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Convert anything to anything

zamzar.com — Convert pretty much any format of anything to any other format. Online. Free. Without downloading anything.

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  • Zyk0tiK, on 10/12/2007, -160/+7This sounds great, I wonder if they put a watermark on video?
    Loads of times where I've wanted to play around with some video on my Mac and it's a WMV I go to import it into iMovie or whatever and you get that Watermark of Flip4Mac... I know it's because I haven't bought the version where you can convert without the watermark, but how can they justify charging for that? I'm especially less inclined to pay for it as I paid for the plugin originally and now the damned thing is free. How do I know that's not going to happen again?
    • TKDWILSON, on 10/12/2007, -5/+75dude try it before you rant.
    • matthewaaron, on 10/12/2007, -15/+83Could have sworn I have seen this on digg before...
    • farfromsubtl, on 10/12/2007, -3/+27This is an awesome service!

      I was REALLY hoping that they would allow you to give a url to a file (say, a 100 mb file on my server) and convert it from there. They would certainly be able to download from my webserver faster then I can upload to them (80kb/s). I hope that is a part of their future features.
    • vandread, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5cool, concept reminds me of a program I've been trying to find for a couple years. You could convert any video file to any other easily by just building a type of flow chart. Start with the video file and put an object down that separates the video stream and audio streams then link the video stream to a video compression codec and the audio streams to an audio compression codec then link the output of that back into an object that puts them back together and that to an object that outputs the file.

      It was real easy and quick to convert files from avi to mpeg2 and back, and you don't have to convert the audio if you don't want to just run it straight from the output of the splitter object to the input on the joining object...

      Kinda reminded me of that program because of the flexibility of it able to go from anything to anything... anyone know the name of the program I'm talking about?
    • Kawauso, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10vandread: Microsoft GraphEdit
    • adurity, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4farfromsubtl,

      Actually the server may not necessarily have a faster download speed from your server. Just like you have a capped upload speed from home, web servers often cap their download speeds since their primary purpose is uploading data. Nonetheless, it would be a great feature so I dugg your comment.

      A
    • vandread, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7@Kawauso

      Thank You! that's it exactly. Kinda surprised its made by Microsoft, but yep that's it.
    • DCJoeDog, on 10/12/2007, -6/+25where's the option to turn a jpg into a hot asian chick? What? It's in beta, NIIICE!!!
    • RandomSkratch, on 10/12/2007, -25/+4I don't see turd to solid gold.

      no digg.
    • negativefx, on 10/12/2007, -26/+4Can it convert my dollar bill into a winning lotto ticket? Buried for stupid title.
    • Charlotte_Web, on 10/12/2007, -19/+1nm...
    • SamKellett, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Rats. They don't like *.m4p. Ah well, worth a try.

      And more surprisingly: nor *.txt...
    • Clevinger, on 10/12/2007, -6/+30Can't convert water into wine. Bury! Next article!
    • 0004, on 07/04/2008, -22/+2ROFL.... CAN IT REALLY CONVERT ANYTHING ??

      can it convert energy into solid matter ??

      i want to order a synthesized burger, and please make it appear near my keyboard :D
      i'll take a solid gold bar as desert too :)
    • bickdigg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26please convert galaad2, RandomSkratch and negativefx into funny posters anyone?
    • teksimian, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5@DCJoeDog

      "where's the option to turn a jpg into a hot asian chick? What? It's in beta, NIIICE!!!"

      Then it needs an option to turn her back into a jpg.
    • Rockyrowks, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@galaad2

      Even if it could convert energy into matter, the cost of localizing and converting the actual energy would be much greater the the outcome, but the otherway around would be much more interesting. Converting an object into pure energy would result in free energy. It doesnt take much matter to create lots of energy..... e=mc2. A penny can fuel NYC for a month.
    • general13, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I thought it was going to let me turn my little sisters rusted bicycle into a diamond-studded Ferrari with laser-guided missile launchers.

