Gone are the days when having moving images on your website meant having to use GIFs or Adobe Flash. The emergence of HTML 5 and its multimedia features has allowed designers to do without Adobe Flash or heavy, slow-loading GIF animations and, instead, use the native HTML5 video player. However, HTML5 only supports a few video formats, namely OGG, WebM and MP4.

If you’re keen on using HTML5 videos on your website, the most important step is, of course, converting the video files themselves into the right format. Here are 10 free apps that will help you do just that by taking all the hassle out of the conversion process.

Recommended Reading: HTML5 Videos: 10 Things Designers Need To Know

1. Miro Video Converter

Miro Video Converter is an open-source video conversion tool capable of converting any video format to HTML5 video formats (OGG, WebM and MP4). Miro Video Converter can also convert videos to the proper sizes and formats for a number of popular smartphones, including most iPhones and iPads as well as Samsung Galaxy devices.

Miro Video Converter works on a simple drag-and-drop basis. Miro Video Converter also supports batch conversion and resizing. Miro Video Converter is available for Mac and Windows, with Linux source code also available.

2. Handbrake

Handbrake is a free and open-source video converter that is capable of converting videos to MP4 files. While itdoesn’t support any of the other HTML5 video formats, it makes up for this by having a number of extra features such as title and chapter selection, chapter marking, subtitle support and a number of video filters such as deinterlacing and grayscale.

Handbrake features queued encoding and live video preview. The app also supports both Constant Quality and Average Bitrate video encoding. Handbrake is available for Mac, Windows and Linux.

3. Freemake Video Converter

Freemake Video Converter supports a large number of different formats, from the common video formats to the less common formats such as MTS, BIK and RM. Freemake also has support for audio and image files and can even turn these into videos as well. As far as HTML5 goes, Freemake Video Converter supports WebM, OGG and MP4.

Freemake also has presets for converting to mobile devices. Freemake comes with support for both CUDA and DXVA technologies, which will speed up video conversion if you have a compatible graphics card. Freemake Video Converter is available for Windows only.

4. Easy HTML5 Video

Easy HTML5 Video is an easy-to-use file converter to convert most video types into WebM, OGG or MP4 files. Easy HTML5 Video doesn’t provide a lot of quality customization options, only letting you set the video’s resolution and quality. You can choose whether to enable some HTML5-specific features such as autoplay, controls and whether the video loops.

Easy HTML5 Video’s publish tool exports your videos to a local folder or an FTP directory of your choice. You can also insert your video directly into a HTML file using the Insert to page export setting. Easy HTML5 Video is available for both Windows and Mac.

5. Sothink Video Converter

Sothink Video Converter supports most of the popular video and audio formats, including HD formats. The app supports WebM, OGG and MP4, and will even generate HTML5 video codes for you. Sothink Video Converter also has some video editing capabilities, such as the ability to trim video files, zoom in and change the quality of both the audio and video.

Sothink Video Converter supports batch converting. It also has support for multi-threaded video conversion, which will definitely help reduce the amount of time needed to convert videos. Sothink Video Converter is only available for Windows.

6. Any Video Converter

Any Video Converter is a video conversion tool with a significant amount of features. It supports many different file formats, including HTML5 video formats OGG, WebM and MP4. Any Video Converter also supports exporting videos for mobile devices. Any Video Converter also comes with the ability to download and save YouTube videos in multiple formats.

In addition to its conversion features, Any Video Converter also has some video editing features. These features include the ability to merge and split video files, add subtitles and special effects. Any Video Converter is available for both Windows and Mac.

7. DVDVideoSoft Free HTML5 Video Player And Converter

DVDVideoSoft’s Free HTML5 Video Player and Converter is a simple tool designed specifically for converting video files into HTML5-compatible video files. The tool supports all the common file formats, and exports videos in both MP4 and OGV formats. There are multiple quality presets to choose from, and the tool also lets you customize and create your own presets.

The conversion process also generates a HTML file alongside your converted videos containing code for a HTML5 video player. The player has four themes and will choose whether to play the MP4 or OGV files depending on browser. HTML5 Video Player And Converter is only available for Windows.

8. Gfycat

Gfycat is a web-based application that can convert GIF files into HTML5 videos. The major benefit of HTML5 videos over GIFs is that the former are smaller in size, plus you can pause and rewind HTML5 videos. It’s not a full-fledged video conversion solution, though; instead, it’s both a converter and a hosting service for GIFs and videos.

