VSO ConvertXtoDVD is an attractively designed and easy-to-use video burner that gives you the power to convert and burn a huge range of formats.

VSO ConvertXtoDVD can handle just about any format you throw at it including AVI, WMV, MKV, YouTube, OGM, MPEG and Quicktime. So instead of having to watch your downloaded films and videos on your PC, you can watch them in the comfort of your lounge on your DVD Player. VSO ConvertXtoDVD goes much further than just mere DVD creation though because it helps you create and author DVD menus.

It offers the possibility to add background video, image or audio and even have chapter and audio/subtitle menus. If you do want to add subtitles, it supports most of the major formats including SRT, .SUB/ID and .SSA and VSO CovertXtoDVD gives you control over color and font selection, and supports tags like italic, bold and the ability to toggle them on or off with DVD player remote control. The encoder makes a decent job of converting videos in terms of the output quality although it is slightly slow - estimate about 1 hour for conversion of a full movie.

A powerful and easy way to get your favourite movies and video clips onto DVD and give them an extra touch of class with a menu.

Download VSO ConvertXtoDVD 3.2.1.55 in Softonic

AVIAddXSubs is a simple-to-use, free program that incorporates subtitles (XSUB) from .srt (ANSI text, up to 8 srt) or idx/sub (containing up to 8 subtitles) into AVI files containing DivX/XVid video streams.

It works simply by placing the AVI and SRT file into the same directory as the videos you want to play. Your media player should automatically detect them when you open the file. However, what AVIAddXSubs can do is merge the subtitles directly into the video that's going to be played.

This doesn't mean that every time you play the film the subtitles will show however. You still need to activate them within the player that you're using. After this, you can delete the SRT file as it's no longer needed since it has been "burned" into the video. However, sometimes you will find that the subtitles simply do not appear. If this happens, you'll probably have to configure the positioning of subtitles in your video player.

AVIAddXSubs is a great way to avoid needing to include an SRT file with every video you want to view subtitles with but you may have problems locating your subtitles once they've been "burned" in.

Download AVIAddXSubs 8.0 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

Sometimes I prefer watching movies and TV series on the computer rather than doing it on the couch. The image quality in my PC monitor is better and I can handle more formats than just DVD.

Of course, I need a good video player in order to enjoy my favorite movies at their most, and my choice is no other than BSPlayer. This great video player features anything you need to watch movies or any other kind of video on your PC. It supports all popular video formats (and audio as well, in case you were wondering) and though its basic interface is not really the nicest one I've seen, you can easily customize it with skins.

BSPlayer supports video subtitles, takes screenshots of movie currently playing, lets you create bookmarks and chapters to move along videos more easily and has also support for plug-ins. I especially liked the way you can control playback, either by using keyboard shortcuts or simply your mouse: one click to stop the video, two clicks to go full screen, mouse wheel to raise or low the volume…

The only thing I didn't like was the fact that, being a free version, you're obliged to install an adware element on your PC that displays ads from time to time while you're browsing the way. It's a safe app that doesn't compromise your privacy, but still it's not my cup of tea. I guess it's just the price you have to pay for having such a great video player for free.

BSPlayer lets you enjoy your favorite movies on the PC with a wide range of features (subtitles, screenshots, bookmarks and more) provided you're willing to accept some ads on your desktop.

Download BS.Player Free 2.31.974 in Softonic

The ALShow codecs included movie player lets your watch all your videos, movies, and DVDs without searching for video codecs or audio codecs. From AVI to XviD, playing movies is first-click easy with codecs for all popular video, audio, and movie formats. ALShow also recognizes codecs that you do not have and automatically helps instantly install the right codecs. ALShow loads movies fast and plays movies smoothly.

No more video playback stuttering. Audio, video, and screen captures let you save portions of movies to share with friends. You can also import them to your favorite audio or video editor. Video looping lets you repeat parts of a movie. Captions and subtitles are supported for monitor and TV output. The ESC key hides ALShow when you are supposed to do homework. Click the tray icon to resume playing your DVD movie or video.

Download ALShow 1.62 Beta in Softonic

With multimedia portable devices growing in popularity and features, it's not surprising that DVD ripping tools like Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate have started to offer support for them so that you can take your favorite movies anywhere with you.

Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate is one of those applications: a full featured DVD ripper than can extract all data inside your DVD movies and convert it right away to another video format, including the most popular ones and – of course – video formats for mobile devices such as the iPod, the iPhone and the PSP.

Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate lets you choose the video size, image quality and audio quality, and also create and use different profiles according to the target format or device. Also, Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate lets you trim specific video fragments, edit video effects, adjust subtitles and even add a watermark so that you obtain fully customized DVD video and audio files.

Additionally, Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate can help you clip video segment, crop video size, edit video effects, adjust subtitle, and add video watermark, to get the customized DVD audio and video files.

In addition to ripping the whole DVD, you can also select specific chapters and convert only those. The whole process is done via drop-down menus and Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate is generally very easy to use.

With Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate you can rip the contents of your favorite DVD movies and convert them to different formats – including mobile video - in just a few easy steps.

Download Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate 5.0.40.0729 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

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

ImTOO DVD to MP4 Converter is a fast, easy to use DVD to MP4 ripper which helps you rip DVD's, convert DVD's to MP4, AVI, MPEG4, DivX, XviD, Apple TV video and PSP AVC video format. With formats changing and developing all the time, a new profile of PSP AVC video in 480 X 272 (PSPEXT) has been added, while the profile of Apple TV video has been improved to improve playback.

The output movie is playable on most portable media players (MP4 players that is) which the developers say includes Archos AV500, Archos AV700, Archos Gmini402, iRiver PMP-100, Creative Zen Vision, PSP and iPod, etc.

The problem with many similar converters is that there are few customisation settings for those that need extra control over how their video comes out. ImToo DVD to Mp4 Converter does not disappoint here offering tons of options over such things as the aspect ratio, compression format used and other technical settings.

As a result, this program is not really suitable for those that just want a simple Mp4 conversion but is a solid product for those that need a bit more control over the output file.

Download ImTOO DVD to MP4 Converter 5.0.35.0515 in Softonic

As multimedia portable devices grow in popularity and include more advanced features, DVD ripping tools have started offering support for them so that you can watch your favorite movies on the go.

ImToo DVD Ripper Platinum is among them. This application is a complete DVD ripper that extracts all the contents of your favorite DVD movies and converts them right away to another format, including the most common audio and video formats and – of course –for mobile devices such as the iPod, the iPhone and the PSP. The program works both with DVD discs and IFO files stored on your drive.

All available formats are presented as profiles with their own characteristics, but you may as well create your own user-defined profile by selecting the video size, image quality, audio quality and channels on the right-side pane and then saving it as a new profile.

ImToo DVD Ripper Platinum features a nice interface with a skins menu that unfortunately it's empty, so you can't really change or customize it in any way.

ImToo DVD Ripper Platinum is an attractive DVD ripper, especially designed for portable devices, which makes the whole ripping process easy even for a newcomer to video conversion.

Download ImTOO DVD Ripper Platinum 5.0.35.0515 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

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

MooPlayer is a free, open-source media player for audio and video files with some interesting features.

To begin with, MooPlayer doesn't require installation: you only need to copy the app's files to your hard drive. Also, being open-source, anyone can develop plug-ins of their own in order to improve the player or add new functionalities to it.

MooPlayer supports the most popular formats both in audio and video. As for the latter, it can also display subtitles and lets you use zoom to play a video in double or half its original size.

On the downside, I personally found the program's interface design to be quite annoying. The arrangement of button and other controls is fine, but having a cartoon cow constantly flashing on the background is not my cup of tea.

MooPlayer can play both audio and video, supports subtitles, doesn't require installation and is open-source. Pity the interface doesn't go along with these nice features.

Download MooPlayer 1.3.0 in Softonic

Sometimes your video player can't play all the files that you want it to. Only the most versatile players like VLC Player can help in such circumstances but Total Video Player is a welcome addition to that family.

Total Video Player is a player for audio and video that reads all major formats including 3GP, MP4, FLV and DVD. The interface is very straightforward featuring a file menu, scroll bar, library files and shortcuts that integrate simply with the file being played. It truly is a universal player and there's little you will be able to throw at it, either audio or video, that it won't be able to handle.

For some reason however, the developers have not included the ability to view subtitles or change the audio track. You can only select one audio track which is a bit annoying and it's clear that from the perspective of audio in general, it's very limited. There are few controls over equalization options other than a simple volume control.

Total Video Player can play just about anything. If only it could handle subtitles and audio better, it would be a much better product.

