The plain truth is I don't like working with media files. Watching them, or listening to them, sure, I'm just as into that as the next girl. When it comes to actually converting them from something captured off an external device or my screen, though, my stomach turns. It's not an aversion that's peculiar to Linux. I hate using the Windows for those same tasks. Since I don't have access to a Mac, I can't vouch for the ease of media conversion on them, but I can safely say that as ubiquitous as Quicktime is, I have very little luck working with (or viewing) Quicktime files on any machine with any operating system in my possession.

Linux presents special challenges with media file conversions. The good news is that though some of the tools might be a little tricky to decipher, they do a great job with conversions and tend to encompass a wide range of file types. Some tools can be used with GUI front-ends, and some I've found are just a lot faster and easier to bang out a command in a terminal window. Many of these tools are either installed by default in a number of Linux distributions, or can be added with a few clicks through the distro's repositories.

So I admit it was with a whole lot of fear and loathing that I decided to include screencasts in a recent post on KDE. My video grab software was working wonderfully, but it saved my files as .ogv. That wouldn't be a problem if I weren't hosting it elsewhere, and if the conversion software on that site didn't require it be in a format other than .ogv. And Ogg files, being funny beasts, aren't always the easiest things to convert.

And certainly, they aren't the only things you'd want to convert in Linux. So let's shake down how it's done.

Zamzar is an online service for converting images, videos, and documents from one format to another. MyDataBus is a service that lets you store up to 5GB of files online for sharing via MySpace, Facebook, or other social networking sites.

The two sites have announced a new partnership that lets you easily perform file conversions of media uploaded to MyDataBus. The collaboration makes a lot of sense. If you've uploaded a bunch of PNG, GIF, and BMP files that you'd rather store as JPEGs, you can click the options tab and use Zamzar to convert the files without uploading them to Zamzar first.

The integration's not quite complete. When you're converted file is ready for download, Zamzar shoots you an email with a link to a page where you can download the file. There's no way to automatically save the file to MyDataBus. But there is a note on the page suggesting that you could store your files online if you sign up for a MyDataBus account.

It would be nice if you could upload your files to one site, convert them, and save them to the same site all without having to open a new web page. But we doubt we'll see that any time soon unless MyDataBus buys Zamzar or vice versa.

[via Mashable]

Need to convert a document or picture to a PDF and don't have time to download and install software? Just send an email to pdf@koolwire.com and include your file as an attachment. In a few moments, you'll get an email response from KoolWIRE with a new attachment containing your file in PDF format.

The service is free, and KoolWire can convert Word (.doc), Powerpoint (.ppt), Excel (.xls), Jpeg, GIF, Rich Text Format (.rtf), and text (.txt) files to PDF. It does a pretty good job with files that don't make heavy use of graphics. But when we took a quick screenshot of Download Squad, added it to a Word Document and uploaded it, the result came back a bit truncated.

You can do the same thing by uploading files to free file conversion service Zamzar, or for some documents, you can use the free Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Still, it's nice to have options.

[via Digital Inspiration]

There are plenty of free programs out there that let you convert files from one format to another. You can even convert video, audio, picture, and document files online. But for some reason, good PDF conversion software is hard to come by.

Probably the easiest way to convert a PDF to an HTML file is to email the file to yourself using GMail. When you check your email, you'll have an option to view the attachment as an HTML file. But there's a good chance the formatting will be messed up.

That's why we were so excited to see that Giveaway of the Day is offering up a free version of PDF to HTML Converter Pro today. The software, which normally retails for about $50, allows you to load a PDF file and spit out an HTML document with the same file structure, including chapters and bookmarks.

One side benefit is that the resulting HTML files are much easier to read on a mobile device like a Windows Mobile PDA. While there are PDF viewers for Windows Mobile, they tend to be very slow at loading PDF files. But if you convert a file to an HTML document, it can easily be opened in Pocket Internet Explorer or another mobile web browser.

When you download the file from Giveaway of the Day, you'll get a notice explaining how to register the product. Keep in mind, this offer expires after Sunday.

We wrote about Zamzar a few months ago. It's a free online service that will convert video, audio, and documents. You upload the file, enter your email address, and Zamzar will send you a note when your new file is ready for download.

Well now it looks like Zamzar's got the online video bug, adding support for converting videos from YouTube and a number of other services. You can either enter the URL of the video, or use a new browser plugin to automatically find videos to convert on the page you're visiting.



Zamzar will allow you to convert files from YouTube, Google Video, Myspace, Revver, putFile, Break.com, Apple Trailers, Dailymotion, Metacafe, iFilm, Grouper, and Blip.tv. You can convert files to a variety of formats, including 3GP, FLAC, MP4, and AVI.