Can anyone reccommend a decent, free video file converter?

Try this before you download anything: http://www.mediaconverter.org/

I suggest this one: http://media-convert.com/.

No downloads required

Sometimes video converters are a little unpredictable when they choose to work and not work.

This is the one I use: http://onlinevideoconverter.com/default.aspx

I use handbrake. It’s open source and works pretty fast.

I’ve found many free video converters pop up on ‘giveaway of the day’ (http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/). I agree with DominicX when it comes to the unpredictable nature of video converters, I’ve went through too many that crash out and/or take way too long to convert small files.