Recommends for audio/video/media conversion software?

[Voixdelion]

Need a definitive solution for format switching in audio and video files as I always seem to have something that isn't the right one for what I need to do with it. I'm totally over all the trying of various ones that are limited so I can't really get a good idea of it, or free ones that only do one format to many in only one direction. I am happy to go separate ways for a good solution if its one for audio and one for video, but I want bi-directional conversion capability with as many formats as possible - possibly even at the expense of "ease of use" since I'd rather figure out one complicated piece of software ONCE than have to figure out several different simpler ones for each type of transmogrification. Anybody got recs and specs? I'd like to keep the cost under $40 for each but I can be swayed if I don't have to think about it anymore afterwards...

Oh, and it kinda needs to run on a 3.2Ghz p4 machine so I don't have to buy a new computer to use it (that's with 4GB ram + HD3850 AGP, if it matters -AND NO SNICKERING!!)

[fossala]

I convert everything with either ffmpeg or mencoder.
Edit: Both are free (libre) software so will cost you nothing.

[TheProfosist]

If you need some sort of GUI go with MeGUI if your doing mass audio dbpoweramp

[fossala]

Handbreak is supposed to be good if you need a gui. (Once again it is free (libre) software)

[TheProfosist]

Handbreak is supposed to be good if you need a gui. (Once again it is free (libre) software)

Handbreak is limited compared to MeGUI and "transcodes" more than encodes.

[fossala]

I haven't ever used MeGUI (I don't use a proprietary os). It seems to be written in .net, I wonder if I could get it to work with mono.

[TheProfosist]

I haven't ever used MeGUI (I don't use a proprietary os). It seems to be written in .net, I wonder if I could get it to work with mono.

mono? as in mono audio? if you cant just use eac3to CLI which is what I recommended if you dont need a GUI fior audio thats going to be combined with video.

[alaricljs]

Mono as in the unix port of .NET

[fossala]

It is not a port. It is entirely new code.

[TheProfosist]

Just so you know MeGUI is written in .net but its just a gui it uses other programs to do everything so I doint know how compatible it would be.

[fossala]

Yeah, looked into it. It is not going to work. Mencoder and ffmpeg are more than good enough anyway.

[Malphas]

I use Avisynth and Virtualdub.

[TheProfosist]

I use Avisynth and Virtualdub.

MeGUI is a GUI to many things including Avisynth. My preferred GUI for Avisynth is AVSPmod.

[Malphas]

Yeah, I know Virtualdub is very old school now, but I'm familiar with it and it works fine for what I need.  I tried MeGUI before, but it must have been in its infancy, because I thought was just a basic encoder frontend.  I never heard of AVSPmod before, I might give it a whirl sometime.

[nar]

If your just converting video and audio formats (transcoding), I find MediaCoder to be very good and easy to use for that purpose.
Has a ton of different input and output formats, not as many features otherwise though compared to others.

[TheProfosist]

I just want to make sure that everyone understands that for the most part transcoding is the least ideal.

[Malphas]

Yes, TheProfosist is right, MeGUI is probably your best bet.  I thought this thread was about editing video for some reason, not just changing formats when I said this...

I tried MeGUI before, but it must have been in its infancy, because I thought was just a basic encoder frontend.

That's actually ideal for the OP's requirements.