RulesPlayer is not really a player in itself, but rather a graphical interface for MPlayer that has been especially created to make the latter more comfortable to use.

Now, I don't know if MPlayer is that difficult (it doesn't look like it is, according to the screenshots I've seen) but I think this GUI is certainly not helping much. It features a nicely designed interface and really simple usability – something we users should be thankful for – but it's also quite buggy. To begin with, I had problems when using the scroll bar, with the video not moving to the position I had set. Then, if you resize the window or open any other window on top of it, the covered area is blackened, meaning it doesn't display the video image anymore.

It's a shame RulesPlayer has these glitches, because other than that it seems quite a complete player, featuring support for all popular video and audio formats, subtitles and including also all the necessary codecs so that you don't have to download them separately.

As a new GUI for MPlayer, RulesPlayer does provide a simple, nicely designed environment which, unfortunately, doesn't work as well as expected.

Download RulesPlayer 0.99.3 in Softonic

Although it might appear like some sort of Communist software, CCCP is actually just a pack of codecs to help just about any video run on your system.

The full title is the "Combined Community Codec Pack". In reality, it's more like a filter pack than a codec pack but the developers say that "filter doesn't begin with C and we wanted a good acronym"! For anyone who understands Russian, the developers also like to point out that the name is also a pun on the Russian name Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, which is transliterated into the Latin alphabet as "Soyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik", or "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics", abbreviated as "СССР" or "USSR". Anyway, the CCCP codec pack was created to replace the filter packs provided by other groups which simply often did not work properly or broke compatibility for other formats. In reality, it is an extremely powerful Codec pack, playing back effortlessly most popular formats and some unpopular ones too. There are now fiddly options to get it working although if you have other codec packs installed, you may experience some conflicts or significant slowdown in reproduction of your films.

However, overall, this is an impressive pack which deals with just about anything and I quite like the attitude of the developers and their ironic communist branding.

Download Combined Community Codec Pack 2008-01-24 in Softonic

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create AVI video files from this. Using its built-in SWF Producer, the program can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs).

CamStudio can also add high-quality, anti-aliased screen captions to your recordings, and thanks to its Video Annotation feature you can even personalize your videos by including a webcam movie of yourself "picture-in-picture" over your desktop.

Possible uses for the program:

• Create demonstration videos for any software program

• Produce a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions

• Make video tutorials for school or college class

• Use it to record a recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical support people

• Create video-based information products you can sell

• Record new tricks and techniques you discover on your favorite software program, before you forget them

Download CamStudio 2.0 in Softonic

Choosing a multimedia player used to be a real no-brainer. However, during recent times the raft of new features and updates added to classic media players like Winamp, Windows Media Player, and even iTunes have left the apps increasingly bloated. Far from being the slick, well-oiled machines they once were, these programs have been stuffed with so much that they are in danger of ending up like a sluggish, overweight athlete still holding on to past glories.

For those looking for a fresh alternative to these ballooning apps, The KM Player could be your ticket. The application has a small desktop footprint and its minimalist interface, somewhat akin to the original Winamp 5, means that access and playback are quick and hassle-free. Like Winamp, the interface is fully skinable, and there are some nice aesthetic touches, such as the changing of colour on the player with every new track. There are all sorts of options to help you pimp your player, such as visualizations, plug-ins and playback options, but the beauty of KM Player is that these are turned on at your request rather than being forced upon you at the outset.

The application handles both audio and video, and supports a wide range of different formats, meaning that once installed, you should never need to touch another player. Video playback is particularly impressive thanks to the range of processing tools available that allow you to sharpen, change picture properties, apply filters and even make video captures from within the program.

Download KMPlayer 2.9.3.1432 R2 Beta in Softonic

One of the most frustrating things about video playback is when you don't have the right codecs installed.

