Video to MP4
In the first of a series of posts we are going to show you how to convert your video files to MP4.
Video to MP4 – The Background
MP4 files are multimedia files that can store Video, Audio and further data depending on the content. Apple use the MP4 container format for their iPhone, iPad, iPod through iTunes and Sony has embraced it for their PSP and PS3 devices propelling it’s popularity.
Video to MP4 – How can it be played ?
MP4 files can be played through a number of programs – the most common program associated with playing the MP4 file is the Quicktime player, however it can also be played through Apple’s iTunes and VideoLAN’s VLC Media Player.
Video to MP4 - If I can’t open it, how can I convert it ?
This is where we here at Zamzar come in 
Zamzar is an online file conversion site that doesn’t require you to download any software in order to convert your MP4 files. Follow these steps to convert your MP4 file into a format that you can open on the machine/device that you are on :
Video to MP4 – Convert your file – Step One
Browse for your file on your local computer and select / drag that file across onto the Zamzar site. 
Video to MP4 – Convert your file – Step Two
Select the file format / device that you are looking to convert to.
Video to MP4 – Convert your file – Step Three
Enter your email address – this is where Zamzar will send the link for you to download your converted file.
Video to MP4 – Convert your file – Step Four
Click the button confirming you are happy for Zamzar to convert your file. You will then receive an email with a link to your converted file.
Video to MP4 – Retrieve your file – Step Five
Open the link to your file and select the download button to download your converted file. 
Video to MP4 – Open the file – Step Six
You should now be in a position to open your converted file in your media player of choice.
Hopefully this has proved useful in understanding how to convert your video files to MP4. Head across to Zamzar now to start converting.
Happy Converting !
The Zamzar Team.
Using OCR to help the Guardian convert PDF’s to text
Filed under: News, Technology | Tags: guardian, OCR, PDF to text, Search PDFs
Leave a Comment What do you do if someone shares a PDF with you and the PDF contains scanned images of text ? How do you get at that text if you want to copy and paste it, search it, or even edit it ? In short how do you liberate it ?
The Guardian Newspaper’s unsearchable PDFs …
Last Friday (22nd February 2012) the Guardian newspaper found itself in just such an unenviable position after the BBC released a slew of PDF files (relating to an independent review of the BBC’s handling of the Jimmy Saville scandal) containing scanned, un-searchable text. Not exactly the most helpful format for journalists looking to make use of the files in a hurry !
Optical Character Recognition & Zamzar to the rescue
Fortunately Zamzar was able to step in and help – We used specialist OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to analyse the 30+ PDF files and produce readable, searchable text.
You can read more about our assistance in a story by the Guardian’s technology editor Charles Arthur : “BBC Pollard inquiry: why is it so hard to search the documents?“
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology has a reputation for being costly and difficult to use, so we are pleased to say that we’re currently working hard to make it available on the main Zamzar site so that we can help to liberate more documents ! Do let us know if this might be of interest to you.
Happy Converting !
The Zamzar Team.
Convert multilingual filenames with Zamzar
Filed under: Announcements, News | Tags: convert multilingual filenames, convert utf8
Leave a Comment 
We’re pleased to announce that we have just added support to Zamzar for filenames from all of the world’s major languages.
This means you can now convert your files regardless of whether they are named in Russian or Hebrew, Greek or Swedish … and pretty much any other language you can think of (Esperanto anyone ?).
We hope this helps make converting your files even easier
Convertissez vos fichiers maintenant – en ligne et gratuit!
Konvertera dina filer nu – online och gratis!
Konvertieren Sie Ihre Dateien jetzt – online und kostenlos!
Convertire i file ora – online e gratis!
Convierte tus archivos ahora – en línea y gratis!
Преобразование файлов теперь – онлайн и бесплатно!
แปลงไฟล์ของคุณตอนนี้ – ออนไลน์และฟรี!
המר קבצים שלך עכשיו – האינטרנט ובחינם!
Μετατρέψτε τα αρχεία σας τώρα – σε απευθείας σύνδεση και δωρεάν!
تحويل الملفات الآن – على الانترنت ومجانا!
今あなたのファイルを変換する – オンラインで無料！
转换您的文件 – 在线免费 !
Go convert your file now !
The Zamzar Team.
