There are so many video and audio formats that sometimes you need a helping hand just to know which codec you need to play that darn file that won't open up in your multimedia player.

This is where MediaInfo comes in handy, by analyzing any media file you open with it and displaying a complete report with all the information available about that specific file. This information includes basic data such as file name, playtime, file size and the likes, as well as more specific details like used codec, bitrate, channel, sample rate and resolution, among others.

The information provided by the program can be displayed in a variety of ways, from a basic data sheet or plain text to a tree-like structure or an HTML document. It can also be exported to a file but surprisingly enough there's no option to obtain a printed copy.

Also, I missed the possibility to obtain more information from the Internet (a web link would have been enough) or being able to download the necessary codec if it's not present in the system.

With MediaInfo you can obtain a complete report on any audio or video file, display it in several ways and also export it to several formats though it doesn't support printing and lacks some advanced functionality.

Download MediaInfo 0.7.7.2 in Softonic

Sometimes an image is worth a thousand words, and this is why videos are usually the handiest way to share a tip o create a tutorial.

Screen recording is child's play with TipCam. This program enables you to capture any activity that takes place on your screen and save it as an online video that you can share with anybody. You can show off your latest battles in your favorite game, or help a customer that needs assistance with a particular software application.

TipCam is very easy to use. You can enable, pause and resume screen recording with hotkeys, plus make the "camera" follow your mouse with its pan/zoom function, although there's no possibility to define the size of this zoom.

On the downside, the program only saves videos to FLV. That said, if you want to publish them online, you can use the developer's website - after signing up for free. While this can be a good way to share them, I'd still prefer having a wider format variety to save my videos.

With TipCam you can easily record any activity on your screen. Unfortunately videos are saved only in FLV format .

Download TipCam 1.0.55.1795 in Softonic

Truveo Video Manager lets you search for online videos about any topic you want. Simply type a keyword in the search bar to instantly have access to YouTube, MySpace, Dailymotion, MSN Videos, CNN, CNBC and many more video databases.

Although you might get an extensive number of results, these are really not very well organised. They are not displayed as thumbnails, nor divided between content providers for example, the way you navigate through them is very slow indeed, as you can display just two videos at a time and you browse through them by pressing the 'next' buttonfound in the top of the frame. The first time you use the program, you don’t even notice how many videos there are available as the relative indicator is written in blue on a blue background. Then you see 'video 2 of 100' at the top-right part of you screen and you realize that thankfully there’s more for you to see.

Although you can’t download the videos and there is no way to navigate through them in a non linear way, Truveo Video Manager lets you see hundreds of clips about any subject you want by using a simple searching tool.

Download Truveo Video Manager 1.0 in Softonic

WM Recorder 11 is the easiest, most powerful way to record streaming video and audio. Just open WM Recorder, play your video or audio, and it's saved automatically. All the popular streaming formats and protocols are supported.

Recordings are saved as media files on your PC. You can watch or listen anytime you like, even without an Internet connection.

As you get to know WM Recorder, you'll appreciate these advanced features:

• Automatic Recording
• Built-in Scheduler
• Turbo Recording - record streams at up to 5x speed
• Record password protected videos
• Record at the highest quality on slow connections
• Record multiple streams at once
• Resume recordings
• Split and merge recordings

Download WM Recorder 12.1 in Softonic

These days we've seen plenty of tools to save Youtube videos to your hard drive, but what if you're only interested in saving the soundtrack of those videos? Then the best choice is probably this little application.

Free Youtube to MP3 Converter clearly states its aim in its own name: it grabs a Youtube video of your choice and saves its soundtrack to your hard drive in MP3 format. Although you can only save files one by one, the process is quite fast.

The program enables you to choose between four possible quality presets but doesn't allow you to create new ones.

Download Free YouTube to MP3 Converter 3.1.1.1 in Softonic

As English speakers, we don't usually have any problems with understanding movies and TV shows in their native language as a great percentage of them is produced in our mother tongue. However there are quite a large number of movies in other languages for which we may need SubDowbloader's help.

This program enables you to search the Internet for subtitle files for any video files you have in your computer. This means it can work the same with movies and series. The search procedure is a bit strange, as you have to select the actual video file you're searching subtitles for - instead of entering the video's title which makes more sense to me.

On the upside, the program lets you search subtitles for several files simultaneously, making the task a lot easier when you need subtitles for a complete season of your favorite TV show. You can also upload your own subtitle files, which keeps the program's database in constant growth thanks to its users.

If you ever need subtitles for your movies or TV shows then give SubDownloader a go: it may be the faster, easier way to find them.

Download SubDownloader 1.2.9 in Softonic

AoA Audio Extractor provides you a handy tool to extract audio/sound or background music from video files.

