Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with convert

Converting .SND Files

RavinDave — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:17:42 -0800

Need a cheap way to convert .SND to .MP3 files. I'd never even heard of .SND files until today -- and I only have a handful of'em that need to be converted (ie: so I wanna avoid commercial solutions as much as possible -- if possible). Most all of my media players and sound software choke on'em. Audacity threw a fit. Nero never heard of'em either. Windows will play'em, but won't convert anything (as far as I can tell).

Converting a smaller garage- how much and is it worth it

aussicht — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:30:18 -0800

How much would it cost to convert a garage into an efficiency and how much could I do with a small garage? I am buying a house with a small detached garage in the back yard. I'd like to turn it into a small efficiency/inlaw quarters. The garage is about 20' x 14'. I live in Miami. Some tell me that it is pretty easy to do and not to worry about permits. I am curious what the whole permitting would cost, rough estimates of the conversion itself, and if it would raise taxes/insurance on the property? I'm not talking real estimates, just like 10k-20k, 40k, etc. What happens if you have unpermitted remodeling, and then try to get it permitted? Is it possible? What does that do to the value of the house in a sale? I'd honestly like to go the permitted route if possible, I am just weighing it all out.

There's electricity already, it just needs plumbing for the kitchen, appliances, and a bathroom. It's concrete flooring with garage doors that swing outwards (french doors?), no insulation, no a/c.

Would an efficiency realistically fit in the space? I'm bad visually/spatially. Could you put a small kitchen, small bath or 1/2 bath, and open living area in?

How to convert m4p to mp3 for free?

jitterbug perfume — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:20:46 -0800

What's the best free or cheap program to convert m4p files to mp3? Like a program that won't be a trial version that gives me 45 seconds of the song. I'm on a mac. Thanks.

How to find out Mac creator / type info on a PC?

jzed — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:24:03 -0800

Is there a windows utility to read the creator / type information of old (pre OSX) mac files? I've inherited a lot of old mac files (probably .eps or old .ai's or something but I'm not really sure at this point) and I'm trying to get them open on my windows machine. I think I probably have the most likely applications I'll need to open them, but brute force guessing what program to try is time consuming. Is there a straightforwards (preferably freeware) utility to help automate this process? My googling has revealed this util which looks... a bit unwieldy; and this mac app which would do the job if it ran on windows!

Batch convert Word docs to text files?

yarrow — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:29:40 -0800

Batch convert Word docs to text files? Does anyone know of a utility to convert a large number of Word documents (hundreds) to text files in Windows XP? They are in Word 2003 (.doc) format. The Word docs are about a 1MB each because they have images, but the text files they turn into are only about 4KB. I want to run a text processing script I wrote in perl on them, but I'm not sure how to get them in text format in the first place without opening each and converting it by hand. Looking for free solutions if possible, just because it's a pain for me to pay for software at work.

How do I capture a small part of a long video stream?

tamarack — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:16:42 -0800

I want to capture a small part of a long video stream from the web. And I want it in mp4. It's my convocation webcast, and it's in asf. I have managed to capture just the five minutes (of 2+ hrs!) I want, but I did so with Real Player and so the file is in the ever-unfriendly rm file format. I haven't had any luck with file conversion programs, and I can't crack the nut which is VLC (I've tried the VideoLAN forums). I'm running WinXP, and I'm looking for a free way to do this.

I need a recommendation for a tried and true free file conversion that deals with rm->mp4; or step-by-step instructions for how to do this with VLC (I don't want the entire file). I did look in the back posts, but didn't find anything dealing with a partial capture. Many thanks, mefites.

Know a great Rabbi?

semacd — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:18:08 -0800

Converting to Judaism in Boston - suggestions? Any recommendations for reform temples in the Boston area (preferably close to Lexington)? Have you converted to Judaism in the Boston area? If so, any recommendations for rabbis to work with (again, ideally close to Lexington)? Do you know anything about the temples in/near Lexington? I'm hoping to find someone great to work with, who will also hopefully perform my marriage in a year or so.

avi to mp4 converter for mac

tim_in_oz — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:54:54 -0800

Ipodfilter: converting avi to mp4 files. Can anyone recommend any free utilities for converting .avi to .mp4 files suitable for playback on a 4th gen ipod? the software needs to run on a non-intel imac running 10.5.6. Thanks in advance.

