There’s a plethora of music players to choose from, among which iTunes and Winamp usually have the upper hand. However, if you are curious enough, you might find that lesser known alternatives like MediaMonkey offer a reasonable amount of features and tools to organize and equally enjoy your music library.

MediaMonkey automatically scans your PC for all types of music formats. If you have playlists from other programs, it’s good to know that the application also adds m3u files, sparing you the pain of having to recreate them. The file explorer view on the left lets you easily navigate your music collection by categories like artist, genre or rating. You can convert tracks into any format you wish, depending on what size or quality of sound you’re looking for. MediaMonkey also lets you analyze and adjust the volume of tracks to increase your listening experience.

MediaMonkey has made its reputation on its advanced tagging management feature. Every time a track is added, the program will verify its tags. You can automatically fill in missing details with info from Amazon or Filename. The program can clean up your tags, move information into the correct categories and synchronize tags for selected tracks. You can also rename and move multiple files thanks to the auto-organize function. MediaMonkey also supports Winamp plugins and visualizations plus skins can be applied to spice up the interface.

If you want to make your own mix CDs, you’ll be happy to know that MediaMonkey rips and burns CDs and DVDs. Create a virtual CD of your favorite tracks and let MediaMonkey do its job. Budding DJs will enjoy the auto-DJ mode, which mixes tracks for you and the Party Mode, which blocks your configuration but lets anybody play their favorite tune. MediaMonkey’s versatility doesn’t stop there. The music manager also lets you synchronize with your portable music devices like your iPod or iRiver.

If you feel like completing your library with a couple of fresh albums you can browse sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble or AllPosters and purchase tracks. However, unlike Songbird, where you can type in a URL, browse and save your favorite music blogs and sites, MediaMonkey only allows you to browse their selection of online stores.

We were disappointed with the web radio selection, which only features Shoutcast and Icecast, and were surprised to see no sign of podcasts anywhere in the application. However version 3.0 is planning on incorporating this to the application.

Despite these drawbacks, we recommend MediaMonkey to anybody looking for a solid alternative to iTunes or Winamp. This original music manager is more than capable of organizing a very large music library and offers advanced tagging management rarely seen in other music applications. While the browser and web radio are fairly limited, MediaMonkey allows you to rip your custom CDs and connects to most portable music devices. If you really take a liking to MediaMonkey, cough up a few bucks and upgrade to the Gold version, which will open up all of the program’s functionalities like finding missing tracks or creating auto (smart) playlists.

Download MediaMonkey 3.0.5.1187 in Softonic

CyberLink DVD Suite includes ten basic tools designed to help you make the most out of your multimedia library. Tasks like burning music compilations onto CD and DVD, creating data backup copies, or designing photo slideshows to share with friends and family are just some of the tasks that you'll be able to carry out with CyberLink DVD Suite.

The suite includes an application launcher, known as PowerStarter. This launcher works as some kind of control panel from where you can easily access all the tools included in the suite. They're categorized in tabs according to the task or action you can do with them ("watch movie", "make an audio CD", "copy a data DVD") instead of displaying the actual tool's name. PowerStarter also includes a special Favorites tab where you can add shortcuts to your most frequently used actions.

This app launcher obviously makes things much easier for the average user, but power users may find it confusing, as they're probably used to choosing the application they want to open – not the task they want to do.

What does CyberLink DVD Suite include? As a starter, you'll find a powerful recording tool (Power2Go) with which you can burn audio and data CD and DVD, perfect to enjoy your favorite music anywhere and make backup copies.

Another outstanding app is PowerProducer, which lets you create VCD, SVCD and video and photo compilations. If you want to create a fully customized slideshow with soundtrack, transition effects and all the bells and whistles, then your best choice is Medi@Show. PowerDVD Copy and PowerBackup also deserve a mention, allowing you to copy non-protected DVD movies and create security copies of your sensitive data respectively.

CyberLink DVD Suite is undoubtedly a very complete package with high-quality tools, which is very suitable for the average user. I'm not that sure about more advanced users though: I'm convinced that the more you learn about how to use computers and software, the less you need to download a huge-sized suite with a dozen tools from which you'll probably only use three or four - especially in the case of CyberLink DVD Suite, where you can't choose which specific tools you want to install.

CyberLink DVD Suite is a fully featured multimedia suite with a very varied set of tools to burn discs, create backup copies, design slideshows and more.

Download CyberLink DVD Suite 6 Essential in Softonic

Creating customized DVD movies is a piece of cake with Droppix DVD Maker. The program takes care of everything so that you only have to worry about enjoying your favorite videos from the couch.

You can use any video files stored in your local drive (the program supports the most popular formats) or import videos right away from famous video websites like Youtube, Daily Motion or Google Video with just a single click. Droppix DVD Maker also includes several ready-to-use menu templates you can use to create personalized DVD menus, though the method to change them is not very well implemented (a double click on the current menu image would be much more intuitive than having to open the program's settings menu).