SMPlayer attempts to do away with this problem completely by attempting to play videos regardless of the codecs they need. It does this by using the MPlayer engine which the developers claim can play almost all video formats. In reality, this is not always the case. What you may find is that if you're trying to play a WMV file protected by DRM for example, you will see snippets of the film but not the whole thing. However, the player has many other great features that make it an interesting proposition. One of the most useful is the way it remembers most of the settings of files that you play a bit like a DVD Player. If you turn off a film because you're a bit tired, when you open it later, it will start from exactly the same point where you left it with all the original settings including subtitles and audio. One other area where the player excels is in subtitling. SMPlayer allows you to choose subtitles in a variety of formats allowing you to choose the font, size, and even colors.

There are many other great aspects to SMPlayer - audio track switching, mouse scrolling and multiple speed playback - that on top of it's codec free playback, make it an excellent choice.

Download SMPlayer 0.6.1 in Softonic

#1 DVD Ripper is a powerful and easy-to-use Windows application that lets you make backups of your favorite DVD movies. You can easily convert DVDs to VCD (MPEG1), SVCD (MPEG2), AVI, and Divx (MPEG4) formats. #1 DVD Ripper was the winner of Maximum PC Magazine's 2004 Softy Award.

When you convert from DVD to Divx format, you reduce the file size by 90 percent, with no loss of quality. The program supports Dolby Surround sound. You can set up a batch of files and convert them in a single operation. For convenience, #1 DVD Ripper can shut down your computer after conversion.

Instead of converting an entire movie into one huge file, you can convert it one chapter at a time. Alternatively, you can define a file size, and save your movies in sections. The latest version of #1 DVD Ripper has a built-in bitrate calculator that you can use to determine the target file size.

• Recommended: Adaptec's ASPI Driver 4.71

Download #1 DVD Ripper 5.3 in Softonic

You probably have lots of different videos and films on your computer you would like to play on your home DVD player. Unfortunately, many DVD players can only read the standard DVD format and it's therefore a waste of resources to burn DVDs with avi, mpeg or wmv files.

DVD Flick comes in handy because it converts PC video files to a proper DVD format, readable by all standard devices. The final file size is much bigger than the original, for example: a 600mb requires a whole DVD. The conversion process is also very slow, but you can leave the program working while you use other applications, as you can select the priority your system gives to the conversion software. The final result will be an audio_ts and a video_ts folder, which is the standard for all DVDs and you can also chose to create an iso file which can be burned again at a later date. It would have been good to have the possibility to add subtitles but unfortunately this feature is missing.

If you are patient enough, DVD Flick is the perfect solution for burning your holiday movie to DVD, meaning that whatever DVD player your friends or family have, they’ll have no escape from your not-quite-Oscar-winning production.

This is a reliable program that does what it's meant to but at the end of the day, DVD Flick is really only going to be useful to people without a multi-format DVD player.

Download DVD Flick 1.2.2.0 in Softonic

Since bursting onto the internet in 2000, BSPlayer has been downloaded over 60 million times according to its developers. The aim of the player is to "enable users to focus on watching the movie instead of dealing with poor computer capabilities or running around looking for a proper settings and codecs." For those that have had problems with mainstream media players on offer, BSPlayer may prove a useful alternative.

It supports all kinds of media including avi, mpeg, asf, wmv, mp3, etc but also specializes in DivX playback. Many users report that DivX files that wouldn’t work on other players, did in BS Player. One of the major drawbacks with many media players is resource hogging but BSPlayer consumes no more than many audio players and start-up is pleasantly fast. Because it does not use much of the processing power, its more suited to those users with slower machines that are not looking for too many fancy features.

BSPlayer also comes bundled with BSMediaLibrary which can manage all your multimedia content and enables you to create your own playlists. It also has a multitude of skins available for download, many designed by other devoted users.

The major drawback with BSPlayer is the concealed menu which appears and disappears when you wave the mouse over it. This becomes increasingly annoying if you are listening to something whilst using another application. However, loading subtitles is easy and dragging and dropping files into the screen to open files means you can avoid the annoying menu. You also have a small graphic equaliser and can load the player with other codecs that you might need.

