[Des]

I am running the 64bit version of Vista Home Premium, which sometimes is like having a car that uses custom sized tires and I've had no problem using Super at all. Can't think of anything out of the ordinary I'd done when installing Super. I have had UAC off in Vista since day one, maybe that makes a difference.

That said, I have added other conversion utilities to my toolbox because I think they do a better job for my needs than Super.
My current favorite is Avanti.

--dES