Another drawback to Droppix DVD Maker is the fact that you can't preview the video before converting and recording it to the actual disc, while other similar tools usually include a built-in player. At least the conversion process is easy and quite fast too.

Droppix DVD Maker lets you create customized DVD movies in a very easy way, but lacks some handy features found in other similar tools.

Download Droppix DVD Maker 1.5.0 in Softonic

CyberLink DVD Suite includes ten basic tools designed to help you make the most out of your multimedia library. Tasks like burning music compilations onto CD and DVD, creating data backup copies, or designing photo slideshows to share with friends and family are just some of the tasks that you'll be able to carry out with CyberLink DVD Suite.

The suite includes an application launcher, known as PowerStarter. This launcher works as some kind of control panel from where you can easily access all the tools included in the suite. They're categorized in tabs according to the task or action you can do with them ("watch movie", "make an audio CD", "copy a data DVD") instead of displaying the actual tool's name. PowerStarter also includes a special Favorites tab where you can add shortcuts to your most frequently used actions.

This app launcher obviously makes things much easier for the average user, but power users may find it confusing, as they're probably used to choosing the application they want to open – not the task they want to do.

What does CyberLink DVD Suite include? As a starter, you'll find a powerful recording tool (Power2Go) with which you can burn audio and data CD and DVD, perfect to enjoy your favorite music anywhere and make backup copies.

Another outstanding app is PowerProducer, which lets you create VCD, SVCD and video and photo compilations. If you want to create a fully customized slideshow with soundtrack, transition effects and all the bells and whistles, then your best choice is Medi@Show. PowerDVD Copy and PowerBackup also deserve a mention, allowing you to copy non-protected DVD movies and create security copies of your sensitive data respectively. The Pro version of the suite also includes PowerDirector, a handy video editor to tweak, cut, crop, copy and paste your video files.

CyberLink DVD Suite is undoubtedly a very complete package with high-quality tools, which is very suitable for the average user. I'm not that sure about more advanced users though: I'm convinced that the more you learn about how to use computers and software, the less you need to download a huge-sized suite with a dozen tools from which you'll probably only use three or four - especially in the case of CyberLink DVD Suite, where you can't choose which specific tools you want to install.

CyberLink DVD Suite is a fully featured multimedia suite with a very varied set of tools to burn discs, create backup copies, design slideshows and more.

Download CyberLink DVD Suite 6 Pro in Softonic

If you like your CD and DVD burners to support drag and drop then CyberLink Power2Go might be the right solution for you.

CyberLink Power2Go features everything you'd expect from a burner produced by a big developer such as CyberLink, including the ability to burn onto double layer DVDs and Blu-ray discs. It's also been designed to produce photo slideshows with Digital Dolby audio and even extract audio tracks from video files.

The ease of access and speed of use is what impresses with this burner. If you want to burn any DVD or CD, simply drag them into the desktop shortcut and CyberLink Power2Go whizzes into action. It even takes it's image seriously with the option of downloading fresh new skins and templates online.

CyberLink Power2Go is a powerful and extremely quick burner that will handle all your CD/DVD and Blu-ray burning needs.

Download CyberLink Power2Go 6 in Softonic

AudioGrail (Formerly K-MP3) is the swiss army knife for everthing that is related to audio files (MP3, MPC, OGG...). It can very easily rename and tag (tag: info such as artist name, album, track title) your files automatically. It can also analyse quality, organize files on your system or create a "magic folder" for easier audio collection browsing.

K-MP3 features:

• Supports : MP3, OGG, MPC, APE, AAC, FLAC and WavPack files
• Automatically Albums Ranaming & Tagging (ID3Tag V1 & V2 tags, Vorbis (Ogg) comments and APEv2 tags are supported) Powered by FreeDB.
• One-by-one tag editor with queue (for multiple files edition)
• Audio files To Audio CD burning capabilities
• Files Names Normalizer (Case Standardization...)
• Tags normalizer (Case Standardization...)
• Mass tags remover
• Files organizer (Mass Tag To Name / Move To Folder)
• Duplicate files finder
• Playlist creator & analyser (Supported Formats : m3u, pls, xpl)
• Files lister (Supported Formats : Raw listing, Coma Separated Values, SQL, XML)
• Incomplete tags finder
• Quality analyser
• Internationalization support

Download Audiograil (K-MP3) 6.13.1.157 in Softonic

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

Over the years Nero has evolved from being a simple CD burner in its earlier versions to becoming the complete multimedia suite we find in its latest version, Nero 9.

