HandBrake 1.6.1 for Windows

HandBrake is one of the best tools out there in terms of modifying videos that are locally stored on your hard drive. There's a nearly endless array of adjustments for you to tweak, from format to coding or audio tracks. If you need to convert any video you have stored into a specific format that's compatible with your PC, smartphone, iOS device, console or TV -- this is the right choice. Plus you can opt to extract and convert physical formats like DVDs or Blu-Ray discs.

With loads of pre-set formats available for almost any standard: Android, Apple, Playstation, Vimeo, YouTube, Windows, and Matroska, among others, this app is capable of reworking videos at up to 4K resolution and almost any aspect ratio you need. The only drawback is that outside of presets, you have to adjust everything manually in order to set up dimensions, codecs, apply cuts, modify subtitling, bitrate, etc.

Once you've made these changes you'll get a full preview of your video, and can watch as the final version of your file is fully rendered and saved at within the route you preselected. Handbrake is no doubt one of the best free tools in this field. Its main appeal is that it offers you a minimalist interface with a whole arsenal of possibilities without overcomplicating things like other editing suites do.