Convert and Compress Files

Whether you're on a Mac or a PC, these conversion applications cover nearly every file type you'll run into, making them the most complete and reliable software for converting and compressing files out there.

Switch Audio File Converter

For your music, presentations, or audio projects, Switch Audio Converter lets you put your music anywhere at any time. Convert music for your iPod, PSP or phone. Compress audio to save hard drive space. Create a ringtone on your phone by converting the format, or even extract audio from video files.

Prism Video File Converter

Your computer might only be able to open certain video file types. Use Prism Video Converter to ensure you'll always be able to watch your videos. With Prism you have complete control over video settings such as compression and encoder rates, resolution, frame rate, and size output. You can also batch convert thousands of files at once and preview videos before conversion.

Pixillion Image File Converter

Pixillion isn't just image conversion software, there are many additional settings to make adjustments to your images while converting including adding watermarks, adjust the image quality, size or resolution, or even crop and rotate photos.

Express Zip File Compression Software

Express Zip is currently the only application on this list that is only available for Windows, but it is an extremely valuable compression tool. Use Express Zip archiving software to create, manage, and extract zipped files and folders. Plus extract files from a variety of other archive formats including rar, cab, iso, tar, and 7z or convert those archives into zip files. You can also easily email zipped files from the program or simply compress files to save disk space.

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Editing Video from a Cell Phone

With the majority of cell phones today coming with not only a built-in camera but also video recording capabilities, the amount of video the average home user takes is skyrocketing. It's just one of the many reasons there are so many videos being posted to YouTube every day. But not every video you record is going to be ready for the big time right away, so if you need to do a little bit of editing here are two extremely useful tools you should using try to clean up your cell phone videos.

Rotate Video

With the variety of flip phones, slide phones, and other shapes of phones, keeping track of which way is up while filming could be a challenge. You may quickly find out all your video needs to be rotated so that you don't have to watch it with your head tilted to the side. Prism Video Converter offers an easy solution. Not only can you convert your video from 3gp, a common video format recorded on phones, to something more computer friendly like avi you can also choose to rotate the video by going into "Effects" before hitting Convert.

Stabilize Video

Another common problem you might have—that you might not have even known you can fix—is with video clips that are shaky from an unsteady hand. If your video reminds you a little too much of The Blair Witch Project, you can stabilize your video with the stabilization feature in VideoPad Video Editor to eliminate jitter. See an example of video stabilization in action in our post A Quick Fix for Shaky Video Clips.

If you are really feeling your inner movie director come to life there are a lot more video editing transitions and effects available in VideoPad, but I think you will be surprised how big a difference even just a few adjustments like these can make to your videos.

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Localization Efforts Pay Off in NCH International Offerings

It has been about a year and a half since NCH Software put in place a localization initiative in order to offer our most popular software applications in French, German, Japanese and Spanish. The challenges have been many but we now provide numerous applications, including WavePad Sound Editor, VideoPad Video Editor, Prism Video Converter, and several more, in the 4 languages mentioned. Working in cooperation with NCH developers, the localization specialists at NCH translate the general user interface (GUI), test functionality for country-specific appropriateness, suggest changes to implement to better adapt NCH applications to non-English speaking markets. They also translate a significant number of web-based material to make sure that French, German, Japanese or Spanish-speaking Internet users can find relevant information, download and purchase products securely in their own languages.

Bucking the current trend of outsourcing translation and localization and relying instead on "in-house" linguists allows NCH to leverage a valuable internal product knowledge and capitalize on direct interdepartmental relationships to produce more accurate translations, faster.

Please click on the language of your choice to find out more about NCH Software's localized software applications.

• Français
  
• Deutsch
  
• 日本語
  
• Español

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Making A Music Video

Over on Review Explorer Chris McGivern posted a detailed interview with Singer-songwriter Andy Fosberry of Ironlight River about making a music video. Fosberry took a do-it-yourself attitude and made a great video without sacrificing his creativity or breaking the bank. And we were particularly thrilled that Fosberry turned to NCH Software using Switch Audio Converter, Prism Video Converter and VideoPad Video Editor to help him along the way.