Overall, definitely worth trying for anyone who has had problems with DivX files or are tired of bulky mainstream offerings.

Download BSPlayer Pro 2.28 build 964 in Softonic

There are so many formats out there now that it's hard to find a player that can cater for them all but deliver outstanding quality and playback.

However, one program that surely does is Nero ShowTime which plays just about anything in stunning quality. The program comes with a play control panel that allows you to quick launch into the type of function that you need. So if you need a player or a frame capture tool for your favourite movies, this is your starting point. If it's frames that you want to capture, Nero Showtime can save individual frames in very high quality and saves them in BMP format which is a bit big but it's the only format on offer. This does mean that when you select it as your wallpaper, it can slow down your startup a little but it's probably worth it for the stunning display.

The program comes with a ton of video enhancement features which are mainly responsible for offering the very high quality images but with DivX files, changing the settings can lead to some rendering problems - i.e. playback can become jerky or stuttered.

Nero Showtime is a very powerful DVD player and it plays just about anything. The quality can be superb although you may be less than impressed by its handling of DivX.

Download Nero ShowTime 2.0.0.44 in Softonic

ViPlay is a freeware movie player designed to play the most popular movie types using overlaying technology for a faster and more efficient way of video playback.

Features like high performance and visual quality, stability, speed, easy interface with context menu, fully skinnable, support for 55 subtitle formats, INI file creation, multiple audio streams, custom graph building, aspect ratio, digital zoom, OSD, playlist, etc. make it the definitive movie player available on the Internet.

Features:

• Support for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP
• High performance and visual quality
• Easy interface with context menu
• Time/Frames and Elapsed/Remaining display mode
• Window, Fullscreen and Desktop mode playing
• Aspect Ratio (customizable)
• Color Controls (Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, ...)
• Movie information
• Digital Zoom
• On Screen Display
• Bookmarks
• Movie Profiles
• Auto-Resume
• Enhanced Subtitles engine supporting 59 formats
• Multiple Subtitles files support
• Snapshots
• Language file Support
• Incomplete AVI file playback Support

Download ViPlay 3.0 Beta 2 in Softonic

Webcams are useful to have video chats with friends across thousands of miles – or maybe just a couple of blocks away – but they can also be used for other purposes.

One of them is capturing video right to your computer, something you can easily do with AMCap. This simple tool grabs the video signal coming from your webcam and records it straight away to your hard drive, in MPEG2 or AVI format, provided you have the necessary codecs. It features some other interesting options, such as the possibility to take screenshots or adding special effects to the image (graphic overlay, alpha-blending, transparency, etc.).

That said, I must confess I found AMCap a bit deceiving. Maybe I expected something else: a webcam monitoring tool or something similar. But I honestly don't find this program that useful. It doesn't even let you take screenshots automatically according to a certain lapse of time. Also, video files take a lot of room, so you better have a large hard drive ready for them.

AMCap is a simple tool that lets you capture video from your webcam for whatever purpose you may have. If you're searching for a webcam monitoring app, you'll need to look somewhere else.

Download AMCap 9.20 in Softonic

There are a number of video editing packages out there, from the simple Windows Media Maker to industry standards like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut. Sony’s contribution is Vegas Video and like most Sony products, it offers an original take on the editing genre.

Vegas actually began as an audio editing app and it shows – the entire feel of the program is more like an audio editing program than conventional video editing programs. On the plus side, Sony has emphasised giving users the greatest control over soundtracks and audio tracks to ensure that your film sounds great.

Sony Vegas Video 7.0 includes an entire suite of tools – Vegas itself as well as DVD Architect 4 to help you burn films and Dolby Digital AC3 coding software to enable you to offer broadcast quality sound in your productions. Vegas allows you to edit DV, HDV, SD/HD-SDI, and all XDCAM formats in real time and even give them surround sound. As HDV starts to become more popular, the ability to edit this particular format means that for some users, it’s their preferred editing package by default.

