March 6, 2026
Improved: File Format Validation
All conversions now validate file headers (magic bytes) before processing begins. Fake, misnamed, or DRM-encrypted files are rejected instantly with a clear error instead of waiting for the converter to fail.
- Images: JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, BMP, TIFF — verified before ImageMagick runs
- Audio: MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, OGG — verified before FFmpeg runs
- Video: MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV — verified before FFmpeg runs
- Documents: PDF — verified before Ghostscript/LibreOffice runs
This catches common issues like files renamed to trick the converter (e.g., encrypted KuGou audio saved as .flac, or random data saved as .jpg).
March 5, 2026
Fixed: Sony Camera RAW (ARW) Conversion
Photos from newer Sony cameras (A7C II, A7R V, etc.) were failing with “Cannot decode file.” The built-in dcraw decoder is too old for these models. Added an automatic ImageMagick fallback that handles them successfully.
Improved: PDF to Text Conversion
PDF → TXT now uses pdftotext (Poppler) as a fallback when Ghostscript’s txtwrite produces no output. Scanned/image-based PDFs that contain no extractable text now show a clear message suggesting JPG conversion instead.
Improved: DRM/Encrypted Audio Detection
Files with .flac or .ogg extensions that are actually DRM-encrypted (e.g., QQ Music mflac, encrypted OGG) are now detected instantly via magic byte validation, instead of waiting for FFmpeg to fail. This was the #1 failure category (135 of 287 recent failures).
Fixed: Video to Audio — “No Audio Track” Detection
Converting a video file (MOV, MP4, etc.) to MP3 now checks for an audio stream via FFprobe before attempting conversion. Videos without audio get a clear error message immediately.
Improved: Error Messages
- Password-protected PDFs → “Please remove the password before converting”
- Scanned PDFs → TXT → “This PDF is scanned/image-based… try JPG instead”
- Video without audio → detected before conversion starts
March 3, 2026
New: GIF Output Optimization with Gifsicle
All GIF conversions are now automatically post-processed with gifsicle for significantly smaller file sizes with no visible quality loss.
- Applies to every conversion path: MP4, MOV, JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF, SVG, PSD → GIF
- Uses
-O3(maximum optimization) with--lossy=80(balanced lossy compression) - Typical savings: 33–42% smaller files, up to 85% for vector-origin images
New: SoXr Audiophile-Grade Resampler for WAV
All WAV conversions now use the SoXr (SoX Resampler Library) instead of FFmpeg's default resampler, delivering studio-quality sample rate conversion.
- 28-bit precision with CR64 double-precision engine (~168 dB SNR)
- Shibata noise-shaped dithering for psychoacoustically optimized output
- Eliminates aliasing artifacts when downsampling (e.g., 96 kHz → 44.1 kHz)
- Works seamlessly with loudness normalization — unified audio filter pipeline
New: WAV Quality Settings
When converting audio to WAV, you can now choose sample rate, bit depth, and channels.
- Sample rate: 22.05 kHz, 44.1 kHz (default), 48 kHz, 96 kHz
- Bit depth: 16-bit (default), 24-bit, 32-bit float
- Channels: Stereo (default), Mono
- Default WAV output now uses explicit 44.1 kHz / 16-bit / Stereo (CD quality)
- Available on all audio-to-WAV converter pages
Fixed: Animated GIF Conversion
Converting animated GIFs to static formats (BMP, JPG, TIFF, etc.) was failing silently — ImageMagick was splitting frames into separate files instead of producing a single output. Now the first frame is extracted automatically.
Improved: Error Messages
Several conversion failure scenarios now show specific, helpful error messages instead of a generic “Conversion failed”:
- Video files without an audio track → clear “no audio track” message when converting to MP3/WAV/etc.
- SVG files with missing fonts or unsupported features → specific render error
- Files that are too large or complex (causing crashes) → file size/complexity warning
Improved: Error Logging
Failed conversions that previously left empty error logs now record diagnostic information (exit code, formats, file size) for easier troubleshooting.
February 27, 2026
Fixed: AVIF Conversion Now Works
AVIF image conversion was failing due to a missing decode plugin. Added an FFmpeg-based fallback that uses the libdav1d decoder.
- AVIF to JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF, and PDF now work reliably
- Three-tier fallback chain: heif-convert → heif-thumbnailer → FFmpeg
Improved: Error Handling & Stability
- Output files are now validated by size (not just existence) — empty 0-byte outputs are caught as failures
- Added timeouts to all external commands: FFmpeg (5 min), Ghostscript (2 min), LibreOffice (2 min)
- Ghostscript now runs in quiet mode, reducing log noise for PDF conversions
- Better error messages for corrupted files, wrong extensions, and unsupported codecs
- Cleaner error logs — ffmpeg/Ghostscript version banners are filtered out
New: MP3 Encoding Options (VBR/CBR)
When converting audio to MP3, you can now choose between VBR and CBR encoding modes with quality/bitrate presets.
- VBR mode: V0 (~245 kbps), V2 (~190 kbps, default), V4 (~165 kbps), V6 (~130 kbps)
- CBR mode: 128, 192, 256, or 320 kbps
- Available on all audio-to-MP3 converter pages
Fixed: Video & GIF Conversion Quality
Major improvements to video and GIF conversion pipelines. All video outputs now have correct pixel format and optimized encoding settings.
- Video to GIF now uses palette generation for accurate colors instead of generic web-safe palette
- GIF to MP4 optimized for animated content with
-tune animation - MP4 and MOV files now support progressive web playback (faststart)
- Fixed potential green/pink video artifacts in all video outputs
- WebM encoding is now 4–8x faster with multi-threaded VP9
- WebM audio quality improved (Opus 128 kbps instead of default 96 kbps)
New: Camera RAW Photo Support
Added support for converting camera RAW photo formats from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, Fujifilm, and Pentax.
- Supported formats: CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, ORF, RW2, RAF, DNG, PEF, SR2
- Convert to JPG, PNG, TIFF, WebP, or BMP
- Uses dcraw decoder with camera white balance for accurate colors
Improved: DRM File Detection
Files encrypted with DRM (e.g., from QQ Music or KuGou) now show a clear error message instead of a generic failure.
February 24, 2026
Improved: HEIC to JPG Conversion
Upgraded the HEIC decoder library (libheif 1.16 → 1.21) to support the latest iPhone photo formats.
- Fixed conversion failures for iPhone 15 Pro Max photos (iOS 18+)
- Added support for HDR gain map images (tmap metadata)
- Improved compatibility with HEVC-encoded HEIC files