"As a musician, I use a piece of software call Switch by NCH Software which converts audio formats. And it’s brilliant. To convert these video files I used their A/V equivalent which is called Prism. When it was downloading, I had the option on loads of other things and saw something called VideoPad, which was billed as editing software. I figured it would be like WavePad and, therefore, just for clips etc, but it’s a fully working, kind of mid-level piece of editing software ... Its just so beautifully usable. So much so that I had a working edit in about 8 hours. All the effects, are nicely editable in themselves. So you can really make significant changes to what you are working on."

– Andy Fosberry

If you're interested in making your own music video(s) we would encourage you to go over to Review Explorer and read How To Make A Music Video – For Free for more details on what Fosberry did for his video, and to see the results.

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Convert your Favorite Movie Line to a Ringtone

Do you ever hear famous lines from movies as ringtones and get secretly jealous? Or even obviously jealous? Lucky for you, any line can become a ringtone in just a few short minutes...and you can do it yourself.

What you'll need:
Switch Audio File Converter
WavePad Audio Editor

Nope, that is not a typo—using Switch audio file converter, you can extract the audio from any video file and convert it into a workable audio file format. However, if you think you'll get more use out of video file conversion software, Prism Video File Converter also allows you to extract audio from video files and convert to mp3 or wav files.

Step One:
Extract the audio. Load the video file into Switch, select the format you want to convert to (wav will work fine for now), and click the Convert button. Whew! That was too easy.
Tip: If you don't want to convert such a long audio file, you can trim the video file to a smaller size, isolating the clip you want using VideoPad Video Editor first.

Step Two:
Edit the audio. Now that you have an audio file, load it into WavePad using the Open File icon in the toolbar, browse to your new audio file and open it. Now, isolate the movie line by clicking and dragging to highlight the audio you want to keep in the file. You can make adjustments to the edges of the selected portion by clicking and dragging the edges of the selection. Don't be afraid to preview how the line sounds by pressing the spacebar to play the selection. When everything is just as you want it, press Ctrl+T to trim away everything but your selection. Now save the file in a format appropriate for your phone, load it on your phone and set it as your ringtone.

Voilà! Now who's jealous of your movie ringtone?

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One Click Converting

Some of the most useful software applications to have at the ready are file format converters. You never know when a file might land in your email or come across your desk in a format that you can't open. This can be exceedingly frustrating. With the right file converter you can solve this problem with a click of the mouse instead of having to go back to the source to see if they can re-save it for you.

Plus, in case having the convenience of a file converter on hand wasn't enough, for any formats that you convert to regularly, you can easily add a shortcut to your Windows Explorer right click menu for even faster conversion.

For example, if you constantly need to convert music for your mp3 player, you might want to create a shortcut for converting to mp3 with Switch audio converter. To do that, go to the "Right Click" tab in "Options," turn on one of the shortcut commands and select mp3 from the pull down menu. Once you've saved this setting, the next time you right click on a supported audio file you can "convert to mp3 using Switch" right then and there.

Our other conversion software have similar options to help save you time. Try our full range of converting software including:

• Prism video converter
  
• Switch audio converter
  
• Pixillion image converter
  
• Doxillion document converter
  

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File Converters Making Life Easy

As a student in this day and age, most of my work is composed digitally. I rarely write essays with pen and paper and I even take class notes on my lap top computer. I also deal with a wide array of mixed file formats on a daily basis. From audio to document files, to videos and images, it can be difficult to manage the various file types involved in daily projects. This is especially difficult when I am transferring files back-and-forth from Mac to PC for my school labs and study groups. Not having conversion software on-hand can be the kill shot for any project or paper.

I like to be prepared with every type of conversion software I might need. Switch Audio File Converter is handy when downloading files from various places that may or may not be compatible with different types of computers.

I use Pixillion Image Converter to convert pictures, particularly when I am working with large RAW photos that are difficult to transport on USB devices or via e-mail.

Prism Video Conversion Software is excellent for converting video from PC friendly formats to ones that are more suitable for my Mac at home. It has compression tools and built-in batch conversion, so I can quickly convert multiple videos for large projects.

Converting documents is also quick and easy with Doxillion Document Converter. This is incredibly helpful when toggling between different versions of popular office applications and eliminates the wasted time spent communicating back and forth about difficulties opening and using documents.

For other time-saving software see our full range of software utilities for applications for disc burning, compressing, encryption and more.

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7 Programs You Can't Live Without

Prism Video Converter If you've ever had trouble opening a video file, you need Prism. Prism will let you quickly convert any troublesome video files into a more manageable format. With more formats supported than any other video converter, you'll be hard pressed to come across a video file that Prism can't handle.

