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Applian Replay Converter Review |
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Written by Don Lee
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Sunday, 08 October 2006 |
 Applian Replay Converter is a quick and easy way to convert your audio
and video files to other formats. Even if you are not a digital media
professional, Replay Converter has a very simple interface that doesn’t
even require a manual to operate it. The application will help you
reoutput a variety of source files into other formats in short order
and without the hassle. Here is what I discovered about the Applian
Replay Converter.
Some of the video formats that Replay Converter supports include AVI MPEG 4, Flash video, PlayStation Portable video, iPod video, Mobile 3GP, MPEG 4 and Windows Media Video. On the audio side, the application supports MP3, AAC, iPod Audiobook, OGG Vorbis, WAVE and Window Media Audio. Now you can do individual conversions or you can choose to do batch conversions.
I took a five minute and fifteen second MP3 audio file and converted it to AAC 128-bit quality and the conversion took 52 seconds to complete. The quality of the outputted file was identical to the original and the conversion time was acceptable as well. Be aware that the application only supports up to 128-bit audio quality regardless of the format you select.
I then moved on to my video test, which I was very anxious to see how it would perform. I chose a 10.7MB AVI file as input and Flash video (good quality at 450 Kbps) as the output without the audio. Surprisingly, the video took about 25 seconds to convert. The quality was good and without the audio track, the file was shrunk down to around 9MBs. When I choose the lower quality Flash output (100 Kbps), the same video got down to 2.6MBs. The video quality was still pretty good but now the file was small enough to place onto a webpage without affecting the page loading. The best video output quality is 450Kbps on all formats.
The video quality formats were very good but there are no configurable options regarding the output such as video dimensions and target output file sizes. These would be useful features for those looking at more customized output.
There is a checkbox that you can select in the interface to ignore the audio track in the video file. This is a useful feature because I like to convert short video files into the Flash format that I can have replay over and removing the audio keeps the file size small enough that I can embed the Flash video into my website.
While the product does a very good and efficient job converting video files, I was disappointed to find a few basic elements unavailable. For example, the PlayStation Portable video conversion only outputs the MPEG 4 compatible video file not the required THM information file the PSP needs to recognize the file from the Memory Stick Pro Duo. Applian did inform me that they will include that on the next version of Replay Converter.
Overall, the Applian Replay Converter is a pretty good program and does very basic video and audio conversion very quickly. No complicated techniques or an advanced degree in video production to use this product. Just select your source and your output quality and start the conversion.
The Applian Replay Converter earns a 4 out of 5 star recommendation.
You can learn more about the Applian Replay Converter at the product’s official website at http://applian.com/replay-converter/
About Applian
"Applian" is short for "Appliance". Our software turns your PC into an amazing streaming media recorder. Our Replay Radio, Replay Music and Replay Video Suite products are the best selling online media recording tools for Radio, Music and Video. Applian Technologies is a privately held company based in San Anselmo, CA. You can visit them online at http://www.applian.com.
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