15-Minute Reviews :: Wondershare Video to Flash Encoder v2.4.4
Hello everyone and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Wondershare Video to Flash Encoder version 2.4.4 by Wondershare Software – An application to make converting video files to Flash easy.
Software Description
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Wondershare Video to Flash Encoder is an excellent yet easy-to-use program to convert video to Flash files that have very small sizes and are easily distributed by E-mail, FTP upload, or just regular storage devices. This video to flash converter provides you with different styles of Flash video Players and Flash Templates, complete with various video effects and background music.”
Quick Pros
- Wizard-style interface flows very well
- Tons of features
- Lots of player templates available
- Output to FLV, SWF, screensaver or EXE
- Fast encoding and good quality resulting file
Quick Cons
- No drag-and-drop to load file(s)
- No batch-conversion support
Expansion
With the boom of YouTube and websites taking off with the video phenomena, the market is quickly filling with applications to work with the lightweight FLV Flash Video format. This application allows you to take your own videos and turn them into FLV files, either by themselves to be used with a linked Flash video player, or embed directly into a SWF file.
I found the interface flowed very well – Wizard-style, it was easy to go from loading the video, to video settings and encoding and everything in between. While there are a lot of settings to choose from, it doesn’t overwhelm you with these by placing them all on the same page. My only quip with this is that there is no drag-and-drop support on the Import page – You have to use the typical dialog box, unfortunately.
There is a lot of features in this application; I’m just going to touch on some of these. There’s video trimming and cropping, as well as video coloring adjustments; Handy for tweaking that video for a nice look to it. There’s the ability to take a snapshot from the video, say if you want to put a thumbnail up somewhere. There is a lot of video and audio quality settings (Again, not overwhelming though.) There is a built-in FTP client for uploading when the file is complete. And finally, there is control over watermarking and links, as well as ability to manipulate the preloader icon. There is a lot to this application.
One notable feature about this application is that not only does it generate the FLV file, you can also have it wrap the FLV in a SWF player, or even external-link to a player. There is a lot of player templates as well built-in as well as more available online, so with the watermarking functionality, you can give your site a distinctive look and feel for your videos. As well, you can not only do a SWF file, you can also create a screensaver or EXE filetypes for other uses.
I tried a couple files and I was delighted by the speed; Only a few seconds to convert a 2 minute AVI file. The resulting video quality is good; No stutters or glitches I can detect. The SWF player turned out to be nice as well, giving a professional-looking player with minimal effort.
As for issues; I didn’t really have many issues with the application. My only hope is that the author incorporates batching functionality.
Final Verdict
This application is surprisingly easy and works out well. For a website crew that wants to host their own videos instead of tossing them on YouTube, you should take a serious look at this application. While free, this application is a great find with the features it has. As for $49.95, if this application makes your life easier and the extended functionality is what you need, it may be worth it; Researching online for other pay-for encoders, the price sits right about in the middle of the pack and offers a punch for that price.
If you are needing a straight FLV encoder, Riva FLV Encoder (freeware) is still a good alternative but definately not as feature-rich.
Posted by BladedThoth on Thursday, June 21, 2007