Switch Audio Converter There are a lot of different audio file formats out there, and a lot of places you might want to keep your favorite music, from CDs and iPods to your computer or online, just to name a few. Make sure you always have the right format for every song and every application with the Switch Audio Converter.

FastFox Typing Expander Ever find yourself typing the same things over and over? FastFox can be a huge helping hand at home or at work. Use keyboard shortcuts to expand to anything you commonly write, and save time inserting signatures in email, filling out online forms, and writing long responses to customer questions.

Debut Video Capture Whether you want to transfer the video from a camcorder to your computer, are trying to record a video from your webcam, or even recording your screen, Debut is your single software solution for capturing video.

Express Burn Disc Burning Software Burn pictures, home movies, resumes, portfolios, or back up your files to CDs, DVDs and even Blue-Ray discs in a variety of file formats with Express Burn. Simply drag, drop and burn.

PhotoStage Slideshow Creator Bring your digital photos to life and share your favorite memories with family and friends. Tell a compelling story, display your best images, or show off your proudest moments. PhotoStage lets you combine images, video clips, music and narration in a fun and dynamic fashion.

WavePad Audio Editor No list would be complete without one of our all-time favorites: WavePad. WavePad is the perfect application for any audio project in the sound studio or at home. The easy-to-use interface will have you up and running quickly with all the powerful tools you need at your fingertips.

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Naming New Software Programs

Coming up with names for new software products has become a never ending challenge. We've recently introduced several new applications including Lightning PDF printer, Doxillion document converter, CardWorks business card designer and, most recently, Reflect CRM Software. And there are three more programs in development that are still waiting to be christened.

The name of a product is only one piece of the branding puzzle, but deciding on a name is an important step that influences the box design, webpage, and sometimes even the product's interface. So choosing a solid name for a new product is both an exciting and sometimes daunting project, and with so many exciting new products coming through lately, we are slowly turning this naming process into an art form.

After the specs for a new software product have been outlined, the developers give the marketing team a run down on what the new program will do and its key features. I use this information to paint as clear a picture as I can of "Audio Joe," or "Entrepreneur Jack," who is chomping at the bit waiting to buy the new software. Describing not only the target market, but getting a firm grasp on who the customer is and the solution that the software will provide them, is an important step to helping decide what the personality of a product should be.

This is where brainstorming begins. We always at least consider names with 'Express' and 'Pad' in the name, since that is a recurring theme in many of our product names, and sometimes those suggestions spawn lots of laughter as we come across all of the silly and strange words that you can append 'Pad' to. But I think that the laughter is a helpful step that helps get the creative juices flowing and makes a smooth transition to searching the thesaurus for synonyms of key words and feelings that sparking more ideas.

Sometimes we get the opportunity to come up with new words, or combine two ideas as in Disketch CD labeling software. Sometimes the name we decide on is single word that fits the idea or emotion of the software. For example, Prism video converter can split a video into a wide spectrum of different file formats and compressions. The word prism opens up a lot of options; the way a prism opens up white light is a very nice association for how Prism the video converter opens up video files and possibilities.

Our goal throughout is to find a name that leaves an impression with the potential user. With Reflect, we wanted the name to convey that the software gives the user an accurate impression of their clients, an idea we then try to carry to the artwork, text and broader branding for the software. When we've done the job well we usually find that by the time the product is released it is hard to think or it having any other name.

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Converting Software For All Your Needs

You may already be familiar with some of NCH's converter software for converting files between different formats; like Switch, for converting audio files, and Prism, for video file conversion. Well those two favorites are just the beginning! We’ve recently added Doxillion document converter software into the mix. With Doxillion, you can convert your text documents to supported formats for mobile devices and web pages. Convert text to docx, doc, rtf, html, txt and pdf quickly and easily. Even batch convert documents to handle thousands of files all at once.

Check out our full range of converting software applications:

• Switch audio converting software
  
• Prism video converting software
  
• Pixillion image converting software
  
• Doxillion document converter
  
• Golden Records Vinyl to CD converter
  
• Golden Videos VHS to DVD converter
  
• Verbose text to speech converter
  

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Prism Video Converter: A Rainbow of Possibility

It’s happened to us all before: you get an email from your best friend. The subject line is Funniest Video Ever!!! and the only line in the email indicates your friend laughed so hard they spewed milk out of their nose. The attachment is a video, which you click to view, eager to be entertained by this week’s top viral blooper. But something is wrong. Your computer won’t open the video file format...

