Unlock Free Sound Effects for Your FCP Projects: Top Resources & Tutorials

How to Find Free Sound Effect and Add Them in Final Cut Pro

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Suppose you have recorded a cinematic video of a beach in the evening visualizing the sunset and a few birds flying in the sky. Everything looks perfect except the audio, which seems to be fluctuating and breaking at some points. How would you address this challenge?

The best solution to this problem is adding sound effects, which can make your video more interesting and adorable. Setting the frequency of audio with on-screen visuals will invoke the viewers’ emotions and attach them to the scene.

Read this article to learn how to add sound effects to your video with Final Cut Pro.

Part 1: What are Different Types of Sound Effects?

Sound effects have four major types:

1. Ambiance SFX

These sounds fill the screen space to create a virtual sense of an environment or location such as the clattering sound of dishes in a restaurant or the sound of engines on a highway.

1. Foley SFX

A mixture of live performance and digital sound editing, these sounds are produced by the artists of Foley studio to match their sounds to the on-screen visuals.

1. Hard and Soft SFX

Hard SFX synchronizes a visual to what’s happening in the picture while SFX indicates the location to the audience.

1. Electronic SFX

These sounds are generated by instruments that create electronic-sounding effects like electronic keyboards, synthesizers, or plug-ins.

Part 2: How to Add Sound Effects in Final Cut Pro?

Cinematographic productions need well-balanced music and sound effects. Luckily, Final Cut Pro comes with built-in audio enhancement features and third-party Audio Units (AU) effects that allow users to add sound effects to their videos and manage all audio processing tasks.

You can add sound effects in your video with Final Cut Pro. Wonder how? Follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Photos and Audio Sound Bar

• In the top-left corner, there is a Photos and Audio Click on this button as shown in the figure below:
• Select the Window and Go To Either press Shift + Command + 1 or tap Photos and Audio from the dropdown menu

Step 2: Select the Sound Category

• Choose a sound category or app from the Photos and Audio sidebar
• A list will appear contacting the audio clips in that specific category as shown in the figure below:
• You can find multiple music and sound clips in the Sound Effects category. The list also contains various apps you use on your Mac such as GarageBand, Music, and Logic Pro, etc.

Step 3: Select the Music or Sound to be added

• Filter the items in the browser by using the pop-up menu. Go to Music > Purchased or select Sound Effects > Final Cut Pro Sound Effects > Impacts & Crashes.
• Preview your selected audio file by selecting it from the list and clicking the Play
• If you want to select multiple items, command-click each item individually.

Step 4: Use the Selected Music or Audio

• Drag your selected sound clip to the timeline or the sidebar
• Once the Photos and Audio sidebar has been replaced by the Libraries sidebar, you can add the selected audio or music files to an event. The Photos and Audio sidebar will reappear as you drag those files.
• Play the video to make sure sound effects have been successfully added

For enhanced playback experiences, all MP audio files are automatically transcoded to MOV audio files. However, you can also find the original MP3 files in the source media files section of Final Cut Pro. Besides, by adding mono audio clips to a stereo project, only the single mono audio will be plated in both left and right channels. You can view them in the stereo audio meters of your project.

Surely you don’t want to see your sound effect missing in your footage, but that happens a lot in FCPX. Just in case, you may want to see this article: Proven Ways to Get Missing Sound Effects Back in Final Cut Pro .

Part 3: How to Improve Your Video with Sound Effects?

In addition to Final Cut Pro, you can also use advanced video-editing software like Wondershare Filmora to improve your video by adding special sound effects. Here’s how you can do this:

Add the original video to Filmora by clicking the Import button or directly dragging the file to the primary window

Tap Sound to open a box listing different sound effects. Select your favorite sound effect and drag it down to the soundtrack below the video clip. Now, move the sound icon and the playhead to set the beginning and ending points. Press the Play button to ensure the newly added sound effect sounds well.

Once you’ve done the final review, tap the Create button and Format tab. Then, choose your preferred format and location where the file needs to be exported. You can also upload this video on YouTube or Facebook, play it on different iOS devices, or burn it to DVD.

Part 4: Where to Find Sound Effects?

Both Final Cut Pro and Wondershare Filmora have a variety of built-in sound effects. You can select and drop these effects to directly add them to your video. However, if you are searching for sound effects, given below are two methods:

1. Self-recording

Professional filmmakers and sound experts often record sound effects by themselves according to their requirements. For example, if they want to visualize some scene from school, they can go to an educational institution and record audio. After proper editing, these sound effects are added to the video.

1. Online Resources

Different websites also allow their users to download their favorite sound effects. Given below are some of the top-rated websites for downloading sound effects based on their quality, variety, and usefulness:

1. Filmostock
2. Adobe Audition Sound Effects
3. Freesound
4. Partners In Rhyme
5. AudioMicro
6. 99Sounds
7. Sounds Crate
8. Zapsplat
9. BBC Sound Effects
10. FreeSFX
11. GameSounds
12. SoundEffects+
13. SoundGator
14. PacDV
15. Sound Effects for Free

For more details, please check this article: 9 Great Websites To Download Royalty-Free Sound Effects.

Part 5: Extensive Reading: What are Sound Effects and Why are they Important?

Sound is the most important aspect of video editing that engages audiences, evokes emotional responses, and connects people to what they’re seeing. A melodious sound helps the video editors deliver information and creatively and define the tone of their narrative.

Sound effects (SFX) refer to audio clips or sounds that are not part of the recoded video. They are added to movies, documentaries, video games, and even reality shows to invoke the viewers’ emotions and increase their interest in the video.

Similarly, the addition of sound effects increases the production value and creates a complete audience experience. If you want to elevate your video dramatically and make it magnetic, have to balance sound effects, silence, and music in such a way that they support each visual and every cut. Although audio cannot fix slipshod editing or amateur camera work, it becomes more crucial than video quality while you are trying to deliver a specific message in your video.

Professional video editors and filmmakers consider sound effects crucial to their video quality. A clear, melodious, and well-balanced audio adds depth to the visuals, evokes more emotions than the picture, and paints the audio picture of a particular setting.

Even silence, a powerful tool of the audio arsenal, speaks louder than the picture itself. Hence, balancing audio by adding sound effects can make your video stimulating, captivating, and emotional.

That’s why a good editing tool always stocks a great number of sound effects for users, like Filmora. Click to download and take a look at all the effects in Filmora

Conclusion

Sound effects are external audio files added to the videos to make them look interesting and worth watching. A perfect balance of sound, music, and silence allows the filmmakers to define the tone of their narrative and deliver their message creatively.

You can create sound effects through self-recording or by downloading them from external resources. To add sound effects to your video, use professional video-editing software like Final Cut Pro or Filmora. Both these applications are user-friendly and possess a huge library of a variety of sound effects and music files. Besides, their advanced features allow you to naturally add sound effects without affecting the video quality.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Suppose you have recorded a cinematic video of a beach in the evening visualizing the sunset and a few birds flying in the sky. Everything looks perfect except the audio, which seems to be fluctuating and breaking at some points. How would you address this challenge?

The best solution to this problem is adding sound effects, which can make your video more interesting and adorable. Setting the frequency of audio with on-screen visuals will invoke the viewers’ emotions and attach them to the scene.

Read this article to learn how to add sound effects to your video with Final Cut Pro.

Part 1: What are Different Types of Sound Effects?

Sound effects have four major types:

1. Ambiance SFX

These sounds fill the screen space to create a virtual sense of an environment or location such as the clattering sound of dishes in a restaurant or the sound of engines on a highway.

1. Foley SFX

A mixture of live performance and digital sound editing, these sounds are produced by the artists of Foley studio to match their sounds to the on-screen visuals.

1. Hard and Soft SFX

Hard SFX synchronizes a visual to what’s happening in the picture while SFX indicates the location to the audience.

1. Electronic SFX

These sounds are generated by instruments that create electronic-sounding effects like electronic keyboards, synthesizers, or plug-ins.

Part 2: How to Add Sound Effects in Final Cut Pro?

Cinematographic productions need well-balanced music and sound effects. Luckily, Final Cut Pro comes with built-in audio enhancement features and third-party Audio Units (AU) effects that allow users to add sound effects to their videos and manage all audio processing tasks.

You can add sound effects in your video with Final Cut Pro. Wonder how? Follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Photos and Audio Sound Bar

• In the top-left corner, there is a Photos and Audio Click on this button as shown in the figure below:
• Select the Window and Go To Either press Shift + Command + 1 or tap Photos and Audio from the dropdown menu

Step 2: Select the Sound Category

• Choose a sound category or app from the Photos and Audio sidebar
• A list will appear contacting the audio clips in that specific category as shown in the figure below:
• You can find multiple music and sound clips in the Sound Effects category. The list also contains various apps you use on your Mac such as GarageBand, Music, and Logic Pro, etc.

Step 3: Select the Music or Sound to be added

• Filter the items in the browser by using the pop-up menu. Go to Music > Purchased or select Sound Effects > Final Cut Pro Sound Effects > Impacts & Crashes.
• Preview your selected audio file by selecting it from the list and clicking the Play
• If you want to select multiple items, command-click each item individually.

Step 4: Use the Selected Music or Audio

• Drag your selected sound clip to the timeline or the sidebar
• Once the Photos and Audio sidebar has been replaced by the Libraries sidebar, you can add the selected audio or music files to an event. The Photos and Audio sidebar will reappear as you drag those files.
• Play the video to make sure sound effects have been successfully added

For enhanced playback experiences, all MP audio files are automatically transcoded to MOV audio files. However, you can also find the original MP3 files in the source media files section of Final Cut Pro. Besides, by adding mono audio clips to a stereo project, only the single mono audio will be plated in both left and right channels. You can view them in the stereo audio meters of your project.

Surely you don’t want to see your sound effect missing in your footage, but that happens a lot in FCPX. Just in case, you may want to see this article: Proven Ways to Get Missing Sound Effects Back in Final Cut Pro .

Part 3: How to Improve Your Video with Sound Effects?

In addition to Final Cut Pro, you can also use advanced video-editing software like Wondershare Filmora to improve your video by adding special sound effects. Here’s how you can do this:

Add the original video to Filmora by clicking the Import button or directly dragging the file to the primary window

Tap Sound to open a box listing different sound effects. Select your favorite sound effect and drag it down to the soundtrack below the video clip. Now, move the sound icon and the playhead to set the beginning and ending points. Press the Play button to ensure the newly added sound effect sounds well.

Once you’ve done the final review, tap the Create button and Format tab. Then, choose your preferred format and location where the file needs to be exported. You can also upload this video on YouTube or Facebook, play it on different iOS devices, or burn it to DVD.

Part 4: Where to Find Sound Effects?

Both Final Cut Pro and Wondershare Filmora have a variety of built-in sound effects. You can select and drop these effects to directly add them to your video. However, if you are searching for sound effects, given below are two methods:

1. Self-recording

Professional filmmakers and sound experts often record sound effects by themselves according to their requirements. For example, if they want to visualize some scene from school, they can go to an educational institution and record audio. After proper editing, these sound effects are added to the video.

1. Online Resources

Different websites also allow their users to download their favorite sound effects. Given below are some of the top-rated websites for downloading sound effects based on their quality, variety, and usefulness:

1. Filmostock
2. Adobe Audition Sound Effects
3. Freesound
4. Partners In Rhyme
5. AudioMicro
6. 99Sounds
7. Sounds Crate
8. Zapsplat
9. BBC Sound Effects
10. FreeSFX
11. GameSounds
12. SoundEffects+
13. SoundGator
14. PacDV
15. Sound Effects for Free

For more details, please check this article: 9 Great Websites To Download Royalty-Free Sound Effects.

Part 5: Extensive Reading: What are Sound Effects and Why are they Important?

Sound is the most important aspect of video editing that engages audiences, evokes emotional responses, and connects people to what they’re seeing. A melodious sound helps the video editors deliver information and creatively and define the tone of their narrative.

Sound effects (SFX) refer to audio clips or sounds that are not part of the recoded video. They are added to movies, documentaries, video games, and even reality shows to invoke the viewers’ emotions and increase their interest in the video.

Similarly, the addition of sound effects increases the production value and creates a complete audience experience. If you want to elevate your video dramatically and make it magnetic, have to balance sound effects, silence, and music in such a way that they support each visual and every cut. Although audio cannot fix slipshod editing or amateur camera work, it becomes more crucial than video quality while you are trying to deliver a specific message in your video.

Professional video editors and filmmakers consider sound effects crucial to their video quality. A clear, melodious, and well-balanced audio adds depth to the visuals, evokes more emotions than the picture, and paints the audio picture of a particular setting.

Even silence, a powerful tool of the audio arsenal, speaks louder than the picture itself. Hence, balancing audio by adding sound effects can make your video stimulating, captivating, and emotional.

