How to convert video files to MP4 using VLC media player for free?

VLC media player is an open-source software and it is very famous among us. Most of the computer users use it as their default video player. Almost any video format can be played on VLC.

VLC media player previously known as VideoLAN client software is a free software developed by VideoLAN project. It is available for both desktop and mobile platforms.

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Download latest VLC media player: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/

But today in this article we will learn how to use this well known free software to convert any video files to MP4 format. I personally experienced that video format like *.wmv is not recognised by many video editing software in my phone. But formats like *.mp4 are broadly used formats.

In such cases we can use a free software like VLC media player to convert video files to mp4 format. Though it sounds strange but it is true that you can use this free media player software as a video converter.

Follow the below steps to convert any video to mp4

Step 1

Double-click on the VLC media player icon on your desktop to open the application. From the option tabs, click on "Media". Then click on "convert/save". This will bring up a new small window named as Open Media.

Step 2

Click on the button "Add" to add video file you want to convert to mp4 format. Next, click on convert/save button. This will take you to a next small window named as Convert.

Step 3

In this new small window, click on the drop down menu next to Profile and select the mp4 option from the list.

Step 4

Choose the destination file where you want to save your converted video by clicking on the browse button. Now, give your file a name but do not change the "save as type", then click on save.

Step 5

Click on "Start" to start the process. Then wait until the process is complete.

I personally use this process to convert any recorded video to mp4 format. When I record my computer screen for tutorial videos for YouTube, it gets saved as .WMV format. But this format is unknown to my video editing software ( I use VN application ). So to convert it to a .mp4 format, I use VLC. It maintains the quality of my recorded video and really works great for me.