Previously I would have closed my email and skulked away from the computer feeling left out. But now I know I can open Prism, select the file, and convert the file to a format that I can watch. The laugh’s on me, but in a good way.

Out of the many NCH products I use on a daily basis, Prism video converter gives me the most satisfaction. Videos really used to be a stopping block for me. I understood so little about them—their formats and codecs (Ok, I still don’t really know what that refers to)—that I was willing to give up rather than put myself through the headache of figuring it out. So in a way, Prism has changed my life.

And more than just my email-attachment-opening skills has improved. Recently, I took a silly little video of my dog running around the house on my phone. I emailed the video to myself, converted the file format to a .mov, and loaded it onto my iPod. Video, which used to be such a foreign and out-of-reach media to me (and the masses) is now something I’m considering turning into a hobby.

Soon, I’ll be editing videos on VideoPad, compiling intricate soundtracks on WavePad, and posting my amateur cinematography for you all to see. YouTube first, then...the Oscars? You never know...all thanks to one little application that showed me never to fear video files again.

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Convert Videos for your Cell Phone with Prism Video Converter

Do you have a video on your computer that you want to be able to take with you on your cell phone?

If you have ever attempted to simply put video files on your phone from your computer you already know that cell phones won't play avi, mov or other common video file formats that you might have on your pc. The video file format used by most cell phones is 3pg, so if you want to put a movie on your phone you need to convert to the 3pg format first. You can do this quickly and easily and even for many videos at once with Prism Video Converter.



Download and install Prism for an easy way to convert avi to 3pg or between just about any other video file format including avi, mp4, wmv, mov, mpeg and flv. Just follow these easy steps:

1. Open Prism and click "Add Files", "Add Folder" or "Add DVD" to browse for the video files you want to import and convert.
   
2. Select your output format.
   For most cell phones you will want to convert to 3pg
   
3. Choose your Output Folder
   
4. Select all your files in Prism and click Convert
   
5. If you receive a message about installing a codec on demand click OK
   
6. Your videos will be converted and saved in the output folder for you
   

You will want to allow for a chunk of time when you are converting large video files, but once Prism is done you can put them on your cell phone or other mobile device and watch your movies on the go and take them with you anywhere.

You can also follow these step and simply changing the output format if you want to import the 3pg videos you have recorded on your cell phone and convert them for viewing and sharing on your computer.

Note that Prism will not convert copy protected files, and will give you an error that the file is not a supported format if it encounters a copy-protected file.

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High Definition Video for the home

By now we’ve all experienced the switch to digital on our televisions. This was part of technology moving forward, and a promise that all future TV and movie productions would be captured in high definition. In 2004, HDV (Hi Definition Video) was available in inexpensive cameras, putting HD at the fingertips of consumers.

So what are the benefits of switching to HD?

• Greater digital picture clarity
  
• Higher standard of surround sound
  
• Wider screens which add a new dimension to the viewing experience
  

There is no reason why you can't benefit from all of these features with all of your home videos too. So if you are looking for a way to bring high definition to your home movies, NCH Software has a line of video software that has evolved with the growth of the industry and brings professsional quality capabilities to everyone in easy to use user friendly applications. Our products let you transfer video from your camcorder to your computer, record straight from your webcam, edit your home movies, share video with friends over the internet or convert video file formats. Debut Video Capture Software can be used to record video from a webcam, record your computer screen, or import video from a camcorder or another video capture device. With this handy little application you can give your old movies a new digital life to preserve, edit or share on your computer or over the internet. VideoPad makes editing your videos easy. It provides a platform for you to create professional looking videos, complete with transitions, music and narration, all while being one of the fastest video stream processors on the market today. A new version of the VideoPad movie editor will be available by the end of August. he new edition promises to be vastly improved with lots of new capabilities for even more powerful video editing at your fingertips. Prism video converter can convert video files from avi, wmv, 3gp, mov, flv and more into avi, mov, asf, wmv, mp4, 3gp and others. It can also convert DVD discs to your hard drive or compress video files to reduce size. Once you have imported and edited you video collection, also be sure to take a look at Express Burn Disc Burning Software which you can use to help you burn DVDs or even Blu-Ray discs as back up copies of all your memorable moments and movies.

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