The video timeline works on a typical Windows drag-and-drop principle where you can add a myriad of effects to video and audio, cutting and splicing it with ease. However, as mentioned earlier, the interface is tailored more for audio than video editing. Unlike Windows Movie Maker or Adobe Premiere, the actual video preview window of what you’re working on is given little space, being tucked away in the corner. This is rather annoying when you’d rather see a decent preview of what you’re creating than have the timelines dominate the screen.

However, one nice feature of the layout is that the interface can be customised according to your preference. You can save these configurations so that for different projects, you can have different layouts. This is especially useful if you’re trying to concentrate on one particular aspect of your film such as special effects or rendering options. You can even create your own keyboard shortcuts, a handy option for those who are mouse-shy.

The audio features are first class though. Sony Vegas was one of the first to support 24 bit audio as well as 5.1 surround sound – usually the preserve of professional editing programs such as Avid. To add surround sound, you’ll need to use the Dolby Digital AC3 software. Another excellent Sony idea has been to add a network connection to other PCs during installation. So for example, if you’re working on a project with a friend, you can edit seamlessly in real-time together.

For creating really cool titles, Vegas now features the Sony ProType titler (available in the Media Generators tab) which allows you to make some really swanky looking graphics. There's also new digital signage support which allows you to create rotated projects for viewing on a vertical or inverted display. Encoding has also been improved with support for 10-bit video encoding when previewing or capturing from AJA SDI video cards.

Vegas is never going to compete with prosumer programs based on the traditional Avid way of editing. For those used to such programs, the interface could prove too awkward, limited and confusing to make editing video a pleasure. However, as regards sound, it can’t be touched. For many users, it makes the perfect package to polish the soundtrack on their film after editing it in another package. Be warned also that if you’re unfamiliar with video editing programs, it's going to take a while to get accustomed to Vegas, so the bundled tutorial is highly recommended.

Download Sony Vegas Video 8.0.217 b in Softonic

Getting a video out has always been one of the best ways to while away an evening at home. However, these days few people choose to trudge down to the video store, preferring to download a movie, or plunder the near-infinite archives on popular video sharing sites such as YouTube and Google Video. Until recently it's been impossible to obtain movies from these sites without having to stream them online. However, Vdownloader is one of a number of programs changing that, allowing you to download these videos to your computer in AVI or MPEG format.

Essentially what this means is that you don't need to wait an age for popular videos to start streaming and can keep your favourites on your hard drive to watch at any time. This application does the job as simply as you could wish for. The executable makes a very small footprint and although the interface is very barren, it makes it easy to grab videos from YouTube, Google Video, Grinvi or DailyMotion very quickly. Basically all you need to do is copy and paste the link to the video into the box provided and hit ‘download'. Alternatively, you can browse the sites themselves by selecting the portal of your choice from the drop-down menu.

In one sense, the sparseness of the interface is an advantage, as it keeps things as clean and simple as possible. In another respect we were left wanting for extra features and options to help us peruse and download the videos we want. Practically the only setting you can tweak is the via the format dialog, allowing you to specify the format of the saved video (AVI or MPEG), the size of the video and the audio bitrate. We feel that the addition of a built-in video search tool or some video compression utilities would have lifted the program from being a good program to a great one.

Add to the fact that you can't download embedded movies like the ones you find on the front page of Google Video and you can't help feel frustrated that VDownloader doesn't do quite as much as it perhaps could. Having said this, the app is still in the early stages of development and the fact that it is so lightweight makes it prefect for those who want to grab video content with the minimum of fuss.

Download VDownloader 0.73 in Softonic

You probably have a favorite video player by now, but that doesn't mean you can't test new apps and change your mind.

