Tips & Tricks: Converting Video for Kindle Fire

Getting videos to play on the Kindle Fire can be tricky, especially with all of the video formats out there. We've already talked about Moboplayer, an side-loadable app that can play a number of formats, but what if you want to convert your video into the Fire's native video-playing format, MP4?

Last night I was trying to help someone get .WMV files to play, and nothing seemed to be working. I did a search and downloaded about a half-dozen video converter programs, all of which were junk unless you bought the program. I continued searching until I struck upon something that seemed like it would do the job, and it turned out it was not only already on my computer, it's probably my favorite video player out there: VLC Media Player.

The great thing about using VLC Media Player on your PC/Laptop is that it works with pretty much every format out there, WMV, AVI, MP4, and even the newest one that's appearing more frequently, .MKV. Simply put, I use this player on my computer almost exclusively, and there's the added bonus of being able to pump up the volume to 200% if the file is a bit muted. The program is completely free and safe.

So when I found out that I could use this program to actually convert the video formats it can play from one to another, needless to say I was pleasantly surprised. It took a little figuring out, but once you get it once you'll never have a problem again. Let's walk through it.

The first step is to open the player, click the Media tab, and then go down to Convert/Save. It was right there! How didn't I see that before?

After that you'll be taken to a screen where you can select the video file you want to convert. Click Add and then select your file. I've tried several (wmv, avi, mov, and mkv), and I bet there are even more that will work. Pretty amazing. Once you've chosen your file, go down to Convert/Save at the bottom, and you'll be taken here:

At the top you'll see the file you chose beside Source. Go to Destination in the middle, browse for where you want it to go, and then type in the file name and end with .MP4. Choose Save to be brought back to the screen above, where you'll see both field filled in. You have the option to "Display the Output" to see that it's doing it, but that feature didn't seem to work too well for me. At the bottom, you'll be able to choose your output format. For Kindle-Fire compatible MP4, you'll want Video - H.264 + AAC (MP4). Hit start and wait for your videos to convert.

Once it's finished, your converted file will be there waiting for you. It should then be very easy to get it onto your Fire using WiFi File Explorer or your method of choice for moving files around. This should make watching videos on the Fire in their native format a snap.

Hope this helps, and stay tuned for more great apps and books!