iTool HD Video Converter 1.05.12

iTool HD Video Converter is a very simple and lightweight video converter that can be used to convert your SD videos to HD files. The application has a good input format support; formats like MKV, AVI, H.264, MPG, DAT, and ASF are all supported. The available output formats are AVI, MPEG-4, H.264, WMV, MOV, MPEG-2 and M2TS. Although it is stated on the website that this app can also be used to convert HD files to SD ones, this isn't possible, because the conversion profiles are all "HD", and you can only pick three resolutions: 1280x720, 1440x1080 and 1920x1080. This also means that if your video file uses a resolution that is not one of the available ones, it will be modified to one of them, and this can result in different aspect ratios. There is no option to maintain the resolution of the original file. Another thing that I notices is missing is multi-channel audio support. The app can only encode audio in mono or stereo. So, your 5.1 files will be converted into stereo files and you will lose surround sound capabilities. I would be willing to forgive these limitations in a regular converter, but not in a converter that is branded "HD". Also, there is no support for subtitles, when many MKV files already come with a subtitle track included.

In my testing, a sample 720p, MKV file, which was a minute long was converted to HD MOV in a little less than 40 seconds, which is not bad. The resulting file played well on QuickTime. There weren't any audio or video problems, but the aspect ratio was indeed changed a little bit.