Looking for help regarding video converters!

Hi everyone,
This is the first ever post from me so I hope I don’t mess anything up to get banned for nothing. =X
I would like to know which free video converter are you using and/or recommend?
I've tried a few but most of them either needs to pay or the services provided is not up to my standard...
I'm currently using Free AVI Video Converter but I'm not sure if that's good enough.
I'm testing my videos with Windows Media Player.
After converting the videos, I found out that the quality is ok when you're watching from the beginning to the end.
The only problem I found is that if I clicked on the time bar below to so-called fast-forward it little by little (Test video) I found out that the image will be pixelated and will be alright again after a few seconds (Sometimes a little longer).
I would also like to know if it is the converter's problem or my graphics card or something wrong with my laptop.

Thanks in advance~

Personally i use a program called WinFF. its a completely free converter that runs straight from the command prompt.
you can download it HERE or not.
its possible that youll need administrator rights, but im not sure. i DO know the program is safe though.

it takes a while to convert, but it keeps the quality better than most converters

I just installed it and found out that there are 2 issues...

1) It could not convert it to MKV format.
I did some research quite some time ago and found out that MKV is 1 of the better video formats.
^ Correct me if I'm wrong and please give suggestions and comparisons if possible...

2) It could not merge multiple or at least 2 videos into 1.
Again I tried to click all the possible tools but still can't find a merging video tool.
I then searched google for "WinFF convert AVI to MKV" but it seems to me that WinFF could not convert to MKV.
^ Correct me if I'm wrong and assist me on doing that.

When I convert the videos, I usually set higher resolution and Mbit/sec, will this make the video itself lose quality?
^ Since I'm making the quality better but will it result in a loss of something instead?

Which is the best audio/sound quality for videos?
^ Is it AAC?

1) its possible that mkv is not a supported filetype. it is quite an old program, but its free and does the job. rather than converting to mkv, convert it to something similar like mp4, or avi (or wmv if you dont mind a tiny bit of lost quality to make the file much smaller) im fairly sure that most players can play at least one of those types.
(also if im not mistaken, most avi's are lossless so theyre huge files)

2) its a video converter, not editor. its not used for combining videos together.

3) it shouldnt cause any problems or loss of quality if you convert it to a higher quality file.

I'd suggest you try out "Any Video Converter", not sure if it is any better than what TheLazyAss uses but well, gotta test before judging, you know what I mean? I think AVC is non-free, so crack it or trial it.

The best sound quality is not just AAC. FLAC and ALAC give the best quality as well. Though, AAC has a high compression ratio over FLAC and ALAC.

I'd suggest you use MP3 anyway, it is a lossy format but the quality is not lost, the space is which is good :) Unless you REALLY want that amount of quality, but without it being so "spacey", then use AAC.

I used to use a programr called Fortmat factory, maybe it will not do for you since is not especific just for videos or music, more like a jack of all trades since it can coverts images and other things too
 

If you're on Windows, use FFMpeg.

If you're on Linux, you could still use FFMpeg, or you have the option of using the new AVConv.

1) I guess I'll stick with MKV.

2) Got it.

3) Understood.

Thanks~
 

I've used AVC before but will try the AVC Ultimate version.

I'll stick with AAC then.

Thanks~
 

It seems to be a good program but I saw they didn't provide for MKV converting (Correct me if I'm wrong) so I'll give it a pass.

Thanks~
 

I did some research with that and it seems to be command based so I'll stick with AVC Ultimate version.

Thanks~
 

DVDVideoSoft's "Free Studio" has a couple of basic tools dedicated to video editing and conversion. I'm afraid I can't vouch for the quality of them because I only use the YouTube to mp3 tool, but I like to think they are at least on par with the YouTube to mp3 tool (which works wonderfully).

You can try ''Any Video Converter'' , its a freeware.

But then again, you can download following from torrent as they are paid version. 

AVS Video Converter 
Wondershare Video Converter