That’s why a good editing tool always stocks a great number of sound effects for users, like Filmora. Click to download and take a look at all the effects in Filmora

Conclusion

Sound effects are external audio files added to the videos to make them look interesting and worth watching. A perfect balance of sound, music, and silence allows the filmmakers to define the tone of their narrative and deliver their message creatively.

You can create sound effects through self-recording or by downloading them from external resources. To add sound effects to your video, use professional video-editing software like Final Cut Pro or Filmora. Both these applications are user-friendly and possess a huge library of a variety of sound effects and music files. Besides, their advanced features allow you to naturally add sound effects without affecting the video quality.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Suppose you have recorded a cinematic video of a beach in the evening visualizing the sunset and a few birds flying in the sky. Everything looks perfect except the audio, which seems to be fluctuating and breaking at some points. How would you address this challenge?

The best solution to this problem is adding sound effects, which can make your video more interesting and adorable. Setting the frequency of audio with on-screen visuals will invoke the viewers’ emotions and attach them to the scene.

Read this article to learn how to add sound effects to your video with Final Cut Pro.

Part 1: What are Different Types of Sound Effects?

Sound effects have four major types:

1. Ambiance SFX

These sounds fill the screen space to create a virtual sense of an environment or location such as the clattering sound of dishes in a restaurant or the sound of engines on a highway.

1. Foley SFX

A mixture of live performance and digital sound editing, these sounds are produced by the artists of Foley studio to match their sounds to the on-screen visuals.

1. Hard and Soft SFX

Hard SFX synchronizes a visual to what’s happening in the picture while SFX indicates the location to the audience.

1. Electronic SFX

These sounds are generated by instruments that create electronic-sounding effects like electronic keyboards, synthesizers, or plug-ins.

Part 2: How to Add Sound Effects in Final Cut Pro?

Cinematographic productions need well-balanced music and sound effects. Luckily, Final Cut Pro comes with built-in audio enhancement features and third-party Audio Units (AU) effects that allow users to add sound effects to their videos and manage all audio processing tasks.

You can add sound effects in your video with Final Cut Pro. Wonder how? Follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Photos and Audio Sound Bar

• In the top-left corner, there is a Photos and Audio Click on this button as shown in the figure below:
• Select the Window and Go To Either press Shift + Command + 1 or tap Photos and Audio from the dropdown menu

Step 2: Select the Sound Category

• Choose a sound category or app from the Photos and Audio sidebar
• A list will appear contacting the audio clips in that specific category as shown in the figure below:
• You can find multiple music and sound clips in the Sound Effects category. The list also contains various apps you use on your Mac such as GarageBand, Music, and Logic Pro, etc.

Step 3: Select the Music or Sound to be added

• Filter the items in the browser by using the pop-up menu. Go to Music > Purchased or select Sound Effects > Final Cut Pro Sound Effects > Impacts & Crashes.
• Preview your selected audio file by selecting it from the list and clicking the Play
• If you want to select multiple items, command-click each item individually.

Step 4: Use the Selected Music or Audio

• Drag your selected sound clip to the timeline or the sidebar
• Once the Photos and Audio sidebar has been replaced by the Libraries sidebar, you can add the selected audio or music files to an event. The Photos and Audio sidebar will reappear as you drag those files.
• Play the video to make sure sound effects have been successfully added

For enhanced playback experiences, all MP audio files are automatically transcoded to MOV audio files. However, you can also find the original MP3 files in the source media files section of Final Cut Pro. Besides, by adding mono audio clips to a stereo project, only the single mono audio will be plated in both left and right channels. You can view them in the stereo audio meters of your project.

Surely you don’t want to see your sound effect missing in your footage, but that happens a lot in FCPX. Just in case, you may want to see this article: Proven Ways to Get Missing Sound Effects Back in Final Cut Pro .

Part 3: How to Improve Your Video with Sound Effects?

In addition to Final Cut Pro, you can also use advanced video-editing software like Wondershare Filmora to improve your video by adding special sound effects. Here’s how you can do this:

Add the original video to Filmora by clicking the Import button or directly dragging the file to the primary window

Tap Sound to open a box listing different sound effects. Select your favorite sound effect and drag it down to the soundtrack below the video clip. Now, move the sound icon and the playhead to set the beginning and ending points. Press the Play button to ensure the newly added sound effect sounds well.

Once you’ve done the final review, tap the Create button and Format tab. Then, choose your preferred format and location where the file needs to be exported. You can also upload this video on YouTube or Facebook, play it on different iOS devices, or burn it to DVD.

Part 4: Where to Find Sound Effects?

Both Final Cut Pro and Wondershare Filmora have a variety of built-in sound effects. You can select and drop these effects to directly add them to your video. However, if you are searching for sound effects, given below are two methods:

1. Self-recording

Professional filmmakers and sound experts often record sound effects by themselves according to their requirements. For example, if they want to visualize some scene from school, they can go to an educational institution and record audio. After proper editing, these sound effects are added to the video.

1. Online Resources

Different websites also allow their users to download their favorite sound effects. Given below are some of the top-rated websites for downloading sound effects based on their quality, variety, and usefulness:

1. Filmostock
2. Adobe Audition Sound Effects
3. Freesound
4. Partners In Rhyme
5. AudioMicro
6. 99Sounds
7. Sounds Crate
8. Zapsplat
9. BBC Sound Effects
10. FreeSFX
11. GameSounds
12. SoundEffects+
13. SoundGator
14. PacDV
15. Sound Effects for Free

For more details, please check this article: 9 Great Websites To Download Royalty-Free Sound Effects.

Part 5: Extensive Reading: What are Sound Effects and Why are they Important?

Sound is the most important aspect of video editing that engages audiences, evokes emotional responses, and connects people to what they’re seeing. A melodious sound helps the video editors deliver information and creatively and define the tone of their narrative.

Sound effects (SFX) refer to audio clips or sounds that are not part of the recoded video. They are added to movies, documentaries, video games, and even reality shows to invoke the viewers’ emotions and increase their interest in the video.

Similarly, the addition of sound effects increases the production value and creates a complete audience experience. If you want to elevate your video dramatically and make it magnetic, have to balance sound effects, silence, and music in such a way that they support each visual and every cut. Although audio cannot fix slipshod editing or amateur camera work, it becomes more crucial than video quality while you are trying to deliver a specific message in your video.

Professional video editors and filmmakers consider sound effects crucial to their video quality. A clear, melodious, and well-balanced audio adds depth to the visuals, evokes more emotions than the picture, and paints the audio picture of a particular setting.

Even silence, a powerful tool of the audio arsenal, speaks louder than the picture itself. Hence, balancing audio by adding sound effects can make your video stimulating, captivating, and emotional.

That’s why a good editing tool always stocks a great number of sound effects for users, like Filmora. Click to download and take a look at all the effects in Filmora

Conclusion

Sound effects are external audio files added to the videos to make them look interesting and worth watching. A perfect balance of sound, music, and silence allows the filmmakers to define the tone of their narrative and deliver their message creatively.

You can create sound effects through self-recording or by downloading them from external resources. To add sound effects to your video, use professional video-editing software like Final Cut Pro or Filmora. Both these applications are user-friendly and possess a huge library of a variety of sound effects and music files. Besides, their advanced features allow you to naturally add sound effects without affecting the video quality.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Suppose you have recorded a cinematic video of a beach in the evening visualizing the sunset and a few birds flying in the sky. Everything looks perfect except the audio, which seems to be fluctuating and breaking at some points. How would you address this challenge?

The best solution to this problem is adding sound effects, which can make your video more interesting and adorable. Setting the frequency of audio with on-screen visuals will invoke the viewers’ emotions and attach them to the scene.

Read this article to learn how to add sound effects to your video with Final Cut Pro.

Part 1: What are Different Types of Sound Effects?

Sound effects have four major types:

1. Ambiance SFX

These sounds fill the screen space to create a virtual sense of an environment or location such as the clattering sound of dishes in a restaurant or the sound of engines on a highway.

1. Foley SFX

A mixture of live performance and digital sound editing, these sounds are produced by the artists of Foley studio to match their sounds to the on-screen visuals.

1. Hard and Soft SFX

Hard SFX synchronizes a visual to what’s happening in the picture while SFX indicates the location to the audience.

1. Electronic SFX

These sounds are generated by instruments that create electronic-sounding effects like electronic keyboards, synthesizers, or plug-ins.

Part 2: How to Add Sound Effects in Final Cut Pro?

Cinematographic productions need well-balanced music and sound effects. Luckily, Final Cut Pro comes with built-in audio enhancement features and third-party Audio Units (AU) effects that allow users to add sound effects to their videos and manage all audio processing tasks.

You can add sound effects in your video with Final Cut Pro. Wonder how? Follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Photos and Audio Sound Bar

• In the top-left corner, there is a Photos and Audio Click on this button as shown in the figure below:
• Select the Window and Go To Either press Shift + Command + 1 or tap Photos and Audio from the dropdown menu

Step 2: Select the Sound Category

• Choose a sound category or app from the Photos and Audio sidebar
• A list will appear contacting the audio clips in that specific category as shown in the figure below:
• You can find multiple music and sound clips in the Sound Effects category. The list also contains various apps you use on your Mac such as GarageBand, Music, and Logic Pro, etc.

Step 3: Select the Music or Sound to be added

• Filter the items in the browser by using the pop-up menu. Go to Music > Purchased or select Sound Effects > Final Cut Pro Sound Effects > Impacts & Crashes.
• Preview your selected audio file by selecting it from the list and clicking the Play
• If you want to select multiple items, command-click each item individually.

Step 4: Use the Selected Music or Audio

• Drag your selected sound clip to the timeline or the sidebar
• Once the Photos and Audio sidebar has been replaced by the Libraries sidebar, you can add the selected audio or music files to an event. The Photos and Audio sidebar will reappear as you drag those files.
• Play the video to make sure sound effects have been successfully added

For enhanced playback experiences, all MP audio files are automatically transcoded to MOV audio files. However, you can also find the original MP3 files in the source media files section of Final Cut Pro. Besides, by adding mono audio clips to a stereo project, only the single mono audio will be plated in both left and right channels. You can view them in the stereo audio meters of your project.

Surely you don’t want to see your sound effect missing in your footage, but that happens a lot in FCPX. Just in case, you may want to see this article: Proven Ways to Get Missing Sound Effects Back in Final Cut Pro .

Part 3: How to Improve Your Video with Sound Effects?

In addition to Final Cut Pro, you can also use advanced video-editing software like Wondershare Filmora to improve your video by adding special sound effects. Here’s how you can do this:

Add the original video to Filmora by clicking the Import button or directly dragging the file to the primary window

Tap Sound to open a box listing different sound effects. Select your favorite sound effect and drag it down to the soundtrack below the video clip. Now, move the sound icon and the playhead to set the beginning and ending points. Press the Play button to ensure the newly added sound effect sounds well.

Once you’ve done the final review, tap the Create button and Format tab. Then, choose your preferred format and location where the file needs to be exported. You can also upload this video on YouTube or Facebook, play it on different iOS devices, or burn it to DVD.

Part 4: Where to Find Sound Effects?

Both Final Cut Pro and Wondershare Filmora have a variety of built-in sound effects. You can select and drop these effects to directly add them to your video. However, if you are searching for sound effects, given below are two methods:

1. Self-recording

Professional filmmakers and sound experts often record sound effects by themselves according to their requirements. For example, if they want to visualize some scene from school, they can go to an educational institution and record audio. After proper editing, these sound effects are added to the video.

1. Online Resources

Different websites also allow their users to download their favorite sound effects. Given below are some of the top-rated websites for downloading sound effects based on their quality, variety, and usefulness:

1. Filmostock
2. Adobe Audition Sound Effects
3. Freesound
4. Partners In Rhyme
5. AudioMicro
6. 99Sounds
7. Sounds Crate
8. Zapsplat
9. BBC Sound Effects
10. FreeSFX
11. GameSounds
12. SoundEffects+
13. SoundGator
14. PacDV
15. Sound Effects for Free

For more details, please check this article: 9 Great Websites To Download Royalty-Free Sound Effects.

Part 5: Extensive Reading: What are Sound Effects and Why are they Important?

Sound is the most important aspect of video editing that engages audiences, evokes emotional responses, and connects people to what they’re seeing. A melodious sound helps the video editors deliver information and creatively and define the tone of their narrative.

Sound effects (SFX) refer to audio clips or sounds that are not part of the recoded video. They are added to movies, documentaries, video games, and even reality shows to invoke the viewers’ emotions and increase their interest in the video.

Similarly, the addition of sound effects increases the production value and creates a complete audience experience. If you want to elevate your video dramatically and make it magnetic, have to balance sound effects, silence, and music in such a way that they support each visual and every cut. Although audio cannot fix slipshod editing or amateur camera work, it becomes more crucial than video quality while you are trying to deliver a specific message in your video.