Download Total Video Player 1.20 in Softonic

There can't be many people on this planet who have never watched a video or listened to a song on a computer. Chances are you've used one of the popular media players such as iTunes, Winamp or Windows Media Player, but have you ever stopped to think there might be some more interesting ways to play back movies or audio? If you're yearning for something a little bit different then you might find that XULPlayer fits the bill.

The application can play a wide range of different formats, whether it's audio, video, or even images. It's a little different to the rest of the bog-standard players out there and boasts a number of very interesting features. Besides all the normal playback functions, it includes several simple editing tools for changing the appearance, colour and rotating the image.

Another great concept incorporated into XULPlayer is the ability to have dual-video, allowing you to play two audio files or DVDs simultaneously and cross-fade them. It's a pretty slick interface and many of the useful features such as the subtitle options and video screenshotting are available with a single click of an icon. The app has a few little bugs that need ironing out but I'm sure in the upcoming updates these will be addressed.

Even now, XULPlayer provides a refreshingly unique alternative to those popular media players that have become household names.

Download XULPlayer 0.2.1.1 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

Compressed video is a great way to download and share movies, but it does have a downside in that you normally need to wait for the whole thing to unpack in WinRAR before you can see it. This nifty little tool solves that problem, by allowing you to watch parts of a video before it has fully unpacked.

The program includes a surprising amount of functions, based around Media Player Classic. You get options for resizing the viewer, adjusting the video settings, and altering the playback speed. There's even a tool for handling subtitles, allowing you to speed them up or slow them down to fit the video. Although the quality of playback can be a little jerky, it provides a great way to make sure that your compressed video files are in tact, and that you're actually unpacking the right movie.

Download Dziobas Rar Player 0.006.4 in Softonic

SuperDVD Player is characterised by quick responsiveness, quality reproduction and a simple to use, attractive interface.

The program was originally designed to play just DVD's which is why it includes a host of great features including support for 5.1 sound, direct menu access, chapter navigation, language utilities and subtitle options.

It can play a huge range of multimedia since it supports DVD, VCD, MP2, MP3, WAV, AVI, MPG, DivX, WMA, WMV and ASF formats. You can also create playlists, personalize the interface with skins and make captures of video. A simple but powerful little DVD Player.

Download SuperDVD Player 5.0 in Softonic

While the audio technology behind DVDs and computer speaker systems has improved greatly over the last few years, the applications designed to play DVDs on your PC are often less advanced. AVS DVD Player has been designed with this factor in mind. It aims to ensure that you get the maximum benefit from any surround sound or multi-channel soundtracks that your films have.

AVS DVD’s interface is typical enough, although it does include a handy shortcut button which lets you burn the file you are watching to a DVD. The program also distinguishes itself with an inbuilt set of codecs that will play most files, meaning you don’t have to trawl the internet for the right decoder just when you want to watch a movie. AVS is really flexible, supporting all the regular DVD and DivX formats but also Real Media, Quicktime and 3GP (mobile video) formats. It’s sound processing where AVS really excels, however, and if you’ve got a decent set of surround sound speakers, you’ll really notice the difference. AVS DVD includes a surround equaliser which distributes sound according to your setup. Currently, this multi-channel surround sound feature supports 3.1, 5.1 and 7.1 speaker configurations.

There is a price to pay, however, for this emphasis on sound. Unfortunately, AVS DVD player is hindered by several basic flaws. Firstly, it’s very heavy on resources. Even if you own a machine with a high-end processor and graphics card, you’ll notice that AVS hogs your CPU power, so it’s advisable to close absolutely every other application to prevent your system from becoming unstable. One technical drawback is that it does not de-interlace images. This means that if you’re watching torrents or DivX files taken from TV shows, you could experience poor image quality, especially around the borders of the screen. This is due to the image resolution in TV broadcasts which operate at a lower frequency than those made for DVD.

Another annoying problem is that you can’t make the playback controls stay visible on the screen in full playback mode. You end up having to return to a smaller viewing window to control the film you are watching. This is not an issue if you just plan on watching a film from start to finish but it is if you plan to stop and start it a lot. One other minor issue is the lack of extra skins available. The black default skin looks great and there are a few more to choose from but nowhere near as many as other players such as WinDVD.

For a totally free DVD Player, AVS is not a bad product and it certainly looks good. However, as many users report, the developers seem to have focused too much on design and sound features than the bread and butter of usability. Nevertheless, if you’ve got a serious sound system or want to feel the full thrilling sound of your films, it’s certainly worth a try.

Download AVS DVD Player 2.2.8.110 in Softonic

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