AVCLabs has released Any Video Converter Free 5.0.2 a major new version of its freeware video transcoding and conversion tool for Windows. The new build sports a radically overhauled and simplified user interface, plus promises faster, more powerful performance.

AVC Free promises to effortlessly convert videos from over 60 formats, with presets for popular mobile devices such as Android and iOS phones included. It’s also capable of downloading YouTube videos and includes limited video-editing tools.

The most obvious change in AVC Free 5.0.2 is the revamped user interface, which enjoys a much-needed refresh and update. The new UI is designed to be simpler to use, split into two tabs for converting and playing video.

AVC Free 5.0.2 sports a smart, simple-to-use interface.

Users simply click the Videos button to add new video (files can also be dragged from a file-management panel or the user’s desktop), or Download to enter YouTube URLs for video downloading.

Once the videos have been selected, users choose a preset from the Preset Output dropdown menu, which includes a wide number of devices from Apple mobiles to Sony’s PS3 console. There are also common video format presets.

Once selected, all clips can be fine-tuned via three option screens: Basic, Video and Audio. These include options for trimming clips and there’s also a screen capture function built into the preview window for taking screenshots of selected clips. Other options include the ability to merge all selected clips into a single video file.

Any Video Converter Free 5.0.2 is the first major new release of the free version of AVCLabs’ editing tool for three years, when version 3.0.2 was released. Its jump in version number is down to the fact the commercial version of the program has been undergoing regular development during that period.

The latest build also takes full advantage of NVIDIA CUDA acceleration (which must be manually enabled in the program settings) to convert videos up to six times faster using compatible NVDIA graphics. AVC Free 5.0.2 also promises to make use of multi-core processors for faster conversion times.

In our limited tests we appear to have uncovered one bug – when attempting to convert a video file to MPEG2 format for burning to DVD, a pop-up appears halfway through the process advertising the paid-for version. When this is closed, the progress bar indicates the conversion has failed, but checking the converted folder reveals the file has indeed been converted; however, this pop-up seems to prevent DVDs from being burned directly using the program. Whether this is expected behaviour or not is not yet known.

Any Video Converter Free 5.0.2 is a freeware download for PCs running Windows XP or later.