Rose
In order to transcode you are going to need some type of editing software or transcoding software.
VLC is Free and easy to use. Instructions are readily available across the web and especially on You Tube on how to do a transcode.
If you are down loading You Tube videos for your digital signage deployment you are going to need some type of video editing capability. You will typically need to trim the video or re-size it and that can't be done completely in a trancoding tool like VLC. Only the more advanced transcoding tools available have that capability. In addition you need to understand that most videos on You Tube are not of sufficient quality to transcode to a LCD deployment. You need to look for HD content or MP4 content and download in that format using one of the You Tube browser plugins. The typical flash video uploads on You Tube are typically not of sufficient resolution to effectively transcode to a LCD digital signage deployment. If you transcode even to NTSC SD standards you will get some heavily pixalated ugly video. Even the HD content coming off of You Tube is what I would call marginably acceptable. It works but you catch alot of pixelation and stream errors.
Edit Software....First choice would be something like Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere. Given that you say you are not the most technically inclined try using Pinnacle Studio 14. http://buy.pinnaclesys.com/dr/v2/ec_main.entry25?page=PinnacleWelcomePage&client=Pinnacle&sid=51106 This prosumer video editing packager gives you the basic editing and exporting functions you need, is easy to use and learn and is not expensive. $69 You can get a trial version online or buy it at your local Best Buy.
Attached is an older best Practices Guide slide deck that gets into the specific settings you need for exporting video for DMPs. That should be helpfull with what ever transcoding or editing tool you select. Reference slide 64 for VLC specific instructions.
I hope some of this is helpful.
Cheers
C.O. Little