Professional video editors and filmmakers consider sound effects crucial to their video quality. A clear, melodious, and well-balanced audio adds depth to the visuals, evokes more emotions than the picture, and paints the audio picture of a particular setting.

Even silence, a powerful tool of the audio arsenal, speaks louder than the picture itself. Hence, balancing audio by adding sound effects can make your video stimulating, captivating, and emotional.

That’s why a good editing tool always stocks a great number of sound effects for users, like Filmora. Click to download and take a look at all the effects in Filmora

Conclusion

Sound effects are external audio files added to the videos to make them look interesting and worth watching. A perfect balance of sound, music, and silence allows the filmmakers to define the tone of their narrative and deliver their message creatively.

You can create sound effects through self-recording or by downloading them from external resources. To add sound effects to your video, use professional video-editing software like Final Cut Pro or Filmora. Both these applications are user-friendly and possess a huge library of a variety of sound effects and music files. Besides, their advanced features allow you to naturally add sound effects without affecting the video quality.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

The Battle for Your Living Room: TiVo vs Comcast DVR Comparison

TiVo vs Comcast, Who Wins the DVR Battle?

Ollie Mattison

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Cable, satellite, over the air broadcast, streaming internet video – never before have we had so many choices of how to receive television programming. DVR, PVR, computer hard drive, external storage device; now we have choices in how to store programs for viewing later to consider as well. So what is true and what is hype when it comes to what’s the best device? Let’s peel back the layers and look at the information.

First, what is a DVR? A DVR, or digital video recorder, is a device that records video from a source for playback at another time. It often comes with a television programming guide included so you can easily locate shows you want to record. Most DVRs come with large capacity hard drives, though some have flash memory cards as their storage medium. There are a variety of types that range from small storage capacity and two tuners, up through several tuners and massive hard drive storage ability. You also can pause and rewind live TV, which is great when you want to create your own sports instant replays. Most DVRs also allow you to watch one program that was previously recorded while two others are recording, though some have greater capacity.

A TiVo is a particular kind of DVR that was first introduced in 1999. It requires a subscription to its own programming guide that can be purchased month to month, or as a “lifetime” subscription (that means the life of the TiVo, not your life, by the way). TiVos, like cable company DVRs, can record just one show or an entire season. TiVos have a smart feature which notices which shows you are watching and recommends similar ones to you based on how you rate current programs. It also uses these ratings to suggest shows to other viewers.

Let’s look at a few of the main features of both so you can do a comparison. We’ll look at five factors.

1. TiVo vs Comcast: Cost and rent versus own

With a Comcast DVR, you are renting it from the cable company at a cost of $10 to $16 a month, depending on your market. There are no upfront costs, and should the device fail, you can swap it at no cost at your local Comcast service center. Some folks have found that the new X1 boxes are prone to crashes, so that free swap is handy.

A TiVo is yours to keep as long as it lasts or as long as you want it, whichever comes first. It has an initial cost of between $200 and $600, depending on the model. Plus, you have the subscription cost on top of the unit price, which is $15 a month or $500 for a “lifetime” subscription, which TiVo may or may not give you partial credit for should your device fail and you need a new one. Like the Comcast DVRs, some TiVo boxes are less than stable. It’s the nature of electronics. TiVos also have advertising on them, which some Comcast channels do also, like MusicChoice, but not on all of them.

2. TiVo vs Comcast: Services available

With a DVR from Comcast, you can only record shows that are broadcast on one of Comcast’s channels or play shows that are loaded into its On Demand section. A TiVo can be connected to a number of sources, including cable via a cable card, and allow you to combine all of your viewing sources into the one box. It even connects to a high definition antenna.

The TiVo with cable card has access to all of the cable On Demand services, so in that sense it can replace all of the Comcast DVRs. However, the cable card is not free. It typically runs $1.50 per card per month, up to $2.50 per card on the Frontier system.

The menus are slightly different, as you can see below.

Comcast interface

TiVo interface

TiVos also recognize SD and HD as just different versions of the same show, instead of different channels like Comcast does, so you can set your DVR to just record HD. This makes it somewhat harder to just record HD on a TiVo.

Down the road, Comcast is planning the X2 system which would have cloud recording capacity, thus ending the need for a box in your house at all. TiVo has not yet announced such a plan.

3. TiVo vs Comcast: Connection to a network

TiVos can be connected to your home computer network, and the newest one, the Roamio, comes with built-in wifi, for total freedom of use. Because it’s on the network, you can stream shows from your computer through the TiVo box for later playback. It supports channels like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Instant. You can also stream shows to your Apple portable devices and then take the shows with you on the plane or to the gym, or use the device as a remote control. (Android devices will have the same capacity soon.) The network capacity also means you can use your computer to control the TiVo box and view content wherever you are.

Some reviewers have also noted that the network set up is not as simple as it might be, and it requires some computer knowledge and ability. Unless you have a tech person nearby, novice computer users may not wish to set up the network.

The iPhone app remote screen looks like this:

A TiVo does have limitations of who can access which channels. For instance, it does not stream HBOGo, nor does it interface with Apple’s TV programming. For that you still need an AppleTV device.

Comcast boxes simply do not network well. They are designed to broadcast the cable signals through your TV, but not on a home network. They are often easier to connect, however, just requiring a cable from the box to be plugged into the TV.

4. TiVo vs Comcast: Recording capacity

The new TiVo, the Roamio, has as many as six tuners that can record at the same time with up to 150 hours of high definition programming. You’ll never have another scheduling conflict again!

TiVos have recording capacities that range from 75 to 450 hours, depending on whether it is standard definition or high definition, and which device you are using. You can choose from three models of the Roamio. The base model costs $200 and has 75 hours of capacity. The menu and features are more limited on this one than on the others. There is a middle model priced at $400 that has the same six tuners as the high-end one but can only hold 150 hours of recordings. Then the top tier model costs $600 and has 450 hours of recording capacity, all of it in high definition.

The Comcast X1 DVR has four tuners and it can record them simultaneously. You can watch a prerecorded program while it’s recording, too. It can hold 120 hours of HD or 600 hours of SD programming.

5. TiVo vs Comcast: User interface

The Comcast X1 DVR system has a voice-activated interface and a completely different look and layout than their standard system has.

The basic Comcast remote is a multi-function remote and capable of controlling all functions, but it does not have the ability to connect to a portable device like a tablet or a smartphone to have connectivity that way like a TiVo can through an app. The remote has to be line of sight in order to work.

The TiVo device menu is in standard definition, so for those who have a high definition set up, you may find this a bit distraction or fuzzy. It does come with apps for extending what the box can do, including games for kids.

Many reviewers liked the interface on the TiVo better than the grid used on the Comcast service. The TiVo programming guide allows you to delete channels you don’t watch so you’re only looking at the channels you like. Comcast’s guide covers every channel they offer, even ones that are not available on your tier of service.

With the TiVo Roamio, connecting to a tablet allows you to be in another room and still operate the “remote” for the TiVo DVR. Download the app onto your device and you’re ready to go.

TiVo’s device remote has a sleek layout called the “peanut”.

Summary

What it all comes down to is looking at how you use your TV, where you get your sources from, and what your budget is. Each device has its own set of things that are appealing, and its own drawbacks. For flexibility of being able to use multiple sources and devices, the TiVo is the clear winner. For cost in the long run, it’s almost a draw. For ease of connection to a TV, the Comcast box comes out on top. No matter which one you pick, you’ll never run out of great programs to watch.

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Cable, satellite, over the air broadcast, streaming internet video – never before have we had so many choices of how to receive television programming. DVR, PVR, computer hard drive, external storage device; now we have choices in how to store programs for viewing later to consider as well. So what is true and what is hype when it comes to what’s the best device? Let’s peel back the layers and look at the information.

First, what is a DVR? A DVR, or digital video recorder, is a device that records video from a source for playback at another time. It often comes with a television programming guide included so you can easily locate shows you want to record. Most DVRs come with large capacity hard drives, though some have flash memory cards as their storage medium. There are a variety of types that range from small storage capacity and two tuners, up through several tuners and massive hard drive storage ability. You also can pause and rewind live TV, which is great when you want to create your own sports instant replays. Most DVRs also allow you to watch one program that was previously recorded while two others are recording, though some have greater capacity.

A TiVo is a particular kind of DVR that was first introduced in 1999. It requires a subscription to its own programming guide that can be purchased month to month, or as a “lifetime” subscription (that means the life of the TiVo, not your life, by the way). TiVos, like cable company DVRs, can record just one show or an entire season. TiVos have a smart feature which notices which shows you are watching and recommends similar ones to you based on how you rate current programs. It also uses these ratings to suggest shows to other viewers.

Let’s look at a few of the main features of both so you can do a comparison. We’ll look at five factors.

1. TiVo vs Comcast: Cost and rent versus own

With a Comcast DVR, you are renting it from the cable company at a cost of $10 to $16 a month, depending on your market. There are no upfront costs, and should the device fail, you can swap it at no cost at your local Comcast service center. Some folks have found that the new X1 boxes are prone to crashes, so that free swap is handy.

A TiVo is yours to keep as long as it lasts or as long as you want it, whichever comes first. It has an initial cost of between $200 and $600, depending on the model. Plus, you have the subscription cost on top of the unit price, which is $15 a month or $500 for a “lifetime” subscription, which TiVo may or may not give you partial credit for should your device fail and you need a new one. Like the Comcast DVRs, some TiVo boxes are less than stable. It’s the nature of electronics. TiVos also have advertising on them, which some Comcast channels do also, like MusicChoice, but not on all of them.

2. TiVo vs Comcast: Services available

With a DVR from Comcast, you can only record shows that are broadcast on one of Comcast’s channels or play shows that are loaded into its On Demand section. A TiVo can be connected to a number of sources, including cable via a cable card, and allow you to combine all of your viewing sources into the one box. It even connects to a high definition antenna.

The TiVo with cable card has access to all of the cable On Demand services, so in that sense it can replace all of the Comcast DVRs. However, the cable card is not free. It typically runs $1.50 per card per month, up to $2.50 per card on the Frontier system.

The menus are slightly different, as you can see below.

Comcast interface

TiVo interface

TiVos also recognize SD and HD as just different versions of the same show, instead of different channels like Comcast does, so you can set your DVR to just record HD. This makes it somewhat harder to just record HD on a TiVo.

Down the road, Comcast is planning the X2 system which would have cloud recording capacity, thus ending the need for a box in your house at all. TiVo has not yet announced such a plan.

3. TiVo vs Comcast: Connection to a network

TiVos can be connected to your home computer network, and the newest one, the Roamio, comes with built-in wifi, for total freedom of use. Because it’s on the network, you can stream shows from your computer through the TiVo box for later playback. It supports channels like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Instant. You can also stream shows to your Apple portable devices and then take the shows with you on the plane or to the gym, or use the device as a remote control. (Android devices will have the same capacity soon.) The network capacity also means you can use your computer to control the TiVo box and view content wherever you are.

Some reviewers have also noted that the network set up is not as simple as it might be, and it requires some computer knowledge and ability. Unless you have a tech person nearby, novice computer users may not wish to set up the network.

The iPhone app remote screen looks like this:

A TiVo does have limitations of who can access which channels. For instance, it does not stream HBOGo, nor does it interface with Apple’s TV programming. For that you still need an AppleTV device.

Comcast boxes simply do not network well. They are designed to broadcast the cable signals through your TV, but not on a home network. They are often easier to connect, however, just requiring a cable from the box to be plugged into the TV.

4. TiVo vs Comcast: Recording capacity

The new TiVo, the Roamio, has as many as six tuners that can record at the same time with up to 150 hours of high definition programming. You’ll never have another scheduling conflict again!

TiVos have recording capacities that range from 75 to 450 hours, depending on whether it is standard definition or high definition, and which device you are using. You can choose from three models of the Roamio. The base model costs $200 and has 75 hours of capacity. The menu and features are more limited on this one than on the others. There is a middle model priced at $400 that has the same six tuners as the high-end one but can only hold 150 hours of recordings. Then the top tier model costs $600 and has 450 hours of recording capacity, all of it in high definition.

The Comcast X1 DVR has four tuners and it can record them simultaneously. You can watch a prerecorded program while it’s recording, too. It can hold 120 hours of HD or 600 hours of SD programming.

5. TiVo vs Comcast: User interface

The Comcast X1 DVR system has a voice-activated interface and a completely different look and layout than their standard system has.

The basic Comcast remote is a multi-function remote and capable of controlling all functions, but it does not have the ability to connect to a portable device like a tablet or a smartphone to have connectivity that way like a TiVo can through an app. The remote has to be line of sight in order to work.

