It seems that everyone is slowly starting to realise that the future of video broadcasting lies online rather than inside a television.

Following the success of Joost, Babelgum and VeohTV, Adobe decided to get in on the act with the release of the Adobe Media Player. The philosophy of the software giant is that if you use a browser to navigate web pages, why shouldn't you use one to view multimedia too?

The result is basically a version of Joost as seen through the eyes of Adobe. Now out of beta release, the app provides an interesting and immersive way of watching videos online. Navigation is very smooth and feels natural and there are a number of features and services that make it easier to eyeball TV more effectively. For instance, you can create a list of favorites, and keywords add ratings to Flash video, build playlists and use the Dashboard-style interface to check out the latest episodes of your top shows. You can also now subscribe to RSS feeds that tell you when new episodes are online.

Content is king though, of course, and version 1.1 of Adobe Media Player adds a lot more episodes and channels from a broad range of genres. At the time of writing, Adobe estimates that there are around 25,000 episodes available through its media player. Adobe has even partnered with Sony Pictures to offer some movies through the service, such as Jerry Maguire and Men in Black. I was also impressed by the speed and quality of the videos.

One of my main qualms with Adobe Media Player though, is that many of the episodes are not available outside the USA. Fine if you live there, of course, but for those of us in other lands it's so frustrating to see a show you want to watch only to discover it's not available (of course, you don't find this out until after an advert has played in the player).

Glossing over the unavailability of some programs and channels, Adobe Media Player is making all the right strides to becoming the best place to watch TV online.

Download Adobe Media Player 1.1 in Softonic

Adobe's Flash Player (originally a Macromedia product) remains the standard platform for viewing a wide variety of web content, varying from navigation elements to every video you watch on YouTube. Its ease of use, high performance, small file-size and now near-HD quality all combine to make it a popular choice for web content professionals and casual users alike.

Flash Player 9 includes a range of interesting additions and improvements when compared to previous versions. Top of that list is the inclusion of support for the H.264 video codec and the HE-AAC audio codec, which together offer a much richer, higher-definition picture along with crystal-clear sound. Introducing these capabilities with only slightly reduced performance looks set to trigger another revolution in web video, as the first HD movies are already beginning to appear on YouTube - and they look and sound great!

Apart from that, Flash 9 irons out some of the problems that previous versions have suffered from (like security and stability issues), as well as adding suuport for ActionScript 3.0, the latest instruction set from Adobe. This makes for more dynamic and interesting navigation, games and interactivity on websites.

Adobe Flash Player 9 represents a leap forward in terms of quality and also stability and security. It's therefore a highly recommended update for all users.

Download Adobe Flash Player (IE & AOL) 9.0.124.0 in Softonic

In an age of multiple media players all with different codecs and formats, it's nice to know there's at least one out there that can play just about anything.

Haihaisoft Universal Player supports almost all popular digital media formats and can also play digital media files protected by DRM-X. Amongst the players it can emulate are Windows Media Player, Real Player, Adobe Flash Player, Apple QuickTime Player, PowerDVD and Flash Video (FLV) Player. Whatsmore though, this player embeds itself into Internet Explorer meaning that whenever you are presented with a format compatible with any of these file types, you can watch it instantly. The number of formats it can play is mind-boggling, including those protected by DRM such as WMV(Windows Media Video), WMA(Windows Media Audio), ASF, WMS, DVD, VCD, SVCD, MOV, RM, RMVB, AVI, MPEG, WMV, 3GP, FLV, SWF, MP3, AMR, M4A, ACC, OGG, MIDI, GIF and JPEG file format. Best of all, the program is constantly updated with the latest codecs so you don't need to worry about it suddenly not being able to play files.

A completely free player that supports just about any format imaginable and embeds itself into IE perfectly.

Download Haihaisoft Universal Player 1.0.7.1 in Softonic

There's so much Flash video out there, especially on sites such as YouTube, that a converter which can change the format of the videos you are watching is always useful.