GOM Player is one of those players that goes unnoticed but proves to be an excellent tool when you take the time to give it a try. This compact, easy-to-use video player lets you enjoy video files and movies in a wide variety of formats. What's more, you won't have problems with codecs because GOM Player already includes them – and if not, it automatically searches for the appropriate codec online.

The program shows off a sleek interface with support for skins and has other powerful features: support for subtitles, favorites manager, support for playlists, use mouse and keyboard shortcuts for many functions and more. What it misses, for example, is the ability to take screenshots or even more important, to resume playback right where you left it (something I personally use a lot).

GOM Player offers to install the Google Toolbar during its installation process but you may as well decline the offer. As for the rest, it's a great video player that's well worth a try… even if you already have a favorite player.

GOM Player is a visually appealing video player with very interesting features and which, above all, solves any problem you may have with codecs.

Download GOM Player 2.1.9.3754 in Softonic

Saving Youtube videos in your iPod is a real pain. First you have to download those videos with a specific software tool, then you have to convert them to the appropriate format with another tool and finally you have to import them in iTunes.

With Tooble this tiring task is reduced to a couple of simple steps: look for the Youtube videos you want to store in your iPod and import them directly into iTunes. The program lets you browse Youtube right on its interface, either by categories or performing a search. Then you only need to mark those videos you want to download, and Tooble will transfer them to your computer and also convert them from their native FLV format to a more iPod-friendly format.

After that you can import the videos manually into your iTunes movie library or let the program take care of this task too by marking the "Import video to iTunes" option in Tooble's preferences menu.

The only drawback to this handy tool is the fact that it tries to install some adware elements during the installation process. Luckily though you can politely decline the offer and install the program without any undesirable add-ons.

Provided you avoid the adware offered during its installation, Tooble proves to be a handy tool that lets you easily save Youtube videos in your iPod in just two steps.

Download Tooble 0.0.3.05 in Softonic

SmartRipper is a free DVD application that you can use to create backups of DVDs on your hard drive. If you’ve got a big DVD collection and need a backup, then this is the sort of program you should be looking for. However, be warned that is only intended for backup purposes and not for duplicating commercial DVDs. The popularity of this program on Softonic is no doubt due to the fact that it is able to bypass many DVD encryption methods. However, development of SmartRipper recently ceased due to the legal implications of this so be sure that you only use the software to backup DVDs on which you own the copyright.

The first thing to know is that SmartRipper does not install itself on your machine. The download simply consists of the binary files including the SmartRipper.exe. All you have to do though is double click on the SmartRipper disk icon and the program interface pops up immediately. Unless you’ve got a DVD disk ready in your drive, the first thing you’ll receive is an error message saying ‘No DVD found’.

To use the program, simply insert a disc into your DVD-ROM drive. SmartRipper will automatically detect it and a short authentication process takes place to ensure that all files are readable. Once done, you’re presented with the main window. The program supports three copy modes: ‘Movie’ (copy the movie only), ‘Files’ (copy selected files only) and ‘Backup’ (copy whole disk). Obviously, the most flexible option is ‘Files’ mode since it allows you to select and deselect the check boxes next to the parts of the DVD you want to save. If you’re new to DVD ripping though, make sure that you know what you are ripping as it may not be clear from the file names on the DVD exactly which ones you want. If you’re unsure what you need from the disk, just start in ‘Backup’ mode and it will save absolutely everything on the disk.

Advanced users will be particularly impressed by SmartRipper. In the bottom half of the screen, the program gives you a breakdown of the technical data relating to each file on the disk. It automatically displays statistics such as the aspect ratio, display mode, resolution and max/min/average bitrate for every chapter. This is not much use for the average user but for multimedia specialists, it could prove useful if you plan to edit the DVD footage later. However, its advanced features go way beyond this, enabling you to refine almost every aspect of the ripping process.