      /disappointment
    • dylanrush, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1Jesus Christ, I saw this less than 3 weeks ago
    • coresnake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1pdf->avi FTW!!!

      nah just kidding, but I've been looking everywhere for a pdf-xls convertor..and all I could find was buggy ***** limited shareware...RA-MEN!!
  • Rekzai, on 10/12/2007, -15/+4Great idea !
  • jeremynicolas, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23Hrm. Uploading large files and just downloading them again is just annoying. Still - a useful site.
    • twinklyJesus, on 10/12/2007, -32/+11Useful, alright. For things like, oh, "Hey! Where'd all this spam start coming from?" "How did THEY get my email?" "How did THEY find out that Jeremynicolas needed penis enlargement???"

      This is a scam to gather email addresses and sell them to spammers. If any of you goofs do this, you get what you deserve.

    • tritium, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19How many of us "goofs" do you think are dumb enough to hand over a REAL email address? Hmmm?
    • Rayor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24@twinklyJesus
      Anybody with half a brain has a spam email account.
    • sweetmartian, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2im sure its more fun for people in South Korea. Oh well, maybe in the 22nd century this will be cool in America too when we get decent broadband
    • rabidg00se, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4From the privacy policy:

      We collect the e-mail addresses of file recipients for the purpose of logging and measuring usage. Zamzar does not rent, sell, or share your personal information or email address with any other companies.

      Now, if you want to believe it, that's up to you.
  • DubbleA, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17I think this was on the homepage before...
    Anyway, I personally like to use http://media-convert.com/convert/index.php
  • spiffyfitz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Zamzar is really great and has gotten me out of some file-type problems while I'm in the classroom.

    However, I don't think there is any decent software out there that will convert SWF files to MPEG or AVI. I need to do this for an upcoming animation screening at school. Can anyone suggest software?
    • wild, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Yea, Flash itself.

      The problem with SWF to quicktime is that flash is an interactive format. Its not technically a video, whihc is just images and sound.
    • mikesherov, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm not so sure how "decent" this piece of software is, but it'll do what you need it to do, namely convert SWF to AVI. The big downside is that it's basically a screen capture/flash player combo, therefore it needs to play the entire SWF file to encode it:

      http://www.geovid.com/Flash_To_Video_Encoder/
    • Shlep, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Try Swish:
      http://www.swishzone.com/index.php
      It's a really good flash alternative and it handles .swf files
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Zamzar doesn't do FLAC to mp3 either. Ugh.
    • spiffyfitz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@wild:
      The problem with Flash is that it doesn't play embedded movie clip symbols when you export to an AVI, or any other format for that matter. It's as if you just hit the enter key on the timeline.

      @mikesherov:
      I'll check that site out when I'm out of class, thanks!
    • goatomatic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@spiffyfitz

      actually if you change the type of symbol from movie clip to graphic and put it on loop, or still frame or whatever, then it will play correctly
    • drathan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Listen, I've done a LOT of trial and error, because I create "Journey of a Ghost" (http://www.fableforge.org/grittie) in Flash 8, and YouTube doesnt take .mov's from it (nor .flv's, for that matter). After all my research, I settled for http://www.flashants.com/ .It crappifies the audio a little bit, but I could find nothing better. Hope this helps.
    • spiffyfitz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@drathan:

      Wow! that tool works beautifully! Thanks!
  • chaosmachine, on 10/12/2007, -2/+47where is the lead to gold option?
    • Crossmenjeff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11right next to the straw to gold, but gold is Au on there, so i can see how it would be confusing.
    • khag7, on 10/12/2007, -16/+5how about oxygen to mustard gas
    • piesforyou, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Don't be silly. The shipping costs alone would be huge, there's no way it could remain free.
    • dev1t, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6or a PDF to MP3 would be great. c'mon "Anything to anything"?
  • Portezbie, on 10/12/2007, -12/+2yeah this just silly. For one this has been digged before. Two, there are numerous free and good converting programs. Uploading and then downloading the file will always take much more time. This is a novelty for people who are afraid of computers. The only possible use i could see for this is if you were on a computer other than your own on which you could not install programs.
  • anteyekon4myst, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Finally a way to deal with all those Godless heathens!
    e-missionary: In technology we trust.
  • creoderiot, on 10/12/2007, -28/+4If only it could convert Bush to Islam
    • Shlep, on 10/12/2007, -8/+22. . .or convert fundamentalists (muslim, christian, whatever) into rational, logical human beings
  • gherikill, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Wouldn't trust them with my files. Plus is has to be small enough for them to email you the file back.
    • AndrewWiggin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Err, you expect to receive the file back as an attachment? You can have links in emails nowadays.
  • Lososaurus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Howabout .vob format(DVD's) to mpeg/video iPod?
  • d0om, on 10/12/2007, -9/+25can't convert a .gif into an .exe
    marked as innacurate!
  • MalaysianMafia, on 10/12/2007, -5/+17how about a .mp3 into a .jpg ??!??!
    • Lososaurus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I'd actually like to see how it would interpret that and what 'image' it would spit out....
    • sxtxixtxcxh, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2go into photoshop, file->open as... photoshop raw
      select your file and give it some arbitrary attributes and you're done!
  • Shlep, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1If I can truly "convert anything to anything", does that mean that I can convert a .csv into a .mp4 (successfully)?

    I'm guessing no, but it's still a cool utility.
    • pureliquidhw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3you could.
      i once made a program (with the help of some nifty libraries) that converted a CSV to a WAV file. you just have to have the right data.
  • johanm, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18if only it could convert children's tears to gold
  • axel2k, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2Sweet, so I can convert a JPEG to an mp3!
  • ishmal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Nice idea, but I didn't see any Corel formats. No, I don't want to convert any Corel files, nor do I really care about them. But if you claim to convert "pretty much any format of anything to any other format," then what would make it actually useful would be to provide the formats that people cannot handle elsewhere.

    Yes, I know, the formats are proprietary and secret. But excellence is -meant- to be difficult.
  • mwdcodeninja, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5I've always wanted to convert my PDF docs to MP3!!! Now I can live out my dream!
    • Krioni, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I can convert PDF to AIFF with Mac OS X. Here's a short AppleScript to do that. You'll need to get/compile the binary 'pdftotext' from the XPDF package (think it's on sourceforge.net). Also, converting to MP3 from AIFF is left as an exercise for the reader.

      set pdfFile to choose file "Pick your PDF file."
      set textFile to ((path to desktop) as string) & "temp.txt"
      set soundFile to ((path to desktop) as string) & "temp.aiff"
      do shell script "/usr/bin/pdftotext -layout " & quoted form of POSIX path of pdfFile & " " & quoted form of POSIX path of textFile
      set textSource to read file textFile
      say textSource using "Victoria" saving to soundFile
  • jerrycan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
  • mogus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This is probably too paranoid, but wouldn't this be an easy way to collect large amounts of data on a lot of people? It would be kind of like Gmail giving you targeted ads, which still makes me nervous for some reason.
  • Tuxbunta, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Media convert is pretty cool too, but only one file at a time. Since I can't play flvs on my linux system, I have been converting flvs into .movs. It seems to tank every 4th download or so for me. It also seems to have a bigger selection of formats too.
    http://media-convert.com/

    Also for zamzar, use http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html for a quick email address.
    • chaos386, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Have you tried VLC? It plays .flv files just fine on my Linux box.

      I wonder what codecs this site uses to convert videos to, say, avi? Does it just do a direct stream copy of the audio & video into an .avi (since it's just a container format, after all), or does it convert it to some unamed codecs?
    • Tuxbunta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah chaos, I have tried VLC and it doesn't even show the flvs unlike Totem which at least gives me a video if not sound. Also installing the standalone flash player was pointless because of a missing file or something that I couldn't fix easily
  • xenuxenuts, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3can it convert these people -- http://digg.com/videos_educational/Jesus_Camp_Full_Movie_on_Google_Video -- to something more reasonable?
  • frositay, on 10/12/2007, -17/+2Can't convert .xm to .mp3, marked as inaccurate.
    • spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2You get a huge digg from me for this one! I want to convert .S3M to .OGG!
  • mark1372, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7You can already do all of this (and much more) at Zombo.com.
  • kirk06, on 10/12/2007, -13/+6I see no option for Islam to Christian.

