Using VLC Media Player and Moviemaker–both free–and my tutorial, you can convert a proprietary Photostory WMV file to MP4. However, the process is a bit painstaking, involves jumping into several programs (PhotoStory, MovieMaker, VLC Media Player) and there’s a lot of room for error. It would be great if there were a free program that would do it in one step.

Now, it appears that there may be–Format Factory. For fun, I started with a MovieMaker WMV created by storyteller, Dr. JoAnne Ollerenshaw. It’s the story of Tall Man and Mountain Lion (WMV). I dropped it into FormatFactory and asked it to convert from WMV to MP4. It worked. This could easily make preparing PhotoStory WMVs–one of the great tools for Digital Storytelling–an easy process for newbies…once converted, you can upload it to Edublogs.tv for easy sharing!

Now, the real test is whether this will work with an 18 meg PhotoStory generated WMV created by students…it worked! This is now a must have tool for digital storytelling workshops that involve PhotoStory!

FormatFactory also has a host of other neat features, such as converting media to 3gp (what works great in mobile phones), and tons of other conversion formats for video/audio, and changing the quality of the video/audio while being converted. You might read this MakeUseOf.com article that discusses its applications in details (such as ripping DVDs/CDs).

This is a feature-rich, no-cost tool that every educator should know how to use, especially when involved in dealing with multimedia available on the Web! Share!