The TiVo device menu is in standard definition, so for those who have a high definition set up, you may find this a bit distraction or fuzzy. It does come with apps for extending what the box can do, including games for kids.

Many reviewers liked the interface on the TiVo better than the grid used on the Comcast service. The TiVo programming guide allows you to delete channels you don’t watch so you’re only looking at the channels you like. Comcast’s guide covers every channel they offer, even ones that are not available on your tier of service.

With the TiVo Roamio, connecting to a tablet allows you to be in another room and still operate the “remote” for the TiVo DVR. Download the app onto your device and you’re ready to go.

TiVo’s device remote has a sleek layout called the “peanut”.

Summary

What it all comes down to is looking at how you use your TV, where you get your sources from, and what your budget is. Each device has its own set of things that are appealing, and its own drawbacks. For flexibility of being able to use multiple sources and devices, the TiVo is the clear winner. For cost in the long run, it’s almost a draw. For ease of connection to a TV, the Comcast box comes out on top. No matter which one you pick, you’ll never run out of great programs to watch.

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Cable, satellite, over the air broadcast, streaming internet video – never before have we had so many choices of how to receive television programming. DVR, PVR, computer hard drive, external storage device; now we have choices in how to store programs for viewing later to consider as well. So what is true and what is hype when it comes to what’s the best device? Let’s peel back the layers and look at the information.

First, what is a DVR? A DVR, or digital video recorder, is a device that records video from a source for playback at another time. It often comes with a television programming guide included so you can easily locate shows you want to record. Most DVRs come with large capacity hard drives, though some have flash memory cards as their storage medium. There are a variety of types that range from small storage capacity and two tuners, up through several tuners and massive hard drive storage ability. You also can pause and rewind live TV, which is great when you want to create your own sports instant replays. Most DVRs also allow you to watch one program that was previously recorded while two others are recording, though some have greater capacity.

A TiVo is a particular kind of DVR that was first introduced in 1999. It requires a subscription to its own programming guide that can be purchased month to month, or as a “lifetime” subscription (that means the life of the TiVo, not your life, by the way). TiVos, like cable company DVRs, can record just one show or an entire season. TiVos have a smart feature which notices which shows you are watching and recommends similar ones to you based on how you rate current programs. It also uses these ratings to suggest shows to other viewers.

Let’s look at a few of the main features of both so you can do a comparison. We’ll look at five factors.

1. TiVo vs Comcast: Cost and rent versus own

With a Comcast DVR, you are renting it from the cable company at a cost of $10 to $16 a month, depending on your market. There are no upfront costs, and should the device fail, you can swap it at no cost at your local Comcast service center. Some folks have found that the new X1 boxes are prone to crashes, so that free swap is handy.

A TiVo is yours to keep as long as it lasts or as long as you want it, whichever comes first. It has an initial cost of between $200 and $600, depending on the model. Plus, you have the subscription cost on top of the unit price, which is $15 a month or $500 for a “lifetime” subscription, which TiVo may or may not give you partial credit for should your device fail and you need a new one. Like the Comcast DVRs, some TiVo boxes are less than stable. It’s the nature of electronics. TiVos also have advertising on them, which some Comcast channels do also, like MusicChoice, but not on all of them.

2. TiVo vs Comcast: Services available

With a DVR from Comcast, you can only record shows that are broadcast on one of Comcast’s channels or play shows that are loaded into its On Demand section. A TiVo can be connected to a number of sources, including cable via a cable card, and allow you to combine all of your viewing sources into the one box. It even connects to a high definition antenna.

The TiVo with cable card has access to all of the cable On Demand services, so in that sense it can replace all of the Comcast DVRs. However, the cable card is not free. It typically runs $1.50 per card per month, up to $2.50 per card on the Frontier system.

The menus are slightly different, as you can see below.

Comcast interface

TiVo interface

TiVos also recognize SD and HD as just different versions of the same show, instead of different channels like Comcast does, so you can set your DVR to just record HD. This makes it somewhat harder to just record HD on a TiVo.

Down the road, Comcast is planning the X2 system which would have cloud recording capacity, thus ending the need for a box in your house at all. TiVo has not yet announced such a plan.

3. TiVo vs Comcast: Connection to a network

TiVos can be connected to your home computer network, and the newest one, the Roamio, comes with built-in wifi, for total freedom of use. Because it’s on the network, you can stream shows from your computer through the TiVo box for later playback. It supports channels like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Instant. You can also stream shows to your Apple portable devices and then take the shows with you on the plane or to the gym, or use the device as a remote control. (Android devices will have the same capacity soon.) The network capacity also means you can use your computer to control the TiVo box and view content wherever you are.

Some reviewers have also noted that the network set up is not as simple as it might be, and it requires some computer knowledge and ability. Unless you have a tech person nearby, novice computer users may not wish to set up the network.

The iPhone app remote screen looks like this:

A TiVo does have limitations of who can access which channels. For instance, it does not stream HBOGo, nor does it interface with Apple’s TV programming. For that you still need an AppleTV device.

Comcast boxes simply do not network well. They are designed to broadcast the cable signals through your TV, but not on a home network. They are often easier to connect, however, just requiring a cable from the box to be plugged into the TV.

4. TiVo vs Comcast: Recording capacity

The new TiVo, the Roamio, has as many as six tuners that can record at the same time with up to 150 hours of high definition programming. You’ll never have another scheduling conflict again!

TiVos have recording capacities that range from 75 to 450 hours, depending on whether it is standard definition or high definition, and which device you are using. You can choose from three models of the Roamio. The base model costs $200 and has 75 hours of capacity. The menu and features are more limited on this one than on the others. There is a middle model priced at $400 that has the same six tuners as the high-end one but can only hold 150 hours of recordings. Then the top tier model costs $600 and has 450 hours of recording capacity, all of it in high definition.

The Comcast X1 DVR has four tuners and it can record them simultaneously. You can watch a prerecorded program while it’s recording, too. It can hold 120 hours of HD or 600 hours of SD programming.

5. TiVo vs Comcast: User interface

The Comcast X1 DVR system has a voice-activated interface and a completely different look and layout than their standard system has.

The basic Comcast remote is a multi-function remote and capable of controlling all functions, but it does not have the ability to connect to a portable device like a tablet or a smartphone to have connectivity that way like a TiVo can through an app. The remote has to be line of sight in order to work.

The TiVo device menu is in standard definition, so for those who have a high definition set up, you may find this a bit distraction or fuzzy. It does come with apps for extending what the box can do, including games for kids.

Many reviewers liked the interface on the TiVo better than the grid used on the Comcast service. The TiVo programming guide allows you to delete channels you don’t watch so you’re only looking at the channels you like. Comcast’s guide covers every channel they offer, even ones that are not available on your tier of service.

With the TiVo Roamio, connecting to a tablet allows you to be in another room and still operate the “remote” for the TiVo DVR. Download the app onto your device and you’re ready to go.

TiVo’s device remote has a sleek layout called the “peanut”.

Summary

What it all comes down to is looking at how you use your TV, where you get your sources from, and what your budget is. Each device has its own set of things that are appealing, and its own drawbacks. For flexibility of being able to use multiple sources and devices, the TiVo is the clear winner. For cost in the long run, it’s almost a draw. For ease of connection to a TV, the Comcast box comes out on top. No matter which one you pick, you’ll never run out of great programs to watch.

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Cable, satellite, over the air broadcast, streaming internet video – never before have we had so many choices of how to receive television programming. DVR, PVR, computer hard drive, external storage device; now we have choices in how to store programs for viewing later to consider as well. So what is true and what is hype when it comes to what’s the best device? Let’s peel back the layers and look at the information.

First, what is a DVR? A DVR, or digital video recorder, is a device that records video from a source for playback at another time. It often comes with a television programming guide included so you can easily locate shows you want to record. Most DVRs come with large capacity hard drives, though some have flash memory cards as their storage medium. There are a variety of types that range from small storage capacity and two tuners, up through several tuners and massive hard drive storage ability. You also can pause and rewind live TV, which is great when you want to create your own sports instant replays. Most DVRs also allow you to watch one program that was previously recorded while two others are recording, though some have greater capacity.

A TiVo is a particular kind of DVR that was first introduced in 1999. It requires a subscription to its own programming guide that can be purchased month to month, or as a “lifetime” subscription (that means the life of the TiVo, not your life, by the way). TiVos, like cable company DVRs, can record just one show or an entire season. TiVos have a smart feature which notices which shows you are watching and recommends similar ones to you based on how you rate current programs. It also uses these ratings to suggest shows to other viewers.

Let’s look at a few of the main features of both so you can do a comparison. We’ll look at five factors.

1. TiVo vs Comcast: Cost and rent versus own

With a Comcast DVR, you are renting it from the cable company at a cost of $10 to $16 a month, depending on your market. There are no upfront costs, and should the device fail, you can swap it at no cost at your local Comcast service center. Some folks have found that the new X1 boxes are prone to crashes, so that free swap is handy.

A TiVo is yours to keep as long as it lasts or as long as you want it, whichever comes first. It has an initial cost of between $200 and $600, depending on the model. Plus, you have the subscription cost on top of the unit price, which is $15 a month or $500 for a “lifetime” subscription, which TiVo may or may not give you partial credit for should your device fail and you need a new one. Like the Comcast DVRs, some TiVo boxes are less than stable. It’s the nature of electronics. TiVos also have advertising on them, which some Comcast channels do also, like MusicChoice, but not on all of them.

2. TiVo vs Comcast: Services available

With a DVR from Comcast, you can only record shows that are broadcast on one of Comcast’s channels or play shows that are loaded into its On Demand section. A TiVo can be connected to a number of sources, including cable via a cable card, and allow you to combine all of your viewing sources into the one box. It even connects to a high definition antenna.

The TiVo with cable card has access to all of the cable On Demand services, so in that sense it can replace all of the Comcast DVRs. However, the cable card is not free. It typically runs $1.50 per card per month, up to $2.50 per card on the Frontier system.

The menus are slightly different, as you can see below.

Comcast interface

TiVo interface

TiVos also recognize SD and HD as just different versions of the same show, instead of different channels like Comcast does, so you can set your DVR to just record HD. This makes it somewhat harder to just record HD on a TiVo.

Down the road, Comcast is planning the X2 system which would have cloud recording capacity, thus ending the need for a box in your house at all. TiVo has not yet announced such a plan.

3. TiVo vs Comcast: Connection to a network

TiVos can be connected to your home computer network, and the newest one, the Roamio, comes with built-in wifi, for total freedom of use. Because it’s on the network, you can stream shows from your computer through the TiVo box for later playback. It supports channels like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Instant. You can also stream shows to your Apple portable devices and then take the shows with you on the plane or to the gym, or use the device as a remote control. (Android devices will have the same capacity soon.) The network capacity also means you can use your computer to control the TiVo box and view content wherever you are.

Some reviewers have also noted that the network set up is not as simple as it might be, and it requires some computer knowledge and ability. Unless you have a tech person nearby, novice computer users may not wish to set up the network.

The iPhone app remote screen looks like this:

A TiVo does have limitations of who can access which channels. For instance, it does not stream HBOGo, nor does it interface with Apple’s TV programming. For that you still need an AppleTV device.

Comcast boxes simply do not network well. They are designed to broadcast the cable signals through your TV, but not on a home network. They are often easier to connect, however, just requiring a cable from the box to be plugged into the TV.

4. TiVo vs Comcast: Recording capacity

The new TiVo, the Roamio, has as many as six tuners that can record at the same time with up to 150 hours of high definition programming. You’ll never have another scheduling conflict again!

TiVos have recording capacities that range from 75 to 450 hours, depending on whether it is standard definition or high definition, and which device you are using. You can choose from three models of the Roamio. The base model costs $200 and has 75 hours of capacity. The menu and features are more limited on this one than on the others. There is a middle model priced at $400 that has the same six tuners as the high-end one but can only hold 150 hours of recordings. Then the top tier model costs $600 and has 450 hours of recording capacity, all of it in high definition.

The Comcast X1 DVR has four tuners and it can record them simultaneously. You can watch a prerecorded program while it’s recording, too. It can hold 120 hours of HD or 600 hours of SD programming.

5. TiVo vs Comcast: User interface

The Comcast X1 DVR system has a voice-activated interface and a completely different look and layout than their standard system has.

The basic Comcast remote is a multi-function remote and capable of controlling all functions, but it does not have the ability to connect to a portable device like a tablet or a smartphone to have connectivity that way like a TiVo can through an app. The remote has to be line of sight in order to work.

The TiVo device menu is in standard definition, so for those who have a high definition set up, you may find this a bit distraction or fuzzy. It does come with apps for extending what the box can do, including games for kids.

