Situation
We bought my mom a new 32GB Asus Transformer tf300t tablet recently for Christmas, and I wanted to pre-copy all the photos from the past year onto it. I found a solution for shrinking my videos down in size to enable me to fit 1+ years worth of videos onto the tablet (see my previous blog posting), but the problem wasn't only with the video sizes, it was with the photo sizes too. That's when I knew I needed a fast and easy way to re-size my collection of photos, one that can convert batches. As you can imagine, we took hundreds of photos in the past year.
Search Criteria
There were a number of free Image Re-sizers, but this time I was looking for one similar to the one I used in Windows XP. Windows XP had one from Microsoft that you can download separately from the initial installment of Windows, that plugged into Windows Explorer, and worked with the right-click menu.
Solution
I did some searching around on Google, and to my surprise, I found a third party application/plug-in that worked the same as the one for Windows XP. It's located on Codeplex's website named...
"Image Resizer for Windows"
Link: http://imageresizer.codeplex.com/
Conclusion
The application works well, and I was able to quickly shrink all my photos from the past year so that they would all fit into the tablet. File sizes went from 1.5 MB-3.5MB to 100KB-250KB, which was awesome, and the pictures remained clear.
Note
If you convert large batches of photos, it will appear as though Windows Explorer has timed-out, but allow it to finish, and Windows Explorer will start responding again. I have a fast computer, and so the time-outs weren't so bad.
Try it out, and see if you like it.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Free Batch Video Resizer and Converter
I was looking for a batch video converter recently because I had a need to re-size a lot of my home videos that I had recorded with my digital camera at 1080p. In short, the files were very large. For Christmas we got my mom an 32GB Asus Transformer tf300t tablet, and I wanted to precopy the pictures, and videos I recorded throughout the year onto the tablet for her, since she likes looking at them.
Problem 1
My camera records in MOV format. The Asus Transformer was only able to fit about a weeks worth of videos onto it, which I didn't think was good enough. So, I needed something to shrink them (i.e. resize them), because I had planned to copy a whole years worth of videos, and pictures.
Problem 2
The other problem I found was that the Asus Transformer tablet's built in 'Gallery' application wasn't able to fully decode the sound in the MOV formatted videos, which means, they will need to be converted to a compatible format. By trial and error, I found that .wmv files work within the 'Gallery'.
Problem 3
The pictures took up a lot of space too, each being anywhere from 1.5 MB to 3 MB in size. (I'll write another story later to tell you about what I found to solve this problem) It's a nice free third party library.
Software Search Criteria
1. Convert a batch of videos at a time (lots of videos to convert, and one at a time doesn't cut it)
2. Convert to a format that the 'Gallery' software can decode
* I know I could install Dice, or VLC, but I wanted to keep things simple for my non-tech savvy mom
3. Allow me to set the output settings
Google Search
* I found a number of applications that you can pay for, some not so bad in pricing
* Wonderware: it worked well, but only converted one video at a time, and it was more for creating a long movie from several clips which wasn't what I needed (not a good fit, but the software seemed pretty nice)
** watch out, Wonderware installs a number items that don't seem to all be related to the program. I was not happy with that, so I uninstalled the application shortly after testing it
* ACDSEE was one that liked, and it had everything I was looking for, except I still didn't want to pay for it. Link: http://www.acdsee.com/en/products/acdsee-video-converter
* I was just about to buy the ACDSEE application, when I decided to look some more, and luckily I did, because I came across something quite similar, and was everything I was looking for. It was...
"PRISM"
Link: http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/index.html
It's easy to use, and free. You don't have to install any of the adware that it comes with, so that's pretty great, and so far it hasn't bothered me with any popup ads, so I'm happy.
Note
You can upgrade the application to allow you to do some additional things like burning the videos to disc, among other features. They also have a Pro Version. Since the free basic version did everything I needed it to, I didn't bother to upgrade, and used the free version only.
Conclusion
Prism was the answer to my problems. I ended up converting all my 1080p videos to 480p, which made my whole years worth of videos (a few from the year before) fit nicely on the tablet. The size of all videos went from 100GB to 20GB or so.
PRISM Application Settings - Issues and Solutions
* Issue: there was one option I had to enable, otherwise the software didn't fully convert my videos correctly. If you don't check the option, it will only convert the first 10 sec (approx), and last 10 sec (approx), and the middle part will only have sound, displaying only a frozen picture.
* Solution: In the options check the option that specifies that you should check it if you have playback problems
Problem 1
My camera records in MOV format. The Asus Transformer was only able to fit about a weeks worth of videos onto it, which I didn't think was good enough. So, I needed something to shrink them (i.e. resize them), because I had planned to copy a whole years worth of videos, and pictures.
Problem 2
The other problem I found was that the Asus Transformer tablet's built in 'Gallery' application wasn't able to fully decode the sound in the MOV formatted videos, which means, they will need to be converted to a compatible format. By trial and error, I found that .wmv files work within the 'Gallery'.
Problem 3
The pictures took up a lot of space too, each being anywhere from 1.5 MB to 3 MB in size. (I'll write another story later to tell you about what I found to solve this problem) It's a nice free third party library.
Software Search Criteria
1. Convert a batch of videos at a time (lots of videos to convert, and one at a time doesn't cut it)
2. Convert to a format that the 'Gallery' software can decode
* I know I could install Dice, or VLC, but I wanted to keep things simple for my non-tech savvy mom
3. Allow me to set the output settings
Google Search
* I found a number of applications that you can pay for, some not so bad in pricing
* Wonderware: it worked well, but only converted one video at a time, and it was more for creating a long movie from several clips which wasn't what I needed (not a good fit, but the software seemed pretty nice)
** watch out, Wonderware installs a number items that don't seem to all be related to the program. I was not happy with that, so I uninstalled the application shortly after testing it
* ACDSEE was one that liked, and it had everything I was looking for, except I still didn't want to pay for it. Link: http://www.acdsee.com/en/products/acdsee-video-converter
* I was just about to buy the ACDSEE application, when I decided to look some more, and luckily I did, because I came across something quite similar, and was everything I was looking for. It was...
"PRISM"
Link: http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/index.html
It's easy to use, and free. You don't have to install any of the adware that it comes with, so that's pretty great, and so far it hasn't bothered me with any popup ads, so I'm happy.
Note
You can upgrade the application to allow you to do some additional things like burning the videos to disc, among other features. They also have a Pro Version. Since the free basic version did everything I needed it to, I didn't bother to upgrade, and used the free version only.
Conclusion
Prism was the answer to my problems. I ended up converting all my 1080p videos to 480p, which made my whole years worth of videos (a few from the year before) fit nicely on the tablet. The size of all videos went from 100GB to 20GB or so.
PRISM Application Settings - Issues and Solutions
* Issue: there was one option I had to enable, otherwise the software didn't fully convert my videos correctly. If you don't check the option, it will only convert the first 10 sec (approx), and last 10 sec (approx), and the middle part will only have sound, displaying only a frozen picture.
* Solution: In the options check the option that specifies that you should check it if you have playback problems
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