MediaInfo Mac is a Mac utility for displaying information about audio and video files. Similar to GSpot for Windows, MediaInfo can provide codec information, bit rate, resolution, frame rate, and aspect ratio.

The program displays a URL to the codec used (in case you don't have a capable player), and you can export all of the information to a text file.

If you open a file in VLC and press Apple+I ("Get Info"), you can get similar (though limited) functionality by clicking the "Advanced Information" tab.

[Via Apple Downloads]

If you ever have the need to convert video formats on the fly, but just don't seem to have the proper applications available that can do it for you, Hey!Watch might do the trick for you. Hey!Watch, which officially launched on January 10th, is a simple online solution that lets users upload videos, or point to online videos from locations like YouTube, Google Video and other social networks, and have them encode the video in any format. How does it work? Create an account, point to the online video, or video file on your local computer and upload. Hey!Watch displays a transfer status bar on the the screen with a time frame count down, with a list of your actions on the site. When the video has been uploaded, it will display in a "Raw" video section. Click the Raw video you wish to convert, and choose your encoding setting. There are a wide array of encoding options ranging from different iPod ranges, avi, asf, mov, Playstation, Nintendo, Nokia 770, Pocket PC, Wii, Zune, DivX, Flash video, Mpeg, TiVo, mp3, aac, and WMV. If you don't find your video encoding option here, chances are that you don't need that format.

Uploading a two minute video from YouTube took me roughly two minutes. Then encoding that video to an iPod 16:9 took less than a minute. From there, downloading the completed video to my desktop took seconds. Hey!Watch will also show a complete list of all Encoded videos, and Raw videos you have made under your profile. Making it easy to go back and change encoding settings. Hey!Watch also has a mobile version where videos can be uploaded though a mobile dashboard.

The Hey!Watch service is free for 10 monthly encoding sessions, then requires a $4.99 monthly fee for more than 10, and up to 100 monthly encoding sessions.


[Via Emily Chang]

This may be one of the many long lost files tucked away on Microsoft's website that you could never find if you looked for 100 years unless you had nifty things like Google to find it. Some of you are thinking "I already knew about this, why is this news." Well, if you knew about it, why didn't you say so, help a techie out, okay? Holding out on me, huh? Whatever. For anyone (like me) late to the party, WM Encoder will encode many different file types both audio and video into Windows Media format. It is easy to use and supports conversion from these formats to Windows Media format: .asf, .avi, .bmp, .jpg, .mpg, .wmv, .mp3, .wav, .wma. Many different bitrates are supported, both constant and variable bit rate. Genuine Microsoft Validation is required to download this file.