Many reviewers liked the interface on the TiVo better than the grid used on the Comcast service. The TiVo programming guide allows you to delete channels you don’t watch so you’re only looking at the channels you like. Comcast’s guide covers every channel they offer, even ones that are not available on your tier of service.

With the TiVo Roamio, connecting to a tablet allows you to be in another room and still operate the “remote” for the TiVo DVR. Download the app onto your device and you’re ready to go.

TiVo’s device remote has a sleek layout called the “peanut”.

Summary

What it all comes down to is looking at how you use your TV, where you get your sources from, and what your budget is. Each device has its own set of things that are appealing, and its own drawbacks. For flexibility of being able to use multiple sources and devices, the TiVo is the clear winner. For cost in the long run, it’s almost a draw. For ease of connection to a TV, the Comcast box comes out on top. No matter which one you pick, you’ll never run out of great programs to watch.

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Ollie Mattison

Public Domain Video Treasure Trove: Best Sites to Explore

Best Websites to Download Public Domain Videos

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

In historic terms, cinema is still a relatively new art, and yet the amount of footage that has been filmed since the Lumière brothers released their first film is staggering. Capturing unique materials that were never seen by the world before has become the question of prestige among the filmmakers. Nonetheless, certain genres of film are almost entirely dependent on the public domain footage. Documentaries about historic events, space or any other topic that is impossible to stage rely on the videos that entered the public domain for one reason or the other. That’s why in this article, we are going to take you through some of the best websites that let you download public domain videos.

What is Public Domain Video?

Any video that is not subject to copyright can be considered a public domain video. This means that anyone can use this footage for free without having to ask for permission to do so. Videos can enter the public domain under the following circumstances:

• If the footage was produced by a government because governments are obligated by the law to offer the footage to the public domain.
• In case the author of the footage has forfeited his or her copyrights and dedicated the footage to the public domain
• A film or any other work of art becomes public domain 70 years after the death of the copyright holder. The expiration date of the copyrights is not the same in all the countries around the world, which is why you must make sure that the video you want to use is, in fact, a public domain video.

In addition, you should avoid using the footage that contains art or music that can be described as third-party intellectual property because you may unintentionally infringe copyrights.

Best Online Websites Where You Can Download Public Domain Videos

Finding free public domain footage or public movies on the Internet has never been too difficult, as you can watch thousands of public domain movies on YouTube, but you cannot download them. Over the course of the last couple of decades, the websites where you can download public domain footage have grown in number, which makes it somewhat easier to find the video clips you can use in your projects for free. Here are some of the best online destinations where you can download public domain videos.

1. Prelinger Archive

With more than 17,000 items in the collection, the Prelinger Archive is probably one of the largest public domain video libraries on the Internet. The archive was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger, but by 2002 it became a part of the Library of Congress Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Divison’s collection. You can download public domain video clips created by educational institutions, advertising companies, trade associations or corporations from this impressive collection. There are different download options available for each file, so you can choose the size of a file and the method you’re going to use to download a file to your computer.

2. The Public Domain Review

This is an excellent resource for researchers looking for essays, books, audio recordings, images or old films. The movies are divided into different categories such as Animals&Beasts, Politics, War or Sports which makes locating and downloading public domain videos faster and easier. The Public Domain Review offers footage that is available within different public domain licenses, so you must make sure that the film you want to download can be used for the purpose you have in mind. The vast majority of the films in this archive are from the last decade of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. That’s why The Public Domain Review’s selection of films can only be useful if you are researching a topic from that era.

3. The National Screening Room

The National Screening Room is a project created by the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center with the aim of making the videos from their collection available to the viewers around the world. The vast majority of the videos in the collection were filmed during the 20th century, but there are only a few videos available that are produced outside of the United States. The National Screening Room can be a valuable asset if you are looking for videos you can use for educational or research videos that cover topics that range from the development of the arms industry to the daily life of great American inventors.

4. Pond5’s Public Domain Project

Industry professionals don’t need an introduction to the Pond5 platform, because it is probably the largest online marketplace for royalty-free media at the moment. Their Public Domain Project contains a thousand public videos that can be downloaded for free, but the duration of these videos is limited to just two minutes To make things worse, most of these public domain videos don’t have audio, so you can only use them if you already have a soundtrack for the video you’re making. The platform offers powerful search tools that enable you to look for videos based on different parameters. You can download public domain videos in HD resolution, but you must create an account on Pond5 before you can save them to your computer.

5. Pexels

Free public domain stock footage can be used on different types of projects, and it is usually a great choice if you’re looking for some extra shots that will make a scene in your video more cinematic. Pexels offers an impressive collection of free public domain stock videos, so you just have to insert a search term and pick a video clip that best fits your needs. The duration of the free videos you can find on Pexels rarely exceeds thirty seconds, which makes it difficult to make an entire video exclusively from free public domain stock footage. Hence it is better to use Pexels as a complementary source of shots in case you can’t go back to the filming location.

6. Vidsplay

All video clips you can find on this platform are free, so you just have to select one of the categories and start browsing through the available public domain stock footage. The only condition to use the stock footage on private or commercial projects for free is to credit the Vidsplay platform in the end credits, on the website or in the description of the videos you upload to your social media channels. All stock videos on Vidsplay are available in HD or 4K resolution, and you simply have to click on the Download button below a particular video to save it.

7. The Moving Image Archive

This is yet another archive of public domain videos you can find on the Arhive.org that features countless collections of texts, images, and videos. Within the Moving Image Archive, you can find different collections that contain full feature movies, art videos, animations, cartoons or television footage. The public domain videos hosted on The Moving Image Archive cover a broad range of topics, but some of them can be in poor resolution. The Moving Image Archive can be an excellent source of footage for anyone who wants to download public domain video clips and use them in their commercial or non-commercial projects.

8. PublicDomainFootage

BBC, National Geographics or NBC are just a few among many famous television networks that use the services of PublicDomainFootage. All content on the platform is divided into Archival Footage and Historic Newsreels sections that contain categories like Atomic Age, Civil Rights or Pop Culture. You can also use PublicDomainFootage to research a particular topic and request content that is not uploaded to the website. You can download a public domain video after you pay a one time fee that enables you to use that video as many times as you want. The platform’s YouTube channel provides an easy way of searching for public domain videos you are going to use in your next documentary film.

9. NASA’s Video Gallery

Space exploration is undoubtedly one of the hottest topics of our era, so if you are looking for some space public domain videos NASA’s website is the best place to start. Like all other government institutions, NASA is obligated by the law to offer all images and videos to the public domain. This means that all content you download from their website is free to use. Simply insert the search term and browse the results until you find the video clip you want to save to your computer. However, most public domain videos you can download from NASA’s website last only a couple of minutes.

10. Motion Elements

The collection of free public domain stock footage, this website offers contains more than 4,000 clips. Categories like Cityscape, Animals or Water contain hundreds of stock videos, so you just have to open one of the available categories and locate the video clip you want to download. However, you must first create an account on Motion Elements before you can save video files to your computer. In addition, the platform doesn’t allow you to make more than five downloads per week and you must invite your friends to join the platform if you want to increase the weekly number of downloads. Even so, Motion Elements is a great source of stock footage you can use without any restrictions.

Is It Okay to Use Public Domain Videos for Commercial Purposes?

All public domain videos can be used for both commercial and non-commercial projects, but you must approach using public domain videos for commercial purposes with caution. Crediting the author or providing the source from which you acquired the footage will reduce the likelihood of legal complications. The public domain videos that feature famous actors or third party intellectual property can also be a subject of legal disputes, which is why it is better to avoid using them on commercial projects.

What Should You Do If You Can’t Find Public Domain Footage for Your Project?

Opting for videos that are protected by the Creative Commons licenses is probably the safest option if you’re struggling to find the public domain footage you’d like to use in your project. Respecting the terms of the license under which a video is protected is of utmost importance, since failing to properly credit the author of the video, for instance, can have legal consequences. There are several different types of Creative Commons licenses and you must find out which one covers the video you’d like to use, before publishing your video. You can find more information about Creative Commons licenses at the FAQ .

Conclusion

Public domain videos cover very different topics, which means that the nature of your project determines the source from which you’ll acquire the footage. If you are researching the early days of cinema, then you’ll have no trouble downloading the public domain videos, but if the topic you’re exploring is more contemporary, finding the content you can use without any restrictions can prove to be troublesome. Which website do you like to use the most to download public domain videos? Leave a comment and share your opinions with us.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

In historic terms, cinema is still a relatively new art, and yet the amount of footage that has been filmed since the Lumière brothers released their first film is staggering. Capturing unique materials that were never seen by the world before has become the question of prestige among the filmmakers. Nonetheless, certain genres of film are almost entirely dependent on the public domain footage. Documentaries about historic events, space or any other topic that is impossible to stage rely on the videos that entered the public domain for one reason or the other. That’s why in this article, we are going to take you through some of the best websites that let you download public domain videos.

What is Public Domain Video?

Any video that is not subject to copyright can be considered a public domain video. This means that anyone can use this footage for free without having to ask for permission to do so. Videos can enter the public domain under the following circumstances:

• If the footage was produced by a government because governments are obligated by the law to offer the footage to the public domain.
• In case the author of the footage has forfeited his or her copyrights and dedicated the footage to the public domain
• A film or any other work of art becomes public domain 70 years after the death of the copyright holder. The expiration date of the copyrights is not the same in all the countries around the world, which is why you must make sure that the video you want to use is, in fact, a public domain video.

In addition, you should avoid using the footage that contains art or music that can be described as third-party intellectual property because you may unintentionally infringe copyrights.

Best Online Websites Where You Can Download Public Domain Videos

Finding free public domain footage or public movies on the Internet has never been too difficult, as you can watch thousands of public domain movies on YouTube, but you cannot download them. Over the course of the last couple of decades, the websites where you can download public domain footage have grown in number, which makes it somewhat easier to find the video clips you can use in your projects for free. Here are some of the best online destinations where you can download public domain videos.

1. Prelinger Archive

With more than 17,000 items in the collection, the Prelinger Archive is probably one of the largest public domain video libraries on the Internet. The archive was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger, but by 2002 it became a part of the Library of Congress Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Divison’s collection. You can download public domain video clips created by educational institutions, advertising companies, trade associations or corporations from this impressive collection. There are different download options available for each file, so you can choose the size of a file and the method you’re going to use to download a file to your computer.

2. The Public Domain Review

This is an excellent resource for researchers looking for essays, books, audio recordings, images or old films. The movies are divided into different categories such as Animals&Beasts, Politics, War or Sports which makes locating and downloading public domain videos faster and easier. The Public Domain Review offers footage that is available within different public domain licenses, so you must make sure that the film you want to download can be used for the purpose you have in mind. The vast majority of the films in this archive are from the last decade of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. That’s why The Public Domain Review’s selection of films can only be useful if you are researching a topic from that era.

3. The National Screening Room

The National Screening Room is a project created by the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center with the aim of making the videos from their collection available to the viewers around the world. The vast majority of the videos in the collection were filmed during the 20th century, but there are only a few videos available that are produced outside of the United States. The National Screening Room can be a valuable asset if you are looking for videos you can use for educational or research videos that cover topics that range from the development of the arms industry to the daily life of great American inventors.

4. Pond5’s Public Domain Project

Industry professionals don’t need an introduction to the Pond5 platform, because it is probably the largest online marketplace for royalty-free media at the moment. Their Public Domain Project contains a thousand public videos that can be downloaded for free, but the duration of these videos is limited to just two minutes To make things worse, most of these public domain videos don’t have audio, so you can only use them if you already have a soundtrack for the video you’re making. The platform offers powerful search tools that enable you to look for videos based on different parameters. You can download public domain videos in HD resolution, but you must create an account on Pond5 before you can save them to your computer.

5. Pexels

Free public domain stock footage can be used on different types of projects, and it is usually a great choice if you’re looking for some extra shots that will make a scene in your video more cinematic. Pexels offers an impressive collection of free public domain stock videos, so you just have to insert a search term and pick a video clip that best fits your needs. The duration of the free videos you can find on Pexels rarely exceeds thirty seconds, which makes it difficult to make an entire video exclusively from free public domain stock footage. Hence it is better to use Pexels as a complementary source of shots in case you can’t go back to the filming location.

6. Vidsplay

All video clips you can find on this platform are free, so you just have to select one of the categories and start browsing through the available public domain stock footage. The only condition to use the stock footage on private or commercial projects for free is to credit the Vidsplay platform in the end credits, on the website or in the description of the videos you upload to your social media channels. All stock videos on Vidsplay are available in HD or 4K resolution, and you simply have to click on the Download button below a particular video to save it.

7. The Moving Image Archive

This is yet another archive of public domain videos you can find on the Arhive.org that features countless collections of texts, images, and videos. Within the Moving Image Archive, you can find different collections that contain full feature movies, art videos, animations, cartoons or television footage. The public domain videos hosted on The Moving Image Archive cover a broad range of topics, but some of them can be in poor resolution. The Moving Image Archive can be an excellent source of footage for anyone who wants to download public domain video clips and use them in their commercial or non-commercial projects.

