How do I convert an animated GIF to a YouTube friendly video format?

"Try this Open Source software http://www.virtualdubdotorg

Open your .gif as a video file...
then save as .avi"

"Just

ffmpeg -i input.gif output.mp4

(taken from @framp's comment on @John Fouhy's answer above)

Don't know about YouTube, but the codec can be specified with the -c:v options (see ffmpeg -codecs for the list of codecs).

This codec for example imports well into Final Cut:

ffmpeg -i input.gif -c:v qtrle output.mov"

"MediaCoder is free and can do this for you.

MediaCoder is a free universal media transcoder since 2005. It integrates most popular audio/video codecs and tools in an elegant and transparent manner into an all-in-one transcoding solution. With a flexible and extendable architecture, latest codecs and tools are updated added in constantly. MediaCoder intends to be the swiss army knife for media transcoding in all time."
"MediaCoder is free and can do this for you.

MediaCoder is a free universal media transcoder since 2005. It integrates most popular audio/video codecs and tools in an elegant and transparent manner into an all-in-one transcoding solution. With a flexible and extendable architecture, latest codecs and tools are updated added in constantly. MediaCoder intends to be the swiss army knife for media transcoding in all time."

"I'm sure you've found this product already, but it appears that http://www.gamani.com/ will do exactly what you are looking for, converting a gif to a avi.

It does have a 30 day trial, and is $30 after that. A price of $30 seems like a very good deal to me considering the time it will save you and your son. I'm sure you've invested way more than $30 into this already by spending the time finding and trying other products out there.

Cut your losses by picking up the tool you need to accomplish the task at hand vs spending more time searching for it."

"CamStudio (http://camstudiodotorg/).

Not a true ""conversion"", in that you use your current player (a webbrowser?) to play the animated gif and then use CamStudio to do a screen capture.

I have done something similar with Camtasia, for which our department purchased a license. I have used CamStudio, and it does 90% of what I needed Camtasia for."