FormatFactory 5.17

Converts between FLV, AVI, MP4, WMV, MPG and other video formats, WAV, MP3, WMA, M4A, OGG and other music formats or JPEG, PNG, ICO, BMP, TIFF and other image formats. Rips the content from DVDs as well as CDs and supports watermarking.

Conversion of all kinds of files between formats has already become the norm rather than the exception in these times of multiple platforms and devices. You may want to use a different conversion tool for every file format, or you can download and use FormatFactory for free to convert between common video, audio, images, and document formats in a simple and convenient way.

Though its interface look and feel may not be the most attractive and intuitive out there, it is fairly easy to get used to. Its horizontal tabbed design displays all the main groups of files that you can convert and edit using this tool – Video, Audio, Picture, Document, ROM Device/DVD/CD/ISO, and Utilities. Things get a bit more confusing when you click on each tab and take a look at the different tools and the icons that represent them. Thus, on the Video tab you’ll find a mixture of pure conversion utilities (to MP4, to MKV, to WebM, etc.), editing tools (Splitter – good also for audio tracks –, Crop, or Fast Clip), and others that might as well be on a different tab, such as the Format Player.

The whole program is designed like that, and despite its not-so-clear layout and distribution of its many features and functions, it does perform its many tasks in an efficient and very convenient way. Whenever you click on one of those icons, a new window will open, asking you to load your files or whatever other actions are required to convert Word files into PDFs or to clip a video file, for instance. Do not expect highly configurable options and a high level of customization – this is a free program that simply offers you a basic yet efficient set of conversion and editing tools for anyone to use and enjoy.

Whenever you click on the OK button (or a similar one) on each of these new windows, you’ll find that nothing really happens, no audio files are being converted to MP3 and no video frames have been cropped as expected. And this when you discover FormatFactory’s best asset – its batch capabilities. All conversion, editing, audio ripping, or disc cloning tasks are listed on the program’s main interface, waiting there for you to click on the Start button at the top to be executed. This is just an amazing feature, especially when you want to perform more than one task per session.

FormatFactory is what it is – a basic, simple, and efficient multimedia tool to cover our most basic conversion and media editing needs. It may not be the best designed media tool out there, but it does what it promises and offers an excellent batch capability that I’d love to find in more professional tools.