Format Factory

Overview

Format Factory is the utility people keep on a machine for years and open twice a month, which is exactly the right relationship to have with a converter. It takes files in almost any media format and writes them out in almost any other, in batches, without asking you to understand containers, codecs or bit rate control unless you want to.

The main window is organised by output type rather than by input. Pick the format you want at the end, drop in as many source files as you like regardless of what they currently are, adjust the quality preset if the default is not right, and start the queue. Everything converts in sequence with a progress list, and the output folder opens when the batch finishes.

Coverage is the selling point. Video across the common containers and codecs, audio across compressed and lossless formats, images including the modern web formats and the older ones nobody else still reads, animated formats, subtitle handling, and document conversion for the office and portable formats. Disc sources are handled too, with ripping from video discs and image files into ordinary media files.

The extra tools around the converter are what keep it installed. A repair pass that fixes damaged media files with broken indexes, a joiner that merges several clips into one without re encoding when the formats match, a splitter for cutting a section out by timecode, a screen and audio recorder, and a device preset list that sizes output for phones, tablets, consoles and players without anyone needing to look up a resolution.

Key Features

• Conversion across video, audio, image, animated, subtitle and document formats
• Batch queue accepting mixed input formats aimed at a single output format
• Quality presets from device targeted to fully manual codec, bit rate and resolution control
• Ripping from video discs and disc image files into ordinary media files
• Repair tool for damaged media files with broken indexes or headers
• Joiner that merges clips without re encoding when the source formats match
• Splitter for extracting a section by timecode without a full conversion
• Screen and audio recorder writing directly to a chosen output format
• Device presets for phones, tablets, consoles and media players
• Hardware accelerated encoding on supported graphics hardware

What Changed in This Build

• Updated codec support for the current generation of video formats
• Faster batch processing when the queue holds hundreds of small files
• Improved subtitle handling when muxing external subtitle files
• Interface scaling corrected on high density displays

System Requirements

Processor	Any modern x86 or x64 processor, more cores speed up batch work
Memory	2 GB minimum, 4 GB recommended
Graphics	Optional, hardware encoding used when a supported GPU is present
Storage	300 MB for the tool, plus space for output files
Operating system	Windows 7, 8, 10 or 11

Release Details

Full title	Format Factory
Version string	5.22.0
Publisher	Free Time
Category	Utilities
Licence	Full version, no term limit
Platform	Windows 7 through 11, 32 and 64-bit
Interface language	Multilingual, 60 plus interface languages
Archive size	94.7 MB
Mirrors	4 active, all reporting online
Listed	refreshed 3 weeks ago, checked again 40 minutes ago

Installation Notes

• Set the output folder before starting a large batch, the default location fills up quietly.
• Use the joiner rather than a full conversion when merging clips of the same format, it is near instant and lossless.
• Turn on hardware encoding for speed, but check the first output for artefacts before committing a long batch to it.

Before You Start

Read the notes above before running setup. Most of the problems people write in about are covered there, and almost all of them come down to an older version of the same software still being installed, a graphics driver that predates the release, or a security suite quarantining part of the package mid install.

There is no archive password on this or any other entry in the library. If something you downloaded elsewhere claims to come from here and asks for one, it did not come from here. Nothing on this site is behind a survey, a shortener or a countdown either.

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