8. PublicDomainFootage

BBC, National Geographics or NBC are just a few among many famous television networks that use the services of PublicDomainFootage. All content on the platform is divided into Archival Footage and Historic Newsreels sections that contain categories like Atomic Age, Civil Rights or Pop Culture. You can also use PublicDomainFootage to research a particular topic and request content that is not uploaded to the website. You can download a public domain video after you pay a one time fee that enables you to use that video as many times as you want. The platform’s YouTube channel provides an easy way of searching for public domain videos you are going to use in your next documentary film.

9. NASA’s Video Gallery

Space exploration is undoubtedly one of the hottest topics of our era, so if you are looking for some space public domain videos NASA’s website is the best place to start. Like all other government institutions, NASA is obligated by the law to offer all images and videos to the public domain. This means that all content you download from their website is free to use. Simply insert the search term and browse the results until you find the video clip you want to save to your computer. However, most public domain videos you can download from NASA’s website last only a couple of minutes.

10. Motion Elements

The collection of free public domain stock footage, this website offers contains more than 4,000 clips. Categories like Cityscape, Animals or Water contain hundreds of stock videos, so you just have to open one of the available categories and locate the video clip you want to download. However, you must first create an account on Motion Elements before you can save video files to your computer. In addition, the platform doesn’t allow you to make more than five downloads per week and you must invite your friends to join the platform if you want to increase the weekly number of downloads. Even so, Motion Elements is a great source of stock footage you can use without any restrictions.

Is It Okay to Use Public Domain Videos for Commercial Purposes?

All public domain videos can be used for both commercial and non-commercial projects, but you must approach using public domain videos for commercial purposes with caution. Crediting the author or providing the source from which you acquired the footage will reduce the likelihood of legal complications. The public domain videos that feature famous actors or third party intellectual property can also be a subject of legal disputes, which is why it is better to avoid using them on commercial projects.

What Should You Do If You Can’t Find Public Domain Footage for Your Project?

Opting for videos that are protected by the Creative Commons licenses is probably the safest option if you’re struggling to find the public domain footage you’d like to use in your project. Respecting the terms of the license under which a video is protected is of utmost importance, since failing to properly credit the author of the video, for instance, can have legal consequences. There are several different types of Creative Commons licenses and you must find out which one covers the video you’d like to use, before publishing your video. You can find more information about Creative Commons licenses at the FAQ .

Conclusion

Public domain videos cover very different topics, which means that the nature of your project determines the source from which you’ll acquire the footage. If you are researching the early days of cinema, then you’ll have no trouble downloading the public domain videos, but if the topic you’re exploring is more contemporary, finding the content you can use without any restrictions can prove to be troublesome. Which website do you like to use the most to download public domain videos? Leave a comment and share your opinions with us.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

In historic terms, cinema is still a relatively new art, and yet the amount of footage that has been filmed since the Lumière brothers released their first film is staggering. Capturing unique materials that were never seen by the world before has become the question of prestige among the filmmakers. Nonetheless, certain genres of film are almost entirely dependent on the public domain footage. Documentaries about historic events, space or any other topic that is impossible to stage rely on the videos that entered the public domain for one reason or the other. That’s why in this article, we are going to take you through some of the best websites that let you download public domain videos.

What is Public Domain Video?

Any video that is not subject to copyright can be considered a public domain video. This means that anyone can use this footage for free without having to ask for permission to do so. Videos can enter the public domain under the following circumstances:

• If the footage was produced by a government because governments are obligated by the law to offer the footage to the public domain.
• In case the author of the footage has forfeited his or her copyrights and dedicated the footage to the public domain
• A film or any other work of art becomes public domain 70 years after the death of the copyright holder. The expiration date of the copyrights is not the same in all the countries around the world, which is why you must make sure that the video you want to use is, in fact, a public domain video.

In addition, you should avoid using the footage that contains art or music that can be described as third-party intellectual property because you may unintentionally infringe copyrights.

Best Online Websites Where You Can Download Public Domain Videos

Finding free public domain footage or public movies on the Internet has never been too difficult, as you can watch thousands of public domain movies on YouTube, but you cannot download them. Over the course of the last couple of decades, the websites where you can download public domain footage have grown in number, which makes it somewhat easier to find the video clips you can use in your projects for free. Here are some of the best online destinations where you can download public domain videos.

1. Prelinger Archive

With more than 17,000 items in the collection, the Prelinger Archive is probably one of the largest public domain video libraries on the Internet. The archive was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger, but by 2002 it became a part of the Library of Congress Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Divison’s collection. You can download public domain video clips created by educational institutions, advertising companies, trade associations or corporations from this impressive collection. There are different download options available for each file, so you can choose the size of a file and the method you’re going to use to download a file to your computer.

2. The Public Domain Review

This is an excellent resource for researchers looking for essays, books, audio recordings, images or old films. The movies are divided into different categories such as Animals&Beasts, Politics, War or Sports which makes locating and downloading public domain videos faster and easier. The Public Domain Review offers footage that is available within different public domain licenses, so you must make sure that the film you want to download can be used for the purpose you have in mind. The vast majority of the films in this archive are from the last decade of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. That’s why The Public Domain Review’s selection of films can only be useful if you are researching a topic from that era.

3. The National Screening Room

The National Screening Room is a project created by the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center with the aim of making the videos from their collection available to the viewers around the world. The vast majority of the videos in the collection were filmed during the 20th century, but there are only a few videos available that are produced outside of the United States. The National Screening Room can be a valuable asset if you are looking for videos you can use for educational or research videos that cover topics that range from the development of the arms industry to the daily life of great American inventors.

4. Pond5’s Public Domain Project

Industry professionals don’t need an introduction to the Pond5 platform, because it is probably the largest online marketplace for royalty-free media at the moment. Their Public Domain Project contains a thousand public videos that can be downloaded for free, but the duration of these videos is limited to just two minutes To make things worse, most of these public domain videos don’t have audio, so you can only use them if you already have a soundtrack for the video you’re making. The platform offers powerful search tools that enable you to look for videos based on different parameters. You can download public domain videos in HD resolution, but you must create an account on Pond5 before you can save them to your computer.

5. Pexels

Free public domain stock footage can be used on different types of projects, and it is usually a great choice if you’re looking for some extra shots that will make a scene in your video more cinematic. Pexels offers an impressive collection of free public domain stock videos, so you just have to insert a search term and pick a video clip that best fits your needs. The duration of the free videos you can find on Pexels rarely exceeds thirty seconds, which makes it difficult to make an entire video exclusively from free public domain stock footage. Hence it is better to use Pexels as a complementary source of shots in case you can’t go back to the filming location.

6. Vidsplay

All video clips you can find on this platform are free, so you just have to select one of the categories and start browsing through the available public domain stock footage. The only condition to use the stock footage on private or commercial projects for free is to credit the Vidsplay platform in the end credits, on the website or in the description of the videos you upload to your social media channels. All stock videos on Vidsplay are available in HD or 4K resolution, and you simply have to click on the Download button below a particular video to save it.

7. The Moving Image Archive

This is yet another archive of public domain videos you can find on the Arhive.org that features countless collections of texts, images, and videos. Within the Moving Image Archive, you can find different collections that contain full feature movies, art videos, animations, cartoons or television footage. The public domain videos hosted on The Moving Image Archive cover a broad range of topics, but some of them can be in poor resolution. The Moving Image Archive can be an excellent source of footage for anyone who wants to download public domain video clips and use them in their commercial or non-commercial projects.

8. PublicDomainFootage

BBC, National Geographics or NBC are just a few among many famous television networks that use the services of PublicDomainFootage. All content on the platform is divided into Archival Footage and Historic Newsreels sections that contain categories like Atomic Age, Civil Rights or Pop Culture. You can also use PublicDomainFootage to research a particular topic and request content that is not uploaded to the website. You can download a public domain video after you pay a one time fee that enables you to use that video as many times as you want. The platform’s YouTube channel provides an easy way of searching for public domain videos you are going to use in your next documentary film.

9. NASA’s Video Gallery

Space exploration is undoubtedly one of the hottest topics of our era, so if you are looking for some space public domain videos NASA’s website is the best place to start. Like all other government institutions, NASA is obligated by the law to offer all images and videos to the public domain. This means that all content you download from their website is free to use. Simply insert the search term and browse the results until you find the video clip you want to save to your computer. However, most public domain videos you can download from NASA’s website last only a couple of minutes.

10. Motion Elements

The collection of free public domain stock footage, this website offers contains more than 4,000 clips. Categories like Cityscape, Animals or Water contain hundreds of stock videos, so you just have to open one of the available categories and locate the video clip you want to download. However, you must first create an account on Motion Elements before you can save video files to your computer. In addition, the platform doesn’t allow you to make more than five downloads per week and you must invite your friends to join the platform if you want to increase the weekly number of downloads. Even so, Motion Elements is a great source of stock footage you can use without any restrictions.

Is It Okay to Use Public Domain Videos for Commercial Purposes?

All public domain videos can be used for both commercial and non-commercial projects, but you must approach using public domain videos for commercial purposes with caution. Crediting the author or providing the source from which you acquired the footage will reduce the likelihood of legal complications. The public domain videos that feature famous actors or third party intellectual property can also be a subject of legal disputes, which is why it is better to avoid using them on commercial projects.

What Should You Do If You Can’t Find Public Domain Footage for Your Project?

Opting for videos that are protected by the Creative Commons licenses is probably the safest option if you’re struggling to find the public domain footage you’d like to use in your project. Respecting the terms of the license under which a video is protected is of utmost importance, since failing to properly credit the author of the video, for instance, can have legal consequences. There are several different types of Creative Commons licenses and you must find out which one covers the video you’d like to use, before publishing your video. You can find more information about Creative Commons licenses at the FAQ .

Conclusion

Public domain videos cover very different topics, which means that the nature of your project determines the source from which you’ll acquire the footage. If you are researching the early days of cinema, then you’ll have no trouble downloading the public domain videos, but if the topic you’re exploring is more contemporary, finding the content you can use without any restrictions can prove to be troublesome. Which website do you like to use the most to download public domain videos? Leave a comment and share your opinions with us.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

In historic terms, cinema is still a relatively new art, and yet the amount of footage that has been filmed since the Lumière brothers released their first film is staggering. Capturing unique materials that were never seen by the world before has become the question of prestige among the filmmakers. Nonetheless, certain genres of film are almost entirely dependent on the public domain footage. Documentaries about historic events, space or any other topic that is impossible to stage rely on the videos that entered the public domain for one reason or the other. That’s why in this article, we are going to take you through some of the best websites that let you download public domain videos.

What is Public Domain Video?

Any video that is not subject to copyright can be considered a public domain video. This means that anyone can use this footage for free without having to ask for permission to do so. Videos can enter the public domain under the following circumstances:

• If the footage was produced by a government because governments are obligated by the law to offer the footage to the public domain.
• In case the author of the footage has forfeited his or her copyrights and dedicated the footage to the public domain
• A film or any other work of art becomes public domain 70 years after the death of the copyright holder. The expiration date of the copyrights is not the same in all the countries around the world, which is why you must make sure that the video you want to use is, in fact, a public domain video.

In addition, you should avoid using the footage that contains art or music that can be described as third-party intellectual property because you may unintentionally infringe copyrights.

Best Online Websites Where You Can Download Public Domain Videos

Finding free public domain footage or public movies on the Internet has never been too difficult, as you can watch thousands of public domain movies on YouTube, but you cannot download them. Over the course of the last couple of decades, the websites where you can download public domain footage have grown in number, which makes it somewhat easier to find the video clips you can use in your projects for free. Here are some of the best online destinations where you can download public domain videos.

1. Prelinger Archive

With more than 17,000 items in the collection, the Prelinger Archive is probably one of the largest public domain video libraries on the Internet. The archive was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger, but by 2002 it became a part of the Library of Congress Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Divison’s collection. You can download public domain video clips created by educational institutions, advertising companies, trade associations or corporations from this impressive collection. There are different download options available for each file, so you can choose the size of a file and the method you’re going to use to download a file to your computer.

2. The Public Domain Review

This is an excellent resource for researchers looking for essays, books, audio recordings, images or old films. The movies are divided into different categories such as Animals&Beasts, Politics, War or Sports which makes locating and downloading public domain videos faster and easier. The Public Domain Review offers footage that is available within different public domain licenses, so you must make sure that the film you want to download can be used for the purpose you have in mind. The vast majority of the films in this archive are from the last decade of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. That’s why The Public Domain Review’s selection of films can only be useful if you are researching a topic from that era.