How do I plug an Xbox 360 into a computer setup?

wastelands — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:41:56 -0800

Is integrating an Xbox 360 into an existing computer monitor/speakers setup worth it? Or should I simply get a TV? I want to get an Xbox 360. The easiest thing to do would be to get an LCD TV, because it'll have all the connections I need. But it'd cost extra and take up space in my very small apartment. It'd be cool if I could use my existing 22" LCD computer monitor + my existing computer speakers.

Near as I can tell, though, it'd be a pain:

* Get a VGA cable for the Xbox
* Get an RCA converter/connector for the component audio on that Xbox cable to make it compatible with computer speakers
* Some kind of KVM or VGA switcher, so I don't have to manually plug and unplug cables constantly to switch video signals
* And how would I switch between computer and Xbox audio? No idea on this one other than manual plug/unplug

It seems like such a messy procedure that I'm considering just biting the bullet, spending about $230 on an LCD TV and dealing with the extra clutter in my apartment.

Secondary option: Maybe spend a bit more and get a nice LCD TV (or a computer monitor with extra ports) that would have the ability to switch video signals with a button (my existing one can't)? And then use that as my main display and sell off my existing monitor. Even then, I'm still now sure how audio signal switching would occur without manual plug/unplug.

Sorry for the long question. It's just hard to figure this out without the cables/ports right in front of me, and there's conflicting advice online.

Thanks!

Audio files for non-audiophiles

fusinski — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:27:21 -0800

What is the simplest way (free or otherwise) to convert M4P and M4A audio files to MP3 en masse?

TIFF to PDF

[expletive deleted] — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:49:52 -0800

What is the best way to convert large batches of multi-page TIFFs to PDF? Currently, we are using a pdf printer that cannot process multiple files as a batch, nor, strangely, can it retain the file name of the document it is being printed from. I don't want to print thousands of documents to PDF one by one, and copy-pasting to keep the filename. A standalone program designed for batch processing would be ideal. I did find this program, but I couldn't find any reviews of this company's products, and I'm somewhat leery of installing their trial version at work.

How do I convert a databse into mysql format?

special-k — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:24:10 -0800

How do I convert/import a dbf (2.4 gb) to a mysql database? I just acquired a data set that is organized as a dbf. I would like to import this into mysql. How would I do that for free?

There seem to be a few 3rd party tools (which show up when I search for dbf to mysql converter) but they are not free.

I also tried importing through Phpmyadmin on my personal site but the file is too large for that.

Are there other ways to do this? This will be a one time thing.

I am running mysql 5.1 on Windows xp.

How can I convert a SAS dataset into something readable by R?

docgonzo — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:48:52 -0800

How to import a SAS dataset into R (with, unfortunately, one extra degree of difficulty...)? I have a sas7bdat file. I'd like to import it into R (OS X). Unfortunately, I don't have access to SAS -- I'm away from work, and the file's sender has gone home for the weekend. Any free means of converting the file into a format readable by R? Thanks!

Borrowed camcorder uses obnoxious format. How to fix?

®@ — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:55:11 -0800

Converting ".mts" to ".avi?" I've been recording stuff for work on our office camcorder. The software that came with it is useless, it's basically Canon's "picture browsing" software that they just threw in the box (if there's a "video edit" software, it's not included or mentioned in the manual). I can pull the files off the camera via USB, but they're in MTS format. I need to edit these down into discrete clips, preferably as AVI's (Adobe Premiere). Tips? Advice? I've seen a handful of programs online that claim to be able to shift MTS to AVI, but they're in that "sketchy freeware might be adware" territory. Thoughts?

How to read .msg files on a Mac?

Coherence Panda — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:56:33 -0800

I've got a bunch of (important) single .msg files that I want to read on my Mac (10.5.x). Any advice? Any tool that converts entire mailboxes doesn't seem to apply, and the only dedicated .msg reader I could find is broken. Renaming as .txt doesn't work either. Nor does Emailalchemy or NeoOffice. Help!

