what is the best software to convert wmv to mp4?

[kenny1999]

I have tons of wmv that I'd like them to be converted into mp4

What is the best software to do so? Fast, can be done at once, size would not be too big, easy to use.

Thanks !

[El Heggunte]

Well, it would be nice if such software actually existed

WMVs are a complicated thing... because they may contain multichannel audio (WMA Pro), and also because they are often b0rked, when they are the result of several small /short files that were joined into a single WMV file... in this case, it's normal that they lead to sync issues when converted to other formats `carelessly´.

FWIW: I always load them thru Avisynth's FFVideoSource(); their audio, I decompress to WAV with Lord_Mulder's wma2wav and then recompress with qaac, twolame or LAME. After converting the video, I multiplex the new video and the new audio with MP4Box or L-Smash.

[bulgom]

.
Hi

With "easy going" WMVs, I'd recommend "AviDemux": easy, but... can be buggy! You would (usually) need to download 2 or 3 versions (old 32-bit 2.5.6 + more recent 2.6.8 + latest 2.6.10), of that (free) software, to switch quickly to another version, if/when it complains or crashes.

One interesting point: it accepts several videos, to join by recoding, of different file formats — but requires the same image size, while "VirtualDub" (for instance) rejects that.

About its bugs · I know that doesn't sound reinsuring but, at least and as a converter only + some simple trimming, it's — or can be — relatively simple to use. Buggy, but not bundled with any spyware whatsoever, and 100% portable when "avidemux.exe" renamed to "avidemux_portable.exe".

Now, with difficult WMVs, a (whole) "toolbox" is required in many cases...


My advice is basic / aimed to beginners (no pretention to anything advanced).


One thing's sure: with WMVs... and with many other videos in fact, despite our lack of patience, a one-step process is sometimes impossible, if not: often. How many times am I forced to recode clips one by one, before they'll accept simple joining... Or even recoding of the whole thing (if so, to recode the individual clips, use a lossless codec: "HuffYUV"...).


About the audio desynch. annoyance, I find "AviDemux" quite efficient, though I didn't test on WMVs in that case

– but at least, on several cell phone videos to join, here WITH recoding, and with audio track shorter than the video stream + "VFR: variable frame rate" *, that some other softwares were unable to both join and keep in synch.

* "VFR" is a good idea... on the paper! In pratice, it turns to a nightmare, especially when joining with no recoding.

Therefore, even with no audible desynch., to recode, I often use the "AviDemux RESAMPLE FPS" filter (not "Change FPS"!), for instance set to 29.97 with "29.212 or 28.758" FPS clips (or 25.00 when I find "24.354", or 15.00 if "14.998", etc.) or such weird framerates;

plus full audio recoding: including resampling (to the same sample rate or else), and reconversion to the same number of channels.

I try to advise newbies (or the even less advanced than me ) to always check the framerate, and reset to something as standard as possible, + at least resample the audio along.

Of course, more filters applied mean longer processing time but, so far, that always prevented problems, when joining. However, note that it does not fix audio desynch. per (individual) files / that's "another story"...).

.

[Baldrick]

Vidcoder!