3. The National Screening Room

The National Screening Room is a project created by the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center with the aim of making the videos from their collection available to the viewers around the world. The vast majority of the videos in the collection were filmed during the 20th century, but there are only a few videos available that are produced outside of the United States. The National Screening Room can be a valuable asset if you are looking for videos you can use for educational or research videos that cover topics that range from the development of the arms industry to the daily life of great American inventors.

4. Pond5’s Public Domain Project

Industry professionals don’t need an introduction to the Pond5 platform, because it is probably the largest online marketplace for royalty-free media at the moment. Their Public Domain Project contains a thousand public videos that can be downloaded for free, but the duration of these videos is limited to just two minutes To make things worse, most of these public domain videos don’t have audio, so you can only use them if you already have a soundtrack for the video you’re making. The platform offers powerful search tools that enable you to look for videos based on different parameters. You can download public domain videos in HD resolution, but you must create an account on Pond5 before you can save them to your computer.

5. Pexels

Free public domain stock footage can be used on different types of projects, and it is usually a great choice if you’re looking for some extra shots that will make a scene in your video more cinematic. Pexels offers an impressive collection of free public domain stock videos, so you just have to insert a search term and pick a video clip that best fits your needs. The duration of the free videos you can find on Pexels rarely exceeds thirty seconds, which makes it difficult to make an entire video exclusively from free public domain stock footage. Hence it is better to use Pexels as a complementary source of shots in case you can’t go back to the filming location.

6. Vidsplay

All video clips you can find on this platform are free, so you just have to select one of the categories and start browsing through the available public domain stock footage. The only condition to use the stock footage on private or commercial projects for free is to credit the Vidsplay platform in the end credits, on the website or in the description of the videos you upload to your social media channels. All stock videos on Vidsplay are available in HD or 4K resolution, and you simply have to click on the Download button below a particular video to save it.

7. The Moving Image Archive

This is yet another archive of public domain videos you can find on the Arhive.org that features countless collections of texts, images, and videos. Within the Moving Image Archive, you can find different collections that contain full feature movies, art videos, animations, cartoons or television footage. The public domain videos hosted on The Moving Image Archive cover a broad range of topics, but some of them can be in poor resolution. The Moving Image Archive can be an excellent source of footage for anyone who wants to download public domain video clips and use them in their commercial or non-commercial projects.

8. PublicDomainFootage

BBC, National Geographics or NBC are just a few among many famous television networks that use the services of PublicDomainFootage. All content on the platform is divided into Archival Footage and Historic Newsreels sections that contain categories like Atomic Age, Civil Rights or Pop Culture. You can also use PublicDomainFootage to research a particular topic and request content that is not uploaded to the website. You can download a public domain video after you pay a one time fee that enables you to use that video as many times as you want. The platform’s YouTube channel provides an easy way of searching for public domain videos you are going to use in your next documentary film.

9. NASA’s Video Gallery

Space exploration is undoubtedly one of the hottest topics of our era, so if you are looking for some space public domain videos NASA’s website is the best place to start. Like all other government institutions, NASA is obligated by the law to offer all images and videos to the public domain. This means that all content you download from their website is free to use. Simply insert the search term and browse the results until you find the video clip you want to save to your computer. However, most public domain videos you can download from NASA’s website last only a couple of minutes.

10. Motion Elements

The collection of free public domain stock footage, this website offers contains more than 4,000 clips. Categories like Cityscape, Animals or Water contain hundreds of stock videos, so you just have to open one of the available categories and locate the video clip you want to download. However, you must first create an account on Motion Elements before you can save video files to your computer. In addition, the platform doesn’t allow you to make more than five downloads per week and you must invite your friends to join the platform if you want to increase the weekly number of downloads. Even so, Motion Elements is a great source of stock footage you can use without any restrictions.

Is It Okay to Use Public Domain Videos for Commercial Purposes?

All public domain videos can be used for both commercial and non-commercial projects, but you must approach using public domain videos for commercial purposes with caution. Crediting the author or providing the source from which you acquired the footage will reduce the likelihood of legal complications. The public domain videos that feature famous actors or third party intellectual property can also be a subject of legal disputes, which is why it is better to avoid using them on commercial projects.

What Should You Do If You Can’t Find Public Domain Footage for Your Project?

Opting for videos that are protected by the Creative Commons licenses is probably the safest option if you’re struggling to find the public domain footage you’d like to use in your project. Respecting the terms of the license under which a video is protected is of utmost importance, since failing to properly credit the author of the video, for instance, can have legal consequences. There are several different types of Creative Commons licenses and you must find out which one covers the video you’d like to use, before publishing your video. You can find more information about Creative Commons licenses at the FAQ .

Conclusion

Public domain videos cover very different topics, which means that the nature of your project determines the source from which you’ll acquire the footage. If you are researching the early days of cinema, then you’ll have no trouble downloading the public domain videos, but if the topic you’re exploring is more contemporary, finding the content you can use without any restrictions can prove to be troublesome. Which website do you like to use the most to download public domain videos? Leave a comment and share your opinions with us.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Digitize Your Movie Library: Converting DVDs to Modern File Formats

Best DVD to Digital Format Converters

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

DVDs are not as nearly as popular as they were in the 2000s, simply because USB flash drives are much more durable than DVD discs. One of the easiest ways to back up the data stored on DVDs is to convert it to digital video file formats, like MOV or MP4 .

You cannot just copy and paste the data from a DVD or Blu-ray to a computer since you need file conversion software in order to change the format of a video file . Read on if you are looking for a way to convert a DVD to a digital video file format because in this article we are going to take you through some of the best DVD to digital format converters.

How to convert DVDs to Digital Video File Formats?

The process of converting a video file is simple, and anyone can perform it in just a few minutes even if they have never done it before. However, converting DVDs to digital file formats without permission is punishable by the law, so you must make sure that you have the right to use the file you created freely. Let’s take a look at some of the best DVD to digital format converters.

1. Vudu

Price: $2 - $5 per conversion

Compatibility: Android, iOS

Having a source of entertainment in your pocket wherever you go can make dull long journeys much more fun. Vudu allows you to manage your film collection directly from your Smartphone and have access to all your DVD and Blu-ray discs at any moment.

In order to start the conversion process, you just have to scan a disc’s barcode and the app will automatically convert it to a digital video file format. You can choose to convert a Blu-ray to HDX, DVD to SD or DVD to HDX, however, you will have to pay between $2 and $5 plus the tax for each file you convert with Vudu. Furthermore, the app features an impressive movie collection with more than 100,000 titles you can watch anytime and anywhere.

2. HandBrake

Price: Free

Compatibility: Windows

This open-source file converter can help you convert any DVD to a file format you choose effortlessly. PC users that have Windows 7 or later can install HandBrake for free, although the application only works on 64-bit versions of the OS.

You can choose from a variety of device presets that automatically adjust the conversion settings to a device on which the converted DVD video is going to be played. In addition, HandBrake lets you choose the output file format, set the preferred framerate or apply video filters such as Denoise , Grayscale or Deinterlacing. Nonetheless, HandBrake can only convert DVDs to MP4 or MKV file formats, which can considerably limit your conversion options.

3. Wondershare Uniconverter

Price: Freemium, $55.99 for the perpetual plan

Compatibility: Windows, macOS

If you are looking for a software product that enables you to burn DVDs, edit or transfer videos and convert them to more than a thousand video file formats, then Wondershare Unicoverter is undoubtedly one of the best choices you have at your disposal.

This cross-platform app converts files 30 times faster than any of its competitors because it supports GPU acceleration. In addition to excellent DVD file conversion capabilities, Uniconverter also offers VR conversion features and it allows you to combine and merge multiple video clips . Optionally, you can use this cross-platform app to add srt and other subtitle files to the videos you convert with it. You should keep in mind that the free version of Wondershare Uniconverter only lets you convert 1/3 of the output file and prevents recording videos that are longer than one minute.

4. DVDVideoSoft Free Video Converter

Price: Free

Compatibility: Windows

This is a simple tool that makes the process of converting a DVD to a digital video or audio file effortless. You just have to specify the source of the input video, then select the file format of the output video and optimize it for playback on a particular device by choosing one of the available Device presets.

You can easily convert DVDs to AVI, MP4, MKV, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Xbox or PS3 files with this video file converter. Extracting audio from DVD is yet another option DVDVideo Soft Free Video Converter provides, which enables you to extract dialogue or narration from video files. Even so, the software can only convert unprotected files, so you must make sure that the DVD you are trying to convert doesn’t have regional protection or any other form of encryption.

5. DVDFab DVD Ripper

Price: Free version available, pricing options start at $69

Compatibility: Windows, macOS

The range of the file conversion options this tool provides depends on the subscription model you’ve selected. In case you choose to convert your DVDs with the free version of the software, the number of discs you can open will not be limited but you won’t have access to all conversion profiles. Furthermore, you won’t have access to 4K and profiles and you will only get a free DVD Ripper account.

Both Full Trial and Paid versions of this DVD converter let you export multichannel audio files, but the free version limits the number of audio channels to just two. The resolution of the output videos cannot be higher than 480p regardless of the subscription model you choose, but you can purchase the Enlarger AI app separately and use it to upscale the videos up to 1080p.

6. WinX DVD Ripper Platinum

Price: $59.95

Compatibility: macOS, Windows

Backing up old DVDs, fixing playback errors on DVDs, or ripping a DVD to MP4 are some of the most common reasons why PC and Mac users choose to convert their DVDs with WinX DVD Ripper Platinum.

You can also convert encrypted or regional DVDs or choose to clone DVD to ISO without any quality losses. This DVD converter also offers simple video editing tools that allow you to trim videos, remove black bars, add subtitles or change the resolution of a video file. WinX DVD Ripper Platinum supports Level-3 Hardware Acceleration for Intel CPU, Nvidia or AMD GPU, so that you can convert an entire DVD into MP4 in just a few minutes.

Conclusion

Even though DVDs are no longer as popular as they once were, movie or music collectors can benefit from converting them to digital formats. Damaging a DVD is relatively easy, and backing up the data from your DVDs is probably the easiest way of ensuring that all your files are safe. Which DVD to digital format converter are you going to choose to convert your DVDs to digital video file format? Leave a comment and let us know.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

DVDs are not as nearly as popular as they were in the 2000s, simply because USB flash drives are much more durable than DVD discs. One of the easiest ways to back up the data stored on DVDs is to convert it to digital video file formats, like MOV or MP4 .

You cannot just copy and paste the data from a DVD or Blu-ray to a computer since you need file conversion software in order to change the format of a video file . Read on if you are looking for a way to convert a DVD to a digital video file format because in this article we are going to take you through some of the best DVD to digital format converters.

How to convert DVDs to Digital Video File Formats?

The process of converting a video file is simple, and anyone can perform it in just a few minutes even if they have never done it before. However, converting DVDs to digital file formats without permission is punishable by the law, so you must make sure that you have the right to use the file you created freely. Let’s take a look at some of the best DVD to digital format converters.

1. Vudu

Price: $2 - $5 per conversion

Compatibility: Android, iOS

Having a source of entertainment in your pocket wherever you go can make dull long journeys much more fun. Vudu allows you to manage your film collection directly from your Smartphone and have access to all your DVD and Blu-ray discs at any moment.

In order to start the conversion process, you just have to scan a disc’s barcode and the app will automatically convert it to a digital video file format. You can choose to convert a Blu-ray to HDX, DVD to SD or DVD to HDX, however, you will have to pay between $2 and $5 plus the tax for each file you convert with Vudu. Furthermore, the app features an impressive movie collection with more than 100,000 titles you can watch anytime and anywhere.

2. HandBrake

Price: Free

Compatibility: Windows

This open-source file converter can help you convert any DVD to a file format you choose effortlessly. PC users that have Windows 7 or later can install HandBrake for free, although the application only works on 64-bit versions of the OS.

You can choose from a variety of device presets that automatically adjust the conversion settings to a device on which the converted DVD video is going to be played. In addition, HandBrake lets you choose the output file format, set the preferred framerate or apply video filters such as Denoise , Grayscale or Deinterlacing. Nonetheless, HandBrake can only convert DVDs to MP4 or MKV file formats, which can considerably limit your conversion options.

3. Wondershare Uniconverter

Price: Freemium, $55.99 for the perpetual plan

Compatibility: Windows, macOS

If you are looking for a software product that enables you to burn DVDs, edit or transfer videos and convert them to more than a thousand video file formats, then Wondershare Unicoverter is undoubtedly one of the best choices you have at your disposal.

This cross-platform app converts files 30 times faster than any of its competitors because it supports GPU acceleration. In addition to excellent DVD file conversion capabilities, Uniconverter also offers VR conversion features and it allows you to combine and merge multiple video clips . Optionally, you can use this cross-platform app to add srt and other subtitle files to the videos you convert with it. You should keep in mind that the free version of Wondershare Uniconverter only lets you convert 1/3 of the output file and prevents recording videos that are longer than one minute.