With AoA Audio Extractor, you can easily extract audio tracks from AVI/DivX/XviD, MPEG, MPG, DAT, WMV, MOV, MP4, 3GP video files and save them as MP3, WAV and AC3 formats.

It can also be used to save any portion of the audio of a video file. AoA Audio Extractor is free so you never need to pay for AoA Audio Extractor.

Download AoA Audio Extractor 1.1.8 in Softonic

Music, photos and video YOUR way - all from a single software program. Connect your PC to your home entertainment hardware and control it all with a remote! Load your music on your iPod while you watch TV! All with one easy-to-use program - J. River Media Center.

Make your media part of your digital lifestyle. Copy music from Media Center to a portable digital audio player or move digital camera photos into MC's powerful image library. Make a CD of music for your car. Record your favorite shows and watch them on your TV. More than one soundcard? Play different music simultaneously in different rooms. MC's Media Server can even stream your music to your PC at work.

The all-in-one solution for yor media needs.

Download J. River Media Center 12.0.473 in Softonic

You can spend hours watching videos on Youtube and other similar websites and having lots of fun, but what if you want to recover those videos later on? Sure, you can always search through your browsing history, but that takes a lot of time and it doesn't always work.

It's much easier to use VideoCacheView and let it recover all the videos you've watched online for you. This program analyzes your web browser's cache (from both Internet Explorer and Firefox) and extracts all the video files stored in it. You can then watch them again, as long as you have the right player. What's more, the program also includes a link to download the file to your hard drive.

VideoCacheView is great to review videos you specially enjoyed, but it does have some limitations: for example, videos are not always stored in cache while you play them online, which means VideoCacheView won't be able to recover them. Also, if you want to access the latest videos you've watched, you'll have to close the web browser.

Download VideoCacheView 1.07 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 0.7 in Softonic

There's nothing more annoying that downloading a video file and realising that it won't play properly or it's corrupted in some way.

Usually you have no choice but to find an alternative download but not so with Digital Video Repair. It can repair AVI files in a number of incomplete download scenarios such as failure to completely copy from CD, DVD or other source and when an AVI file has not completely downloaded from the Internet on a P2P app such as eDonkey or BitTorrent. Alternatively, it can help when you find that video is freezed when playing, it won't rewind or fast forward properly or when the play button simply doesn't get you anywhere. Well that's the theory anyway. In practice, there are so many reasons why files won't play including codec issues and corrupted downloads that it's impossible that any one program can solve all of your problems. Then of course, there's the simple problem of CD's and DVD's that won't read properly which there's nothing much you can do about. More often than not, the program will process your AVI files but you'll notice no improvement afterwards.

A nice idea and probably useful for very superficial playback problems but if you're file is seriously corrupted or you've got codec problems, this won't be of much use.

Download Digital Video Repair 1.02 in Softonic

VideoInspector is a tool designed to provide you with as much information as possible about your video files. With VideoInspector you'll know why your video file has no sound or refuses to play correctly.

VideoInspector will help you install the required codec (coder/decoder software) for optimal performance. VideoInspector can also inspect your system to find which codecs are available, and it can also process multiple video files and export its result in HTML or plain text files.

Download VideoInspector 1.12.0.112 in Softonic

Normally you can only connect one application to a single video capture source. SplitCamera is a freeware virtual video clone and split video capture driver for connecting several applications to a single video capture source.

Usually, if you have a web camera or video camera connected to your computer, you cannot use it in more than one application at the same time, and there are no standard Windows options that make it possible. Split Camera driver allows you to easily multiply your web-camera (any model), video cameras (analogue or digital including VHS, DV, TV-IN or TV-tuner).

These can be added to video chat or video conferencing software like ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Skype Video, Camfrog, AOL AIM, Pal Talk and more. The maximum connection is for up to 64 clients in a single video source. You can also use splitcam to send your home videos at the same time to many video conference programs such as a friend using MSN Messenger that can see your home video while another friend uses Yahoo messenger can see it too.

This program is an excellent idea although in reality, coordinating between multiple messengers or video sources can become very confusing. The setup process is also tricky and you might find yourself spending more time trying to get simultaneous images than actually using it.

Download SplitCam 4.1 in Softonic

What happens when you have a large-sized video that you want to share online with your friends? Either you have a broadband Internet connection and enough web space to store it, or you use MovieSlider.

This software app creates a slideshow from any video file and saves it as a standalone EXE, so that you can easily share it online. Alright, it may not be as exciting as the video itself, but at least you get an idea of how the video looks like and what it's about. Also, you save a lot of space: during our testing, we created a 300 KB slideshow out of a 128 MB short movie.