Drag & drop file uploads, faster file conversions
Filed under: Features, News | Tags: faster file conversion, multiple file conversion, Zamzar
Leave a Comment We’re pleased to announce that you can now use Zamzar to convert your files faster and more easily – Here’s what you can now do:
Drag & Drop Your Files !
We’ve upgraded our upload tool so that you can now drag & drop multiple files into the main window rather than having to select them individually – this is especially handy if you have lots of files to convert at once.
Multiple File Select
You can still use the file picker tool if you want but we’ve upgraded that too, so that you can select multiple files there as well (using ⌘ on Mac, or shift on Windows):
Faster Conversions
We’ve also improved our conversion process to give you even faster conversions – When you upload multiple files we now start converting as soon as each file has uploaded (as the other files upload in the background). We report the status of these conversions back to you in the progress column of the status window:
Why not try out the shiny new upload & conversion process today ?
Happy Converting !
The Zamzar Team.
Can’t export Google Apps files to doc, ppt or xls ? Zamzar to the rescue …
Filed under: News | Tags: doc, Google Apps, Microsoft Office, ppt, xls
Leave a Comment 
There’s an interesting article over at the Next Web where Emil Protalinkski reports that Google just announced the imminent end of support for exporting Google Apps documents, spreadsheets and presentations to Microsoft Office ’97-2003 formats (.doc, .xls and .ppt).
This is a kick in the face for the many millions of people still using and relying on older versions of Microsoft Office to prepare and view their documents, especially in corporate and government circles where employees can be stuck 2 or 3 revisions behind the latest software. Some might argue that it’s nothing more than a cynical ploy by Google to drive traffic back to their Apps products by forcing users to view documents in Google’s walled garden, rather than on a local computer. Either way it’s the user that gets hurt. What’s worse is that they have given users just five days notice.
We’re pleased to say that Zamzar can help you out – If you are a Google Apps user who needs to share a file in an older Microsoft office format we’ll convert your file for you for free (up to 100MB in size) – Just follow these 2 simple steps:
- Export your document from Google Apps as a .docx, .xlsx or .pptx file
- Head over to Zamzar, upload your file for conversion and select .doc, .xls or .ppt as the output format
It’s that simple !
As an added benefit if you signup for any of our premium accounts we’ll give you a 50% discount on your first month’s payment – Just use the promo code GOOGLE_REFUGEE on our signup page
Happy Google Apps Converting !
The Zamzar Team.
Why Zamzar is supporting the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Filed under: Announcements, News | Tags: EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Zamzar
Leave a Comment 
We’re pleased to announce today that Zamzar has made a significant contribution in support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the world-leading organization which defends free speech, privacy and innovation online.
The EFF is renowned on the web for taking on the kind of David v Goliath cases that others shy away from – Since they were founded in 1990 the EFF has represented ordinary people against the likes of the U.S Department of Justice, MGM, Sony BMG and Apple. They fight on behalf of the average person to protect the freedom which we have grown accustomed to on the Internet.
We’re no strangers to online bullies here at Zamzar, having recently been threatened with legal action by Google and we are proud to be able to help the EFF continue the fight against big government and overzealous corporations.
The EFF is a non-profit organization and depends entirely on public support to continue successfully defending your digital rights. If you want to join us in helping why not donate to the EFF today ?
The Internet stands for freedom – let’s keep it that way.
Thanks,
The Zamzar Team.
Convert TS to AVI, FLV, MOV, MP4 and MPG amongst others
Filed under: Announcements, Conversions | Tags: convert HDTV files, convert ts files, convert ts to avi, convert ts to mp4, convert ts to mpeg
Comments (1) 
You can now convert .TS files to other popular video formats using Zamzar – we are delighted to announce support for this brand new conversion. The popular TS format is used to encode HDTV broadcasts – we have had a lot of requests from people who are looking for a simple way to convert these files into a more useable format. We’re pleased to say that we’ve now enabled this and you can now use Zamzar to convert TS files into a bunch of video and audio formats, including AVI, FLV, MOV, MP4 and MPG !
People want their formats to be in a more standard form with the ability to play them on a multitude of devices – with this new enhancement you can now play the TS file on your iPhone, iPad, PC or Mac – enjoy !