    Must be broken.
    • Olle, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4This raises a question, why does religious discussions happen on digg all the time? I'm a long time slashdot reader, and religious discussions happen much more frequently on digg.

      It is as if digg is the battlefront for atheists and Christians. Why is that?

      I can come up with arguments, but none that doesn't also apply to slashdot.
    • DreadPirateWes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Heh yeah it's getting annoying. There's a never ending supply of people who are content to bash others beliefs and attempt to force their own. Both groups included.
  • kavaliro, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Looks like we've managed to convert Zamzar's server to slag;)
  • ImTheDarkcyde, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Not a bad service, but i can use CircleC to do the same thing, minus the lag
  • honorablesauce, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2no support for EPS files. No DIGG.
  • jonpotz, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3no support for 700 megabyte Xvid files converted to DVD, NO DIGG!
  • hoowahman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Will this thing convert high def mp4 / mov files to a transport supported by windows media center to stream to the 360? I tried doing a conversion for this a long time ago..after a few hours of research I came up with nothing.
  • danieldrehmer, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1What happens when i try to convert a TIFF image to MP3?
    • spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14A picture is worth 1000 words, so I guess you get a little audio book.
  • weiran, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No ICO image format support :(.
    • mlp101316, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ok enough with the - If only it could convert_____ to______comments... they're getting really old
  • Zreitan, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6Can i convert puppies into donuts?

    No?

    *****...my plans are ruined..
    • rabidg00se, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Just glue the tail to the mouth and have at it!
  • manano, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Big deal... I can do the same thing by changing the extension
  • Chamunks, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1this doesn't convert anything to anything wheres ogg-flac or advanced options or at least semi advanced options for that matter?
  • Akilestar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0No option for psd. Thats really the only thing I dont already have a converter for.
  • Raveren, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is not the place to ask but does anyone know of an app to directly convert mp3 to amr?
  • sirmonster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I liked it better the first time i saw it on digg
  • macross9321, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Bah Can't convert .rmj file :(
  • dvdsmith, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I'll point out that the poster said "convert anything to anything", not zamzar.com, don't fault them for that. Also for those screaming scam, read the T.O.S. and Privacy Policy on the site. They make their money from ads on the site, and are using this tool to generate traffic to it. Not every website collects email in order to sell to mass spammers.

    From the privacy policy, "Collecting e-mail Addresses
    We collect the e-mail addresses of file recipients for the purpose of logging and measuring usage. Zamzar does not rent, sell, or share your personal information or email address with any other companies."
  • foobar5892, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Convert pretty much any format of anything to any other format."

    What about Word to Powerpoint files?
  • jswensson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Doh, and I wanted to convert images to ascii art :(
  • wilsgrant, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Something else this site does not convert:
    Monthly convert sites hitting the front page --> Profit
  • TheJosher, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It'll take longer to upload and then download the file again than to convert it yourself. Cool idea, but it'll only be useful whenever everybody has their own personal gigabit line..
  • freedomorfire, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1wow, i wish i knew this before. i dont care about downloading multiple apps to convert files. I wish it could convert Powerpoint files though. Then it would be one of the best web apps ever for me.
  • Brandondork, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Anyone know where I can convert qcp (PureVoice File) files to mp3? Neither Zamzar and Media Convert works
  • ashwin100, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Alright:

    Uploaded a 7.1Mb .mov file = roughly 10mins (on a 2Mbit Cable connection)
    Waited roughly 1 hour for the email link saying the file has been converted to .mp4
    Downloaded file in 1min

    And was it worth it? No. Video quality was acceptable at best, and downright shoddy at worst. Wouldn't use it again.
  • PDelahanty, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4It can't convert a Scientologist into a 256k MP3.
    Also could not convert a JPEG of Canadian money into a $100 US bill.
    Buried as inaccurate.
  • AnotherUsername, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0I'd like to convert ***** to gold plz.
  • 5h1th34d, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Convert anything to anything? Can I convert a pile of laundry into a new beamer? No. Buried as inaccurate.
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