AVS Video Converter is a Windows program from AVS4YOU for changing video files from one format to another. It prepares clips for phones, consoles and video sites, and turns footage into DVD or Blu-ray discs. It also includes a small editor for trimming, splitting, merging and adding effects before conversion. The converter is free to use without conversion limits or watermarks. Some editing functions belong to the full version, which comes with an AVS4YOU subscription.
Choosing an output from formats, devices or websites
The main window is built around a toolbar with three tabs. The Formats tab holds containers such as MP4, MOV, MKV, WEBM, AVI, WMV, MPEG, M2TS and TS, along with DVD and Blu-ray. The Devices tab groups presets by maker or type, including Apple, Android, Samsung, Sony, game consoles and media players. The Web tab prepares video for YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, DailyMotion and similar services.
Each target comes with ready profiles, including HD, Full HD, 2K, 4K UHD and DCI 4K options. Users can also change frame size, frame rate, bitrate and codecs by hand. AVS Video Converter writes video with H.264, VP8, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MJPEG and H.263, and it can open H.265/HEVC, AV1 and VP9 files as input.
A profile used often can be marked with a star. It then appears under the Favorites button, so it can be picked again without going back through the tabs.
Aspect ratio and disc tracks
The Advanced panel sets how the source aspect ratio is read (original, 4:3, 16:9 or custom) and how the output is shaped. Keeping proportions can add black bars, which cropping removes at the cost of part of the picture. For DVD, Blu-ray and multi-track AVI input, the same panel picks the audio track and subtitle stream.
Batch jobs, merging and splitting
AVS Video Converter can process many files in one run. The user adds files by browsing or dragging them from Windows Explorer, picks an output folder and turns on Batch Mode in the advanced options. The program converts each file separately and keeps its original name. The list can mix input formats.
With batch mode off, the same file list works in the opposite way: the program joins two or more clips into a single output file. The clips can be reordered first.
Splitting turns one video into several files. It can cut by size, with a limit the user enters (above 10 MB). It can also cut by chapters marked on the timeline, where each chapter becomes its own file. Splitting is not available when the target is DVD or Blu-ray.
Trimming and effects on the timeline
The Edit button opens a separate window with a preview area and a timeline. To remove unwanted parts, the user places Trim Start and Trim End marks at the playback cursor, or types exact times. A preview option plays the result without the cut parts. AVS Video Converter leaves out the marked parts when it writes the new file.
Users drag effects from a library onto the timeline and stretch them to cover a part of the clip or the whole video. The groups include:
- Adjust: brightness, contrast, saturation and auto levels
- Special: sepia, old movie, pan and zoom
- Effect: blur, sharpen, mosaic and grayscale
- Transform: flip, rotate, mirror and perspective
- Draw: text, credits, shapes and image overlays
- Audio: amplify, normalize, fade and noise removal
Users can limit most effects to a rectangle, ellipse or polygon mask instead of the full frame. Each one can fade in and out.
Pulling audio and frames out of video
The editor can save a video’s soundtrack as an MP3 or WAV file. After trimming a clip, the user chooses whether the audio keeps the removed sections or follows the cut version. Users can save still images from the same window at a fixed interval in seconds, at each chapter mark, or for every frame. A Snapshot button grabs a single frame from the preview.
DVD and Blu-ray discs
When the user chooses DVD or Blu-ray as the target, AVS Video Converter builds a disc folder structure (VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS for DVD) in the output folder. If the video is too large for one disc, the program offers three options. These are a double-layer disc, a lower-quality shrink to fit a single disc, or a split across several discs, each with its own menu. After conversion, users can send the files to AVS Video Burner to write the disc or keep them on the hard drive for later.
Users design disc menus in the Menu window. The user sets chapter markers, picks a menu style, fills its picture areas with videos or images, changes the title text and adds background music.
The program also works in the other direction. The user loads a DVD through its VIDEO_TS.IFO file and selects which titles to convert in a track window. Several titles become one file by default. They become separate files when the user places chapters at each title and turns on splitting. Copy-protected discs are not supported.