Gfycat automatically converts your videos into the required formats, and even has its own GIF Format Yoker (gfy) which automatically chooses formats according to the browser being used. You can construct your own video player or use Gfycat’s embed code to embed a gfy object on your page.

9. Online-Convert.com

Online-convert.com is a website with a large number of file conversion tools, including a healthy selection of video conversion tools. Amongst the video conversion tools on the site are tools for converting videos to OGG and WebM (VP8) format. The tools have a number of options that you can tweak, such as resolution and bitrate options, as well as the ability to change the audio quality and bitrate.

The tools also let you change the framerate of your video, as well as flip and rotate the video if needed. Another useful feature is the fact that the tools can work with files that are already online as well as files that are stored on Dropbox.

10. Apowersoft Free Online Video Converter

Apowersoft Free Online Video Converter is another online video conversion service. It supports converting to MP4, OGG, WebM as well as other common video formats such as MKV and AVI. It can also convert videos into audio formats such as MP3, WAV and even lossless FLAC. The tool offers a few video and audio conversion settings such as resolution and audio bitrate.

Apowersoft Free Online Video Converter also has some advanced options such as the ability to make the converted video slow-motion, create clips, flip and rotate the video, as well as add your own watermark.

Gone are the days when having moving images on your website meant having to use GIFs or Adobe Flash. The emergence of HTML 5 and its multimedia features has allowed designers to do without Adobe Flash or heavy, slow-loading GIF animations and, instead, use the native HTML5 video player. However, HTML5 only supports a few video formats, namely OGG, WebM and MP4.

If you’re keen on using HTML5 videos on your website, the most important step is, of course, converting the video files themselves into the right format. Here are 10 free apps that will help you do just that by taking all the hassle out of the conversion process.

Recommended Reading: HTML5 Videos: 10 Things Designers Need To Know

1. Miro Video Converter

Miro Video Converter is an open-source video conversion tool capable of converting any video format to HTML5 video formats (OGG, WebM and MP4). Miro Video Converter can also convert videos to the proper sizes and formats for a number of popular smartphones, including most iPhones and iPads as well as Samsung Galaxy devices.

Miro Video Converter works on a simple drag-and-drop basis. Miro Video Converter also supports batch conversion and resizing. Miro Video Converter is available for Mac and Windows, with Linux source code also available.

2. Handbrake

Handbrake is a free and open-source video converter that is capable of converting videos to MP4 files. While itdoesn’t support any of the other HTML5 video formats, it makes up for this by having a number of extra features such as title and chapter selection, chapter marking, subtitle support and a number of video filters such as deinterlacing and grayscale.

Handbrake features queued encoding and live video preview. The app also supports both Constant Quality and Average Bitrate video encoding. Handbrake is available for Mac, Windows and Linux.

3. Freemake Video Converter

Freemake Video Converter supports a large number of different formats, from the common video formats to the less common formats such as MTS, BIK and RM. Freemake also has support for audio and image files and can even turn these into videos as well. As far as HTML5 goes, Freemake Video Converter supports WebM, OGG and MP4.

Freemake also has presets for converting to mobile devices. Freemake comes with support for both CUDA and DXVA technologies, which will speed up video conversion if you have a compatible graphics card. Freemake Video Converter is available for Windows only.

4. Easy HTML5 Video

Easy HTML5 Video is an easy-to-use file converter to convert most video types into WebM, OGG or MP4 files. Easy HTML5 Video doesn’t provide a lot of quality customization options, only letting you set the video’s resolution and quality. You can choose whether to enable some HTML5-specific features such as autoplay, controls and whether the video loops.

Easy HTML5 Video’s publish tool exports your videos to a local folder or an FTP directory of your choice. You can also insert your video directly into a HTML file using the Insert to page export setting. Easy HTML5 Video is available for both Windows and Mac.

5. Sothink Video Converter

Sothink Video Converter supports most of the popular video and audio formats, including HD formats. The app supports WebM, OGG and MP4, and will even generate HTML5 video codes for you. Sothink Video Converter also has some video editing capabilities, such as the ability to trim video files, zoom in and change the quality of both the audio and video.

Sothink Video Converter supports batch converting. It also has support for multi-threaded video conversion, which will definitely help reduce the amount of time needed to convert videos. Sothink Video Converter is only available for Windows.

6. Any Video Converter

Any Video Converter is a video conversion tool with a significant amount of features. It supports many different file formats, including HTML5 video formats OGG, WebM and MP4. Any Video Converter also supports exporting videos for mobile devices. Any Video Converter also comes with the ability to download and save YouTube videos in multiple formats.