See the list of supported conversions that we now support from TS below :
- 3gp – 3GPP Multimedia File
- 3g2 – 3GPP2 Multimedia File
- aac – Advanced Audio Coding File
- ac3 – AC3 Audio File
- avi – Windows video file
- flac – Free Lossless Audio Codec
- flv – Flash video
- gif – Compuserve graphics interchange
- iPad – MPEG-4 (H264) Video File
- iPhone – MPEG-4 (H264) Video File
- iPod – MPEG-4 Video File
- mp3 – Compressed audio file
- mov – Apple QuickTime Movie
- mp4 – MPEG-4 Video File
- mpg – Moving Picture Experts Group File
- ogg – Ogg Vorbis Compressed Audio File
- wav – Windows audio file
- webm – Multimedia Container Format
- wmv – Windows Media Video
We hope this new feature will help all of you who have been stuck looking for a way to convert your TS files into both video and audio.
Don’t take our word for it – Go try it out for yourself today !
Happy converting,
The Zamzar Team.
Convert files from DOCX to JPG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PNG and many more
Filed under: Announcements, Conversions | Tags: convert docx, docx to bmp, docx to gif, docx to jpg, docx to png
Comments (2) 
We are delighted to announce that we have extended our support for DOCX files so that you can now use Zamzar to convert DOCX files into a bunch of new image formats, including JPG, GIF, BMP, TIFF and PNG !
Many people find it handy to convert their documents into images – not least for easily embedding document content within web pages. Previously we supported the conversion of older Microsoft Word (1997 – 2003) document files into image formats but not newer Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Word 2010 versions – we’re now pleased to say that you can convert these too. For all DOCX files we now support conversion to:
- bmp – Windows Bitmap
- doc – Microsoft Word Document
- gif – Compuserve graphics interchange
- jpg – JPEG compliant image
- mp3 – Compressed audio file
- odt – OpenDocument Text Document
- pcx – Paintbrush Bitmap Image
- pdf – Portable Document Format
- png – Portable Network Graphic
- ps – Postscript document
- tiff – Tagged image file format
- thumbnail – Thumbnail image
- txt – Text document
We hope this new feature will help all of you who have been stuck looking for a way to convert your shiny new DOCX files into images.
Don’t take our word for it – Go try it out for yourself today !
Happy converting,
The Zamzar Team.
Use Zamzar to convert XLR to XLS, XLSX, PDF and more
You can now use Zamzar to convert XLR files into a variety of different file formats, including XLS, XLSX, PDF and more !
Microsoft no longer support XLR files or Works Spreadsheet or Chart file’s as they may more commonly be known in their latest versions of Microsoft Office – both Office 2007 and Office 2010. We here at Zamzar receive requests everyday for new conversion types and we are delighted to announce that we can now support conversion of XLR files. You can now convert these to :
- csv – Comma Separated Values
- html – Hypertext Markup Language
- mdb – Microsoft Access Database
- ods – OpenDocument spreadsheet
- pcx – Paintbrush Bitmap Image
- pdf – Portable Document Format
- ps – Postscript document
- rtf – Rich Text Format
- xls – Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet
- xlsx – Microsoft Excel 2007 Spreadsheet
- xml – Extensible Markup Language
We hope these will help all of you who have been stuck looking for a way to convert your XLR files after upgrading to the new version of Office.
Don’t take our word for it – Go try it out for yourself today !
Happy converting,
The Zamzar Team.
Downloading YouTube videos – no longer supported
We have received a notice from Google requesting that Zamzar stops offering users the ability to download video files from YouTube, as this is in apparent violation of YouTube’s terms of service. Unfortunately this means we have been left with no choice but to cease to offer video downloads from YouTube via Zamzar with immediate effect.
Zamzar will continue to function as normal for all other conversions. We will continue to offer support for the conversion of hundreds of different file formats that are relied upon by thousands of people everyday. We are also planning to expand the number of conversions on offer and will be developing a range of exciting new features over the coming weeks and months.
We realise that the ability to download and view YouTube videos locally will be missed by many of you (especially teachers), and we’re sorry we can’t do more to support this – Unfortunately this decision was taken out of our control:
Zamzar has been around for over 5 years, we know many of you love using the service, and we have received the odd comment that we’ve saved lives (ok not literally!) We hope you will continue to use Zamzar for all your file conversion needs.
Happy Converting !
The Zamzar Team.
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