MovieSlider is very easy to use. It features a wizard-like interface that guides you through the whole process in a few simple steps. There are two ways to create slideshows: by taking a fixed number of frames evenly along the video or by capturing a frame every few minutes of viewing. In the end you get an EXE file that can be run anywhere, even if MovieSlider is not installed. The only thing I missed was having the possibility to add some background music – the resulting slideshow looks a bit dull without sound.

With MovieSlider you can easily create slideshows from videos and share them online, although they don't have background sound.

Download MovieSlider 1.0 in Softonic

Flash Saver is a utility that adds a new option to the context menu in your Web browser, saving Flash files contained in the Web page you are visiting such as YouTube.

The option appears when you right click on any part of the page that IS NOT Flash animated (so don't click on the video basically) and click "Save Flash In This Page". Once activated, the program lets you view all the Flash files on that particular page, download conveniently selecting the desired files and even classify them by type i.e. games, movies, introductions, etc.
In small files, it's not an issue but as the size of your downloads increase, you'll need to use the multithread option which allows you to make multiple connections to the same file which basically means, it downloads twice as quick. All in all, the program is easy to use and especially on big downloads, offers some significant speed advantages.

This is definitely a more professional approach to the Flash downloading genre although the downside is that it's not free.

Download Flash Saver 1.35 in Softonic

Xilisoft DVD Creator is a fast, easy to use DVD maker, which can convert almost all popular video formats and burn them onto DVD (playable on a home DVD player). It allows you to specify NTSC or PAL format, adjust 4:3 or 16:9 video aspect, and burn either DVD disc or ISO file.

The DVD Creator also provides so many brilliant DVD menus for your DVD authoring, supports DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW. This DVD burner supports a very comprehensive list of video formats which means that the Internet become storehouse of your home theater. The program is easy to use and faster than ever before, just one click to make and burn DVD.

Download Xilisoft DVD Creator 3.0.32.1123 in Softonic

Do you want to add your company logo to any video? Use VidLogo to modify video files and add logos and video watermarks. Use animated logo or AVI logo for videos like a TV sign in one of the corners of screen. VidLogo supports AVI, BMP, JPEG graphic formats for logos. True Alpha in video is fuly supported.

Features:

• Add bitmap (bmp, jpeg, gif) logo to video
• Add video AVI logo to video
• Convert video to AVI with different codec (recodec AVI)
• Fast conversion speed
• Supports AVI, ASF, WMV, DivX, XVid, 3ivx, MP4
• Easy to use interface

Download VidLogo 3.5 in Softonic

Have you ever recorded a video with your mobile phone, only to find out later on that you were holding it upside down? The video has been already recorded and there's no way to fix it.

Well, now there is. It's called Free Video Flip and Rotate and it's a very simple tool with which you can easily rotate or flip all your videos. Simply select the video you want to work with, choose the preset you want you apply and click on Start.

The whole process is really easy and takes only a few minutes. On the downside, the program doesn't allow users to create new presets and can only save fixed videos in AVI format, no matter what the source format is.

Free Video Flip and Rotate enables you to fix videos that haven't been properly recorded, rotating or flipping the image in a very simple way.

Download Free Video Flip and Rotate 1.2.1.1 in Softonic

The vast majority of films that people download from the internet are in DivX format because it's super compact and become the standard over the years. This program allows you to create and author your own DivX films in an impressive and highly professional package.

This collection really packs in everything you could possibly need in a DivX suite. It includes the ability to create full-motion menus, chapter points, subtitles, multiple audio tracks and motion thumbnails. It also incorporates a superb multimedia photo slideshow option to make some great shows with your digital photos. If you're not familiar to editing, don't worry because this suite is packed with wizards that take you from A to B easily. It's also very tolerant of formats from any source - it accepts just about anything you can think of.

If you're looking to upload films in DivX format or simply backup your DVD collection, this suite really can't be beat - nothing more than you'd expect from the creators of the DivX codec.

Download DivX Author 1.5 in Softonic

They say that if you really appreciate cinema you should watch only movies without dubbing, but if you don't master the original language you're probably going to miss a lot of the movie's plot. Now you can prevent this with SubEdit Player, a video player that includes a built-in text editor especially designed for subtitles.

This video editor can not only display subtitles along with the movie you're watching but also lets you meddle with the subtitles file in case there's a line that needs to be corrected. Other configuration options enable you to set the text font, size and color, change the way they're displayed or fine tune their synchronization with images.

SubEdit works with the most popular formats both for video and subtitles. It also includes a search tool to find and download subtitles from the Internet, although unfortunately we weren't able to make it work. The Help file wasn't very helpful either, as it's all in Polish.

Download SubEdit Player Build 4060 in Softonic