Maybe you need to change it for storage purposes or maybe you need to change it so that you can edit the footage. Whatever your needs, Sothink Video Encoder for Adobe Flash is a professional piece of software that converts videos to Flash supporting all the most popular formats including AVI, MPEG, and WMV. The program focuses on converting AVI/MPEG video to Flash video (FLV) in high quality, in the least time. But even better than that, it also provides advanced video editing functions such as video cropping and trimming which is unusual for a program of this kind. Usually you only get a converter but here you are getting the complete package which is useful because Flash is not usually a very suitable format to edit in. However, the editor is very basic allowing you only to perform very basic cropping. It does however automatically generate thumbnail images for each file you convert and in addition, creates a self-opening Flash player which means you can send it on to friends or colleagues without them having to have a Flash player installed. If you're going to embed it in a webpage, it also generates HTML pages to embed them in which you can then upload much more easily and quickly than normal.

Fast and with very high quality output, Softhink Video Converter for Adobe Flash is one of the best Flash converters out there.

Download Sothink Video Encoder for Adobe Flash 2.3 Build 70926 in Softonic

With so many movies on the net now in Flash format - including all those on YouTube - it's useful to have a program that can extract all the various elements that go into it for your own editing or storage purposes.

First of all, it's useful to distinguish between SWF and FLV. Basically, SWF is a native file which means it's a Flash object (i.e. a video/game or application) which is written natively in Flash and meant to be viewed or interacted with in a Flash player. FLV is quite simply a flash video player which means the buttons, progress bar, volume control and so on are all natively built in Flash but the video itself may have originated from any number of formats. The only way to extract the SWF files is with a decompiler such as this one - and a darn good job it does too. The interface is extremely user-friendly that even if you don't really understand the difference between the two formats but definitely need to extract a few elements, it takes you through it simply and quickly. The recovered files can then be opened and edited in Flash 6, 7 or 8 and for serious editors, 9-slice scaling and text analysis is also supported. Note that to capture the files, this program includes SWF Catcher which can save any Flash movies that you are viewing in Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Fast, easy to use and very effective, Sothink SWF Decompiler is an excellent and professional feeling solution for Flash editors.

Download Sothink SWF Decompiler 4.1 Build 80421 in Softonic

Flash Media Show allows you to present a selection of photos in Adobe Flash format, saving you hard drive space and gaining in design. The final presentation is eye catching with a very nice and clear navigation menu.

The program is very easy to use: just upload the photos you want, resize or rotate them, apply sliding effects and select a background colour by clicking the first icon on the far bottom right. When you have finished, click on the Publish function in the File menu and choose the size of your presentation, the version of Flash it should be compatible with and the option of a full screen mode.

The only difficulty I had using this application was about finding the menus, as they seem to be hidden. The Configuration menu for example, at the very bottom of the page, pops up if you move the cursor over it, but you wouldn't notice it unless paying particular attention to the page.

Do you need to share your photos, in a nice useful way? What's better than creating a Flash animation, which limits the final file size and at the same time, creates a fully navigable stylish presentation. With Flash Media Show you can do it in few clicks.

Download Flash Media Show 1.0 in Softonic

Adobe's Flash Player (originally a Macromedia product) remains the standard platform for viewing a wide variety of web content, varying from navigation elements to every video you watch on YouTube. Its ease of use, high performance, small file-size and now near-HD quality all combine to make it a popular choice for web content professionals and casual users alike.

Flash Player 9 includes a range of interesting additions and improvements when compared to previous versions. Top of that list is the inclusion of support for the H.264 video codec and the HE-AAC audio codec, which together offer a much richer, higher-definition picture along with crystal-clear sound. Introducing these capabilities with only slightly reduced performance looks set to trigger another revolution in web video, as the first HD movies are already beginning to appear on YouTube - and they look and sound great!

Apart from that, Flash 9 irons out some of the problems that previous versions have suffered from (like security and stability issues), as well as adding suuport for ActionScript 3.0, the latest instruction set from Adobe. This makes for more dynamic and interesting navigation, games and interactivity on websites.

Adobe Flash Player 9 represents a leap forward in terms of quality and also stability and security. It's therefore a highly recommended update for all users.

Download Adobe Flash Player 9.0.124 in Softonic

If you want a simple, quick tool to delete all junk files and temporary items that eat up disk space, Indo Cleaner is what you're looking for.

This easy software app cleans all recent document lists, temporary files and junk data left after browsing the web, using certain programs and downloading data from the Internet. This means that the program not only recovers some valuable disk space, but also protects your privacy by erasing all traces of your computer usage. The whole process is done via a wizard-style interface in a few simple steps that hardly take a couple of minutes.