How can keep text from apprearing/disappearing when converting PPT to PDF?

carofowler — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:06:16 -0800

I saved a PowerPoint presentation as PDF, but the PDF version has some extra exclamation points (!) all over the place and two entire text boxes missing. Can anyone help me fix that? I am on a MacBook using PowerPoint 2008. I tried both "save as..." a pdf and clicking on "print" and then saving as pdf, but somehow every paragraph in the text ends with an exclamation point and all the body text in two of the slides are missing. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

How to convert a .doc into email?

underwater — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:50:46 -0800

How can I convert a text file into email? I have a large word (.doc) file that is a compilation of old email. It's 226 pages long and consists of emails with header information. Each looks something like this:

_________
From: IN%"AMILLER@umd.edu" "A BEAR OF VERY LITTLE BRAIN" 10 JAN 1995 13:17:29.96
To: IN%"samp@uvm.edu"
CC:
Subj: How do?

Return path:
Received: from angel.umd.edu by uvm.edu (PMDF V4.3 10 #8854)
id <0>; Tue, 10 Jan 1995 13:17:10 0500 (EST)
Received: from ANGEL by ANGEL (PMDF V4.3 7 #6366)
id <0>; Tue, 10 Jan 1995 13:11:22 EST
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 13:11:22 0500 (EST)
From: A BEAR OF VERY LITTLE BRAIN
Subject: How do?
To: samp@uvm.edu
Message id: <0>
X Envelope to: samp X VMS To: IN%"samp@uvm.edu"
MIME version: 1.0
Content transfer encoding: 7BIT

Hi! How are you? Please write back.

Best,
Amy
_________

How can I convert this into a file that I can read like my other email in Thunderbird?

legal video conversion

roue — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:32:10 -0800

I'd like to legally automate the conversion of quicktime .mov files videos to .flv, providing a drop box service, preferably under linux, but I'm getting tripped up on the first and last parts My users are requesting a simple video ingestion/conversion service and they don't want to use YouTube in an attempt to maintain control of their content.

There are plenty of tools that will take video file format x, y, and z and convert them to H.263/Sorensen Spark/H.264 .flv files. The obvious choices are ffmpeg / mencoder / vlc project libs. Unfortunately, to accomplish the conversion they have reverse engineered U.S. patent restricted commercial codecs (please correct me if I'm wrong). Since I'll be doing this in a professional capacity, I'd like it to be completely in compliance with the law.

So I guess my question is three fold:

1. What's the cheapest way I can legally do quicktime to flv conversion?

2. If I've got a choice, what's the best codec to use for web distribution?

3. What automatable software would you recommend?

We can probably afford to spend some money, but not, for instance, the $3000 On2 wants for it's conversion tools. Also, we have Adobe CS3 Flash and Flash Video Encoder, but I was unable to find a way to script them (on Mac) to do a conversion. Last, if at all possible I'd like to avoid really hacky solutions like "this cool app that records mouse movments and lets you play them back..."

Thanks.

A Tool To Convert HTML to something importable into WordPress?

eustacescrubb — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:16:46 -0800

Need a tool to help me convert html files to something I can import into WordPress. I am converting a client's site to be run by WordPress. She has hundreds of articles, blog entries, and podcasts that have to be imported. But the site was manually managed and updated, so there is no current database. Am I looking at hours and hours of soul-crushing tedium? Or is there a handy tool that can parse through the pages, grab the content, and convert it to a WordPress-friendly import file?

I'm on a Mac, and have BBEdit; using Find/Replace hasn't proved helpful, because each page is slightly different.

Youtube Videos to Ipod

madmamasmith — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:45:10 -0800

I want to import a youtube video on to my ipod. I downloaded a firefox add on that is supposed to convert the files to FLV as well as a download helper. A little icon appears on the bottom of the screen and it is supposed to download the video to my computer, but it doesnt work. SO I downloaded itube and something called ares tube but nothing is working!!!! It always says error....am I doing it wrong? or is there an easier way to transfer videos to my ipod? Please help....and keep in mind, I am not technology minded at all.

