WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro 18 Review
Read our exhaustive review of WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro 18, know what is new in this tool, what all features it is offering and what we think can be further improved in future versions.
I have had a lot of experience in the past reviewing Video Converter software. When I was contacted by the team from WonderFox for reviewing their video converter utility - HD Video Converter Factory Pro 18, I felt that with my experience with such tools, the review should not take more than 2 hours. However, what I was not prepared were the add-ons that come with this utility. HD Video Converter Factory Pro 18 can be considered a container that contains further tools.
In this review, we will primarily focus on the Video Converter utility and will talk a little about the other utilities that this tool has.Video Converter
You can have a host of reasons why you are looking for a good video converter applications. It is required by professionals and amateurs who love making videos and want a tool that can convert their HD videos to other formats which make it easy to share those videos and store it in less space.
Clicking on the Video Converter icon in the main screen on the application opens the Video Converter utility. You are greeted by a mich bigger but empty window where you can import video files for conversion. You can do so by clicking on the large + button in the centre of the screen or the Add files button at the top of the interface or by adding a directory directly which contains one or more media files using the "Add Video Folder" button.
Once the files have been loaded, you can see a host of information about the media file(s). Format of the file, run time, size and video resolution of the source file is shown on the left-hand side and on the right side you will be shown the metadata of the output file that will be generated.
An output format will be selected by default, you can change this by using the button present in the extreme right of the interface.
You can do the selection based on your output device (Samsung, Amazon, Sony, ZTE, etc.), format (4K/HD, web, video or audio) or any of the famously known media formats like AVI, MP4, MKV, etc.
Whichever format you choose, you can select the video quality using the slider present below the Output format selection button. 
However, what gives you even more control is the Parameter Settings button present below the Output format selection button. This opens another window for you where you can do Advanced Settings related to the output file you will generate. You can customize the Encoder, Bitrate, Frame rate, Aspect Ratio and more for both Audio and Video. Similarly, you can select the VBR mode or Lossless mode for conversion to get the best quality of audio and video respectively.Video editing
There is no separate video editor like the Converter button present in the main UI, however, the video editing capabilities have been built into the HD Video Converter Factory Pro. In each clip that you load on the interface, you will find video editing buttons present in the blue stripe on the clip. You can use it to Trim, Rotate, Crop, add Effects, add Watermark or to edit metadata related to the video. Each of the editing features opens a new window where you can apply the action and see its preview. This will help you finalize the editing you want to on the video before you actually produce the output file.
Once you are done with all the settings of video editing and conversion, now is the time to get the output media file. If you have an Intel processor with Intel Quick Sync Video or a decent NVIDIA graphics card with the latest driver installed, the conversion process will take almost half the time. However, if you don't want the accelerated speed for some reason, you can also disable the Hardware Acceleration. The output file will be stored in the path mentioned in the Output folder section at the bottom of the Converter. You can change that location before you start the video conversion.
You can also use the Task Scheduler to decide what to do after the conversion process is complete like opening the Conversion folder, Exiting the program, Shutting down or Restarting the computer. This button is present on the right side of the Run button at the bottom of the interface.
What I didn't like in HD Video Converter Factory Pro 18
There is some feedback that I have for the team of developers that work on this tool.
I clicked on the Merge button without selecting any of the times. The result was that the HD Video Converter Factory Pro added a blank Pack. There is no option to remove the pack and if you just click on the Merge button it will give you an error message that at least 2 videos are required for a merge. In short, if you make a mistake, you need to close the window and start over.Video Downloader
WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro 18 comes with a video downloader. This is a straight forward application where you just need to mention the page from which you want to download videos from and the tool will analyze and show you the videos it can download. It works flawlessly on video streaming portals where you don't need authentication like YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, DailyMotion, etc. While you can try it other websites but chances are it won't work on blog pages or news websites.
It figures out the different resolutions available which you can download. You can choose if you want to download the video or just the audio. However, the audio option is not always available.Screen Recorder
The third utility that comes with this tool is a screen recorder software. For those who helpful videos using their computer screen, this can be quite useful. Just select the screen area/application which you want to appear in the video or select the whole screen, attach a microphone if required and get started with the recording.
GIF maker
Use your videos or photos to make interesting GIF images. Select the images you want, enter the height and width, decide the quality and enter the delay you want between the different screens.
You can do the same with a video. Add the video from which you want to make a GIF, selection the portion of which you want a GIF, select the number of frames to capture per second and other customizations and click the Create GIF button.Toolbox
The toolbox section creates even further tools that include Photo to Video Maker, Split-screen Video Maker, a Ringtone Studio and Subtitle extractor. We won't be going deep into this since it deserves almost a separate article!Wrap up
WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro 18 is a premium utility that definitely deserves a premium tag and provides functionality that is bang for one's buck. It has multiple audio-video utilities that remove the need to have multiple tools for video audio editing, conversion tasks. For a professional, right from recording the vide to editing it and converting it to a format that is easily sharable, this tool has it all. For a casual user too, it provides a video downloader that is very useful to keep a backup of videos and then convert it to the prefered format. You can easily share memories or make marketing videos by creating GIFs or a variety of media like split-screen videos with this tool. A highly suggested utility worth investing on, we at Techulator give it a 4 out of 5 rating.
