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Need4 Video Converter 8 released!

We have finally released a new long-awaited version of Need4 Video Converter! We did our best to take into account all your wishes and make Need4 Video Converter user interface clearer and more attractive.

What other improvements are included?

• Multicore video processing. Now you can add several files and convert them simultaneously using all CPU cores of your computer.
• More presets for devices, including iPad, iPod Nano, Google Nexus One, Motorola Droid, Zune HD and many others.
• Upgraded conversion module. New media file conversion unit which is more stable and reliable now.
• Help section.
• Some more new features and interface improvements.
• Bug fixes.

We attempted to make Need4 Video Converter more functional, faster and easier to use. We hope that you’ll like it.

Download and try Need4 Video Converter 8 today!

October 26th, 2010
Posted in Software updates | 2 Comments »

Cats & Dogs or a Few Words About Resize

Sometimes you may need to resize your video or change its aspect ratio. For example, you have a widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) HD video that you want to watch on your iPod (4:3 aspect ratio). If you try to upload the video to your device without resizing, it will not be played on your device or will be played incorrectly (probably, you have seen “long faces”).

You can resize your video with Need4 Video Converter. The program offers you to select such options as resize method and resize quality. They can be found as follows:
- open Need4 Video Converter and add your video file to the program file list;
- select the output format for conversion;
- click Settings under the Output format drop-down list;
- in the format settings window opened you can specify resize method and quality.

First, let us review resize methods: Stretch, Letter Box and Crop (see Pic. 1).

• Stretch – the original video frame is stretched (or condensed) to the specified frame size (width and height).
• Letter Box – the original video frame is inscribed into the output frame. The aspect ratio stays the same, and free space between the input and the output frames is filled with black bars.
• Crop – the original video frame is inscribed into the output frame. The aspect ratio stays the same, and the parts of the input frame that transcend the output frame size are cut off.

As you can see from the description, when using the first method the aspect ratio of the original file is changed, while the other two keep the aspect ratio unchanged but by different ways.

As regards resize quality, there are two options available: Normal (Fast) and Best (Slow). Pic. 2 displays differences between these two modes.

• Normal (Fast) – this mode works faster than the second one (as it is evident from their names), but the quality of the output video is lower. When reducing the frame size (if the input frame is larger than the output frame), thin lines may look broken and have irregular thickness. When increasing the frame size (input video frame is smaller than the output video frame), there may be visible pixelization effect.
• Best (Slow) – this mode works much slower than the first one, but the quality of the output video is better. When reducing the frame size – thin lines are not distorted, when increasing – the picture is smoothed.
  

  October 7th, 2010
  Posted in Informative | 4 Comments »