In addition to its conversion features, Any Video Converter also has some video editing features. These features include the ability to merge and split video files, add subtitles and special effects. Any Video Converter is available for both Windows and Mac.

7. DVDVideoSoft Free HTML5 Video Player And Converter

DVDVideoSoft’s Free HTML5 Video Player and Converter is a simple tool designed specifically for converting video files into HTML5-compatible video files. The tool supports all the common file formats, and exports videos in both MP4 and OGV formats. There are multiple quality presets to choose from, and the tool also lets you customize and create your own presets.

The conversion process also generates a HTML file alongside your converted videos containing code for a HTML5 video player. The player has four themes and will choose whether to play the MP4 or OGV files depending on browser. HTML5 Video Player And Converter is only available for Windows.

8. Gfycat

Gfycat is a web-based application that can convert GIF files into HTML5 videos. The major benefit of HTML5 videos over GIFs is that the former are smaller in size, plus you can pause and rewind HTML5 videos. It’s not a full-fledged video conversion solution, though; instead, it’s both a converter and a hosting service for GIFs and videos.

Gfycat automatically converts your videos into the required formats, and even has its own GIF Format Yoker (gfy) which automatically chooses formats according to the browser being used. You can construct your own video player or use Gfycat’s embed code to embed a gfy object on your page.

9. Online-Convert.com

Online-convert.com is a website with a large number of file conversion tools, including a healthy selection of video conversion tools. Amongst the video conversion tools on the site are tools for converting videos to OGG and WebM (VP8) format. The tools have a number of options that you can tweak, such as resolution and bitrate options, as well as the ability to change the audio quality and bitrate.

The tools also let you change the framerate of your video, as well as flip and rotate the video if needed. Another useful feature is the fact that the tools can work with files that are already online as well as files that are stored on Dropbox.

10. Apowersoft Free Online Video Converter

Apowersoft Free Online Video Converter is another online video conversion service. It supports converting to MP4, OGG, WebM as well as other common video formats such as MKV and AVI. It can also convert videos into audio formats such as MP3, WAV and even lossless FLAC. The tool offers a few video and audio conversion settings such as resolution and audio bitrate.

Apowersoft Free Online Video Converter also has some advanced options such as the ability to make the converted video slow-motion, create clips, flip and rotate the video, as well as add your own watermark.

In previous posts, we have gone through some WordPress customization that involve code addition in functions.php. These additions enhance the functionality of our theme.

Take our WordPress Login Page tutorial for example, we are able to redirect users from the default WordPress login page, wp-login.php, to our new customized login page, and also redirect them to another page upon logout.

However, after a while, the list of codes that we’ve added in the functions.php could pile up and get very messy. If you are experiencing this problem, we’ve got some tips here to help you tackle this.

Recommended Reading: Beginner’s Guide To WordPress Plugin Development

Creating Multiple Files

The first thing we can do to manage our codes is by separating a set of codes into different files. Say, we have a couple of new functions that alter the Login Page. We could store these codes in a new file rather than putting it in the functions.php directly.

Create a new file, custom-login.php (as an example), and put all the codes in it. Then, in function.php, refer to this file with require or require_once, like so.

 require_once get_template_directory() . '/inc/custom-login.php'; 

And that’s it. Note that this method requires you to be careful when separating the codes, otherwise you could break the site. You should also be very clear in naming the files, so that people who work on your theme – particularly, if you are working in a team – can quickly figure out the relationship between each file.

However, if you are not that familiar with PHP or are afraid of ruining the site when altering the files, try the next tip instead.

Code Snippet Plugin

Code Snippets is a plugin created by Shea Bunge. It provides a native WordPress GUI to add your code snippets, and run them on your site. In other words, instead of adding the code in functions.php, you can do it through the WordPress back-end administration.

Once it is installed and activated, you will find a new side-menu below the Plugins.

You can create a new code snippet, just as you would create a new post and page.

Click on the Activate button to use the code in your site. So with this, we not only store the codes but can activate them to function within the site.

You can also hit the Export button to download the code in a PHP file.

One of the advantages of using Code Snippets is that instead of having to input all the codes in thefunctions.php of the theme once again, the functionality of the codes will still be able to run, even if we have changed the theme.

Final Thought

Alright, those are the two tips that we’ve got. It is now up to you to decide on which one best fits your requirements. We hope you find these tips useful. If you know of any other methods, let us know in the comments.