A good example is the way it grabs the audio tracks. In ‘File’ mode, there are three options to choose from – ‘Direct stream copy’, ‘Demux to extra file’ and ‘Extract to new VOB (VOB means DVD Video Object – in other words, data on the DVD)’. ‘Direct stream copy’ does the standard ripper job of taking the 1:1 audio track from the disc. ‘Demux to extra file’ is a great option if you want to save the soundtrack without the video. It enables you to save the audio in a separate file away from the rest of the contents of the DVD. You can only save in WAV format but you could easily convert this to Mp3 with a simple converter. Finally, ‘Extract to new VOB’ does a similar job but the saved file will still be a valid VOB file. This means it can still be re-burned onto a DVD and is really useful if you want to extract the audio, edit it and then replace it back on a disc.

SmartRipper can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. It’s this wide appeal which makes this program one of the most popular DVD Rippers on Softonic.

Download SmartRipper 2.41 in Softonic

DVD Shrink enables you to copy a DVD very easily. Copying a DVD doesn't get much simpler than this. Put DVD into DVD-ROM or DVD burner. Choose either either a Full Disk (1:1) copy or a main movie only. It'll analyze DVD, encode video files , and finally burn a copy of the dvd to DVD±R media. Thus you have a excellent quality dvd copy of your original DVD.

Download DVD Shrink 3.2.0.15 in Softonic

Wanna find a perfect tool to combine the multiple video clips into one large movie file? Using the AVI/MPEG/RM Joiner, you can Merge / join multiple AVI, MPEG(MPG), RM(Real Media) or ASF/WMV video files into one "non-stop" file. It's easy and fast! Just a couple of mouse clicks, you can enjoy your movie clips without break...

Features:

• Support join AVI, DivX, MPEG-4 files
• Support join MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video files
• Support join RM, RMVB files
• Support join ASF, WMV, WMA files
• Join video files as many as you want
• Scramble and rearrange the video clips in the sequence that you exactly desire
• Very User-friendly interface

Download AVI/MPEG/RM/WMV Joiner 4.82 in Softonic

There was a time when video files all conformed to some basic requirements and could be played without protest using any media software. As technologies change and licensing becomes more restrictive and specific, simply playing a video file has now become a challenge and thanks to the plethora of obscure proprietary formats now available, finding a media player that works for the majority has become more hassle than it’s worth. Thankfully the open source community have come up with a solution in the form of VLC, otherwise know as VideoLAN Client.

This cross platform player doesn't strike as particularly good-looking when put side by side with Windows Media Player or Winamp, but you'll appreciate its far superior usability within moments. Its power can be demonstrated with any video files you happen to be downloading, which can be played in whatever form they exist, be it an actual video format or an unclassified temporary one. As you preview a video, it will skip the parts that have yet to be downloaded and let you see the rest – Media Player in comparison, can't preview files in this way.

Apart from playing incomplete videos, because lets face it not many people want to do that anyway, VLC has support for a huge range of video formats. If it doesn't recognize the file type it will try playing it anyway often successfully or if it's an encrypted file it will display the scrambled video in its raw form. The interface is stripped down to the bare bones, with the apparent objective of making it as unobtrusive as possible. With superb hotkey support, you can do practically everything you want without touching your mouse.

Put simply, VLC is a video player that doesn't stray in to other areas. There is only one alternative skin available, but all it will take is one look and you'll quickly be switching back to the default.

This free player should appeal to true cinephiles who want as little distraction as possible from their viewing experience. Being open source it's free to use and thanks to a small file size and a friendly installation process, we would recommend it to absolutely everyone as their "backup" or "catch-all" video player.

Download VLC Media Player 0.9.2 with Softonic Toolbar in Softonic

ffdshow is DirectShow and VFW codec for decoding/encoding many video and audio formats, including DivX and XviD movies using libavcodec, xvid and other opensourced libraries with a rich set of postprocessing filters.

Download ffdshow 2007-07-07 in Softonic