Indo Cleaner works fast and efficiently, although I missed having some more advanced functionality like the possibility of choosing the categories that the program cleans, learning how much space I'm gaining after deleting all those files or even making a backup copy before erasing them… just in case.

Indo Cleaner erases all traces of Internet browsing and computer usage in a fast, easy way.

Download Indo Cleaner 1.0.1 in Softonic

Knowing how to convert video files to Flash is almost necessary nowadays, as Adobe's video format is quickly becoming the dominant one on the net. Working as any other converter, Video2SWF has the advantage of outputting not only to swf but also to flv and html. It supports most of the video and audio formats out there, though we were disappointed to find out that audio mpeg was not handled.

Settings is probably where Video2SWF packs the most features. Not only can you select in and out points for your videos, but you can also add overlay, and a few filters. The program also has a choice of half a dozen different video controls to add to your video. If you work with multiple video files, you'll be glad to know that you can batch convert them.

Performance is where Video2SWF underachieves, with pretty slow conversion speeds though, even for fairly small videos.

Video2SWF is a flash converter with lots of extra settings but a tad slow in the conversion process.

Download Video2SWF 1.011 in Softonic

If you want to add some originality to your website, this is certainly a good option: an embedded Flash player that allows users to choose a song and play it while they're visiting your webpage.

Flash Music Studio provides you with all the tools you need to create this player. You don't need any programming or Flash skills, as the program's interface guides you through the whole process in a step-by-step procedure. This makes it very easy for beginners, but more advances users may miss some more customizing options.

The program includes a wide variety of ready-to-use skins for your player and supports the most popular audio formats. Once you've finished the players, it automatically generates all the necessary files to upload to your web server.

Download Flash Music Studio 1.0 in Softonic

SWF Cargo is an extremely easy program to convert your Macromedia Flash content into powerful Desktop Applications. SWF Cargo allows for rapid application development by using Flash as the GUI interface, without having to learn complex programming languages such as Basic, C & C++.

Features:

• Output 100% Standalone Projectors! User does not need to have Flash installed
• Customize how the windows will look in your Projectors
• Multiple window support
• Create custom shaped windows
• Flash 9 Player compatible
• Synchronous communication between the Projectors and the Operating System (requires Adobe/Macromedia Flash 8 authoring tool)
• Create Trial Projectors to expire after a specified date

Download SWF Cargo 1.001 in Softonic

iSofter DVD Ripper Platinum is design for backup your favorite DVD movie to your computer by converting DVD to AVI, DivX, XviD, VCD, WMV, MPEG4 format video files, with almost same quality, but just only 10% size.

With optimized profiles, you can convert DVD Movie to iPod Video, Microsoft Zune, Pocket PC, 3GP Mobile Phone or any other MP4 player, such as iRiver, Archos, Creative Zen Vision and more. Even you can use the video editor profile to output avi file for your video editing software, such as Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas.

It also support ripping MTV, music DVD to MP3 audio, you can listen to your favorite movies on your iPod now!

Features:

Optimized profiles

With optimized profiles, you can convert DVD Movie to iPod Video, Microsoft Zune, Pocket PC, 3GP Mobile Phone or any other MP4 player or format only one click

External codec Support

Our program can use external codec’s power feature to optimize the output video quality

Vob Scan support

With vob scan support you can open ifo file’s or rip your vob file to any video format

Suited for both veterans and beginners:

If you are a veteran, you will find there are so many options you can set, if it's the first time you rip DVDs, you don't have to consider these options, just use default settings and rip DVDs in a few clicks.

Auto check your CPU type:

Check your CPU type auto, that ensure you can rip your DVDs with the best ripping speed.

Support preview:

You can preview the movies before you begin ripping them, even you can watch the movies at the same time when you are ripping DVDs.

Rip at will:

You can rip entire DVD movie or just one or several chapters.

Easy-to-use interface:

Most functions can be called up with a simple mouse click or menu selection. You can conveniently make skins for isoft DVD Ripper through our color scheme system.

Flexible settings:

iSoft DVD Ripper Platinum is able to automatically detect the input video formats and then set the application's parameters for the best possible performance. The default parameters work in most cases, but you can change them easily to best suit your needs.

Support batch conversion:

Select all files you want to rip and smart DVD Ripper will auto copy them one by one.

Download iSofter DVD Ripper Platinum Flash Demo 3.0.2007.125 in Softonic