Lots of WMAs to lots of MP3s

KI6ILS — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:56:28 -0800

I have thousands of WMA files I want converted to MP3. Is there a freeware program or a good inexpensive program that will batch convert the files while preserving the original bitrate and ID3 in the final MP3 file and also creating a directory structure such as artist\album? This is for Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

Convert VOB w/ subtitles

pravit — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:46:59 -0800

How can I convert VOB files to AVI or some other format, but with embedded subtitles? I have VOB files which have a selectable subtitle track when you play them in VLC. I want to convert them to AVI or some other format, but with the subtitles embedded. Is there any simple way to do this? Please keep in mind I know next to nothing about video editing/compressing etc. Thanks!

How can I convert DAT audio tapes to Mp3/CD/WAV easily?

bmilner — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:18:49 -0800

I have hundreds of Digital Audio Tapes (DATs) recorded at 44.1 and 32khz LP mode I'd like to encode to Mp3 format. I have a laptop w/o a digital input or SCSI port. I would ideally like to be able to just press PLAY and have the computer convert the entire tape to a WAV file, or broken up with start IDs from the DAT tapes I've tried to do this the digital way, at a friends house with his soundcard with digital in's but I found that the constantly switching sample rates (some songs are at 44.1khz, others at 48khz, others at 32khz Sony LP mode) caused recording software to basically get confused, and stop constantly. Plus, it's his rig, and I have 100+ tapes!

I could go analog (just play the tape on my Sony DAT deck) and record via analog line-in but that's a generation loss I'd like to avoid. Plus, I have all my start IDs written already.

Lastly my tapes are OLD. So I'd like to do this once, on the most robust machine possible. I would seriously pay up to $1000 to get these tapes (lots of rare live material etc.) converted. If it involves buying new hardware, so be it. What's the best way? A USB data drive? Software to convert the Raw data to WAV files?

What does it take to convert a house from natural gas to electricity?

AllieTessKipp — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:26:46 -0800

What does it take to convert a house from natural gas to electricity for the stove, dryer, hot water tank, etc.? What does it take to convert a house from natural gas to electricity for the stove, dryer, hot water tank, etc.?

If we move a house from somewhere else to our property, we will need it to be all electricity. Is this very expensive? How long does it take? What kind of professionals does one call about it? Plumber and electrician?

If it is not possible or too expensive, then we will not bother to look at any more houses that currently have gas or propane.

We will eventually be converting to solar and I'd prefer the house run on electricity when we move in.

I am a big fan of electricity and very stubborn (my husband will vouch for this, I'm sure) and vocal about this issue. There is no need to suggest propane instead and there is no natural gas at the house's new location.

Extract Text and Images From a PDF

backwards guitar — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:11:56 -0800

I'd like to extract the text and images from a multi-page pdf to use on the web. I've got a number of large (100 to 200 pages) PDFs that I need to extract the text and images from to use with a CMS for a website. I've looked at a number of PDF to HTML software options, but they all seem to rely on CSS for positioning text, whereas I'd prefer to just have the text in simple paragraph format. If there's a PDF to HTML solution that doesn't format like this, I'd be interested in that, of course. Proper handling of tables would be quite beneficial.

The way Acrobat extracts text is decent, but I'd prefer it if there were no line breaks for individual paragraphs (although I could probably setup a PHP script to run through and fix that if it's my only option). As for the images, it'd be great if I had control over how they were saved. In a folder called PDF_NAME/PAGE_1 for example for all the page 1 images. At the very least I need to know which page they were extracted from, either by the folder or filename.

I also know I can extract images from a PDF using Photoshop, but unless there's a way to bulk extract images and store them in the format mentioned above, I don't think the solution will really work.

I'm running Windows XP, but a solution that works with Linux (Ubuntu) would be fine. If there's an absolutely amazing piece of software for OS X, I'd be inclined to find a system I could use to run it. I'm also open to any web-based solutions (maybe I could use PHP for such a task?).