7. TMPGEnc MovieStyle Multimedia Software

By Ed Tittel and Toby Digby

TMPGEnc MovieStyle is a sort of Swiss Army Knife conversion tool for those who like video, and who not only collect lots of video clips and other video sources, but who also like to watch that video on various kinds of devices, including hand-help viewers of various descriptions (video iPod, iPhone, Zune, and so forth) as well as various different by stationary viewers (Sony Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo and so on). Your target grad or Dad must qualify as something of a video junkie just to understand what makes TMPGEnc MovieStyle interesting and potentially useful, but if they do "get it,” they’ll probably want it right away!

The screens that drive MovieStyle’s GUI let you pick video sources and the output device; the software does the rest.

MovieStyle is also at home with lots of input video formats, too. It can handle AVI, MPEG, MPEG4, Windows Media Video (WMV), QuickTime, H.264, DivX, DVD-Video/DVD-VR, Media Center PC TV recordings (DVR-MS) and MOD (a format used on JVC Everio HDD camcorders). It can even handle various HD digital video camcorder formats as well. Users can even skip the whole menu process for driving MovieStyle conversions: all they really need to do is right-click on a video clip, and then select the target device from the resulting drop-down menu. You can also set up Drop Folders for specific output devices, so that MovieStyle will convert any files placed in that folder into the format associated with that device.

There are tons more features that videophiles are likely to appreciate, including a cinema mode that converts video into 24 frames per second used for studio movies, plus special modes for the Sony PSP, karaoke modes, audio pitch controls and more. There are even time-stretch and time-compress features so videos can be altered to run only for specific periods of time. The software is available for online download for 15 days, and costs $40 to purchase a complete license (as we write this story the current version of TMPGEnc MovieStyle is Version 1.0.1.16). You can grab one and give it to your favorite dad or grad, then let them know you’ll pick up the tab should they decide to keep it!