4. DVDVideoSoft Free Video Converter

Price: Free

Compatibility: Windows

This is a simple tool that makes the process of converting a DVD to a digital video or audio file effortless. You just have to specify the source of the input video, then select the file format of the output video and optimize it for playback on a particular device by choosing one of the available Device presets.

You can easily convert DVDs to AVI, MP4, MKV, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Xbox or PS3 files with this video file converter. Extracting audio from DVD is yet another option DVDVideo Soft Free Video Converter provides, which enables you to extract dialogue or narration from video files. Even so, the software can only convert unprotected files, so you must make sure that the DVD you are trying to convert doesn’t have regional protection or any other form of encryption.

5. DVDFab DVD Ripper

Price: Free version available, pricing options start at $69

Compatibility: Windows, macOS

The range of the file conversion options this tool provides depends on the subscription model you’ve selected. In case you choose to convert your DVDs with the free version of the software, the number of discs you can open will not be limited but you won’t have access to all conversion profiles. Furthermore, you won’t have access to 4K and profiles and you will only get a free DVD Ripper account.

Both Full Trial and Paid versions of this DVD converter let you export multichannel audio files, but the free version limits the number of audio channels to just two. The resolution of the output videos cannot be higher than 480p regardless of the subscription model you choose, but you can purchase the Enlarger AI app separately and use it to upscale the videos up to 1080p.

6. WinX DVD Ripper Platinum

Price: $59.95

Compatibility: macOS, Windows

Backing up old DVDs, fixing playback errors on DVDs, or ripping a DVD to MP4 are some of the most common reasons why PC and Mac users choose to convert their DVDs with WinX DVD Ripper Platinum.

You can also convert encrypted or regional DVDs or choose to clone DVD to ISO without any quality losses. This DVD converter also offers simple video editing tools that allow you to trim videos, remove black bars, add subtitles or change the resolution of a video file. WinX DVD Ripper Platinum supports Level-3 Hardware Acceleration for Intel CPU, Nvidia or AMD GPU, so that you can convert an entire DVD into MP4 in just a few minutes.

Conclusion

Even though DVDs are no longer as popular as they once were, movie or music collectors can benefit from converting them to digital formats. Damaging a DVD is relatively easy, and backing up the data from your DVDs is probably the easiest way of ensuring that all your files are safe. Which DVD to digital format converter are you going to choose to convert your DVDs to digital video file format? Leave a comment and let us know.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

DVDs are not as nearly as popular as they were in the 2000s, simply because USB flash drives are much more durable than DVD discs. One of the easiest ways to back up the data stored on DVDs is to convert it to digital video file formats, like MOV or MP4 .

You cannot just copy and paste the data from a DVD or Blu-ray to a computer since you need file conversion software in order to change the format of a video file . Read on if you are looking for a way to convert a DVD to a digital video file format because in this article we are going to take you through some of the best DVD to digital format converters.

How to convert DVDs to Digital Video File Formats?

The process of converting a video file is simple, and anyone can perform it in just a few minutes even if they have never done it before. However, converting DVDs to digital file formats without permission is punishable by the law, so you must make sure that you have the right to use the file you created freely. Let’s take a look at some of the best DVD to digital format converters.

1. Vudu

Price: $2 - $5 per conversion

Compatibility: Android, iOS

Having a source of entertainment in your pocket wherever you go can make dull long journeys much more fun. Vudu allows you to manage your film collection directly from your Smartphone and have access to all your DVD and Blu-ray discs at any moment.

In order to start the conversion process, you just have to scan a disc’s barcode and the app will automatically convert it to a digital video file format. You can choose to convert a Blu-ray to HDX, DVD to SD or DVD to HDX, however, you will have to pay between $2 and $5 plus the tax for each file you convert with Vudu. Furthermore, the app features an impressive movie collection with more than 100,000 titles you can watch anytime and anywhere.

2. HandBrake

Price: Free

Compatibility: Windows

This open-source file converter can help you convert any DVD to a file format you choose effortlessly. PC users that have Windows 7 or later can install HandBrake for free, although the application only works on 64-bit versions of the OS.

You can choose from a variety of device presets that automatically adjust the conversion settings to a device on which the converted DVD video is going to be played. In addition, HandBrake lets you choose the output file format, set the preferred framerate or apply video filters such as Denoise , Grayscale or Deinterlacing. Nonetheless, HandBrake can only convert DVDs to MP4 or MKV file formats, which can considerably limit your conversion options.

3. Wondershare Uniconverter

Price: Freemium, $55.99 for the perpetual plan

Compatibility: Windows, macOS

If you are looking for a software product that enables you to burn DVDs, edit or transfer videos and convert them to more than a thousand video file formats, then Wondershare Unicoverter is undoubtedly one of the best choices you have at your disposal.

This cross-platform app converts files 30 times faster than any of its competitors because it supports GPU acceleration. In addition to excellent DVD file conversion capabilities, Uniconverter also offers VR conversion features and it allows you to combine and merge multiple video clips . Optionally, you can use this cross-platform app to add srt and other subtitle files to the videos you convert with it. You should keep in mind that the free version of Wondershare Uniconverter only lets you convert 1/3 of the output file and prevents recording videos that are longer than one minute.

4. DVDVideoSoft Free Video Converter

Price: Free

Compatibility: Windows

This is a simple tool that makes the process of converting a DVD to a digital video or audio file effortless. You just have to specify the source of the input video, then select the file format of the output video and optimize it for playback on a particular device by choosing one of the available Device presets.

You can easily convert DVDs to AVI, MP4, MKV, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Xbox or PS3 files with this video file converter. Extracting audio from DVD is yet another option DVDVideo Soft Free Video Converter provides, which enables you to extract dialogue or narration from video files. Even so, the software can only convert unprotected files, so you must make sure that the DVD you are trying to convert doesn’t have regional protection or any other form of encryption.

5. DVDFab DVD Ripper

Price: Free version available, pricing options start at $69

Compatibility: Windows, macOS

The range of the file conversion options this tool provides depends on the subscription model you’ve selected. In case you choose to convert your DVDs with the free version of the software, the number of discs you can open will not be limited but you won’t have access to all conversion profiles. Furthermore, you won’t have access to 4K and profiles and you will only get a free DVD Ripper account.

Both Full Trial and Paid versions of this DVD converter let you export multichannel audio files, but the free version limits the number of audio channels to just two. The resolution of the output videos cannot be higher than 480p regardless of the subscription model you choose, but you can purchase the Enlarger AI app separately and use it to upscale the videos up to 1080p.

6. WinX DVD Ripper Platinum

Price: $59.95

Compatibility: macOS, Windows

Backing up old DVDs, fixing playback errors on DVDs, or ripping a DVD to MP4 are some of the most common reasons why PC and Mac users choose to convert their DVDs with WinX DVD Ripper Platinum.

You can also convert encrypted or regional DVDs or choose to clone DVD to ISO without any quality losses. This DVD converter also offers simple video editing tools that allow you to trim videos, remove black bars, add subtitles or change the resolution of a video file. WinX DVD Ripper Platinum supports Level-3 Hardware Acceleration for Intel CPU, Nvidia or AMD GPU, so that you can convert an entire DVD into MP4 in just a few minutes.

Conclusion

Even though DVDs are no longer as popular as they once were, movie or music collectors can benefit from converting them to digital formats. Damaging a DVD is relatively easy, and backing up the data from your DVDs is probably the easiest way of ensuring that all your files are safe. Which DVD to digital format converter are you going to choose to convert your DVDs to digital video file format? Leave a comment and let us know.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

DVDs are not as nearly as popular as they were in the 2000s, simply because USB flash drives are much more durable than DVD discs. One of the easiest ways to back up the data stored on DVDs is to convert it to digital video file formats, like MOV or MP4 .

You cannot just copy and paste the data from a DVD or Blu-ray to a computer since you need file conversion software in order to change the format of a video file . Read on if you are looking for a way to convert a DVD to a digital video file format because in this article we are going to take you through some of the best DVD to digital format converters.

How to convert DVDs to Digital Video File Formats?

The process of converting a video file is simple, and anyone can perform it in just a few minutes even if they have never done it before. However, converting DVDs to digital file formats without permission is punishable by the law, so you must make sure that you have the right to use the file you created freely. Let’s take a look at some of the best DVD to digital format converters.

1. Vudu

Price: $2 - $5 per conversion

Compatibility: Android, iOS

Having a source of entertainment in your pocket wherever you go can make dull long journeys much more fun. Vudu allows you to manage your film collection directly from your Smartphone and have access to all your DVD and Blu-ray discs at any moment.

In order to start the conversion process, you just have to scan a disc’s barcode and the app will automatically convert it to a digital video file format. You can choose to convert a Blu-ray to HDX, DVD to SD or DVD to HDX, however, you will have to pay between $2 and $5 plus the tax for each file you convert with Vudu. Furthermore, the app features an impressive movie collection with more than 100,000 titles you can watch anytime and anywhere.

2. HandBrake

Price: Free

Compatibility: Windows

This open-source file converter can help you convert any DVD to a file format you choose effortlessly. PC users that have Windows 7 or later can install HandBrake for free, although the application only works on 64-bit versions of the OS.

You can choose from a variety of device presets that automatically adjust the conversion settings to a device on which the converted DVD video is going to be played. In addition, HandBrake lets you choose the output file format, set the preferred framerate or apply video filters such as Denoise , Grayscale or Deinterlacing. Nonetheless, HandBrake can only convert DVDs to MP4 or MKV file formats, which can considerably limit your conversion options.

3. Wondershare Uniconverter

Price: Freemium, $55.99 for the perpetual plan

Compatibility: Windows, macOS

If you are looking for a software product that enables you to burn DVDs, edit or transfer videos and convert them to more than a thousand video file formats, then Wondershare Unicoverter is undoubtedly one of the best choices you have at your disposal.

This cross-platform app converts files 30 times faster than any of its competitors because it supports GPU acceleration. In addition to excellent DVD file conversion capabilities, Uniconverter also offers VR conversion features and it allows you to combine and merge multiple video clips . Optionally, you can use this cross-platform app to add srt and other subtitle files to the videos you convert with it. You should keep in mind that the free version of Wondershare Uniconverter only lets you convert 1/3 of the output file and prevents recording videos that are longer than one minute.

4. DVDVideoSoft Free Video Converter

Price: Free

Compatibility: Windows

This is a simple tool that makes the process of converting a DVD to a digital video or audio file effortless. You just have to specify the source of the input video, then select the file format of the output video and optimize it for playback on a particular device by choosing one of the available Device presets.

You can easily convert DVDs to AVI, MP4, MKV, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Xbox or PS3 files with this video file converter. Extracting audio from DVD is yet another option DVDVideo Soft Free Video Converter provides, which enables you to extract dialogue or narration from video files. Even so, the software can only convert unprotected files, so you must make sure that the DVD you are trying to convert doesn’t have regional protection or any other form of encryption.

5. DVDFab DVD Ripper

Price: Free version available, pricing options start at $69

Compatibility: Windows, macOS

The range of the file conversion options this tool provides depends on the subscription model you’ve selected. In case you choose to convert your DVDs with the free version of the software, the number of discs you can open will not be limited but you won’t have access to all conversion profiles. Furthermore, you won’t have access to 4K and profiles and you will only get a free DVD Ripper account.

Both Full Trial and Paid versions of this DVD converter let you export multichannel audio files, but the free version limits the number of audio channels to just two. The resolution of the output videos cannot be higher than 480p regardless of the subscription model you choose, but you can purchase the Enlarger AI app separately and use it to upscale the videos up to 1080p.

6. WinX DVD Ripper Platinum

Price: $59.95

Compatibility: macOS, Windows

Backing up old DVDs, fixing playback errors on DVDs, or ripping a DVD to MP4 are some of the most common reasons why PC and Mac users choose to convert their DVDs with WinX DVD Ripper Platinum.

You can also convert encrypted or regional DVDs or choose to clone DVD to ISO without any quality losses. This DVD converter also offers simple video editing tools that allow you to trim videos, remove black bars, add subtitles or change the resolution of a video file. WinX DVD Ripper Platinum supports Level-3 Hardware Acceleration for Intel CPU, Nvidia or AMD GPU, so that you can convert an entire DVD into MP4 in just a few minutes.

Conclusion

Even though DVDs are no longer as popular as they once were, movie or music collectors can benefit from converting them to digital formats. Damaging a DVD is relatively easy, and backing up the data from your DVDs is probably the easiest way of ensuring that all your files are safe. Which DVD to digital format converter are you going to choose to convert your DVDs to digital video file format? Leave a comment and let us know.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

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