As well as the classic Nero Burning ROM tool – which now includes support for Blu-Ray – Nero 9 includes pretty much everything you need to make the most of your music, photos, videos and creativity. You'll be able to carry out complete multimedia projects, from ripping your favorite audio CDs and mixing the tracks with Nero SoundTrax to creating videos with your photos, and even design CD artwork (top and back covers, booklet and CD sticker) by yourself with Nero CoverDesigner.

All these tools are conveniently available from Nero StartSmart, a handy app launcher with two main toolbars: on top of the window, shortcuts to Nero's apps; on the left-side menu, direct access to the most frequent tasks (data burning, audio burning, copy disc, etc.) than open right on StartSmart's main area.

Nero 9 features other interesting tools that try to cover even more areas. You can use the built-in Nero Backup tool to make safety copies of your most important data, for example. Nero also includes an embedded video player and a photo editor (known as Nero PhotoSnap) though these two apps are quite basic and could have probably been left out without much remorse for the user.

Talking about extra apps, Nero has often been accused of being bloatware, and this version won't change that. It does include a large array of tools, though to be honest they're all quite straightforward and easy to use. I guess the discussion about complexity versus simplicity will still go on, but my view is that Nero 9 is no longer a simple burning tool: it's a full-featured suite that happens to include a burning app, plus many other features that make it an excellent application for all your multimedia projects.

Nero 9 follows the trend of previous versions and adds even more features. If you only need a DVD burning tool, look elsewhere; but if you're looking for a complete multimedia suite, this is your program.

Download Nero 9.0.9.4b in Softonic

With this software you can burn CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs. It offers the following main features:

• Writes all kind of mediums apart from double-layer DVD (follows in next version)
• Burn audio-CDs with and without gaps between tracks
• Burn on the fly / Burn-proof
• Supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives
• Rip Audio-CDs to harddrive, obtain track-information (ID3-tags) from Internet
• Burn and create ISO-files
• Customizeable with many settings
• Data verification after burn, create bootable discs
• Bin/nrg->ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more

Download CDBurnerXP Pro 4.2.2.984 in Softonic

Easy Burning¡ provides a simple way to backup your files in a CDR/RW. Integrated into the shell or used as a normal application, Easy Burning is compatible with any CD writer. It allows you to write anything you like, including folders, files, and images.

Download Easy Burning 2.03a 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

DVD protection is advancing at an ever increasing rate but unfortunately for the manufacturers, so are the ripping programs. If you’ve ever had problem’s copying one of your favourite DVD’s (just to make sure you’ve got a backup of course) then DVDFab could be what you’reve been looking for. It has proved popular a hit with thousands of Softonic users so far and there seems little prospect of its popularity waning.

DVDFab is an all-in-one DVD copying/converting/burning software. In just one or two steps, you can copy DVD’s to DVDR/PSP and even iPods. For such a powerful package, it only requires a mere 1.3MB of your hard drive hardrive so its not bulky like similar packages. However, note that this is the ‘lite’ version of the software; and the fully featured Express edition will probably weigh-in at somewhat more than this.

The conversion process itself couldn’t be easier. There are 5 DVD to DVD copy modes available - Full Disc, Main Movie, Split, Customize and Clone. To use any, its simply a matter of inserting your disk and Windows will ask you if you want to open it with DVDFab amongst other programs installed on your PC. In Full Disc mode, all movies, menus and trailers, are copied to a DVD in one click. In “Main Movie” mode, only the movie is copied with your specified audio. In “Split”’ mode, you can copy a DVD-9 onto two DVD-5 discs but also preserve the original menus on both discs. According to the developers, this rare little feature is apparently ideal for TV series DVD’s.

The handy “customize” mode allows you to personalize your DVD’s by recording such things as only your favourite scenes, removing adverts or selecting only certain audio tracks. Finally, “Clone”’ mode allows you to make exact 1:1 bit-to-bit copy of DVDs or even copy games disks such as PS2 DVD’s. There is also a DVD to Mobile option so you can reduce your favourite films to watch on your iPod or other favourite hand held device. Formats available include MPEG-4, DivX, XVID and Mp4.

DVDFab is a tough cookie – even those disks that refuse to be copied with other programmes can usually be cracked. The customise option allows you to get rid of pesky files that stand in your way and just rip the actual movie or essential files. It can also help in reconstituting recovering scratched or dirty disks that don’t play properly in your DVD player anymore. In addition, the ripping speed is remarkably fast. Depending on the size of disk, you can record a new one in less than 10 minutes although the average time is around 30 minutes.

One of the minor drawbacks to this ripper is that the inevitably heavy processing power needed to rip a disk often results in crashes. This will obviously be less of a problem on more powerful machines but on machines with old processors, using DVDFab may become impractical. Many user forums are however full of praise for DVDFab claiming that it can rip more disks and whatsmore, faster than comparable products such as DVD Shrink or ShrinkTo5. At the end of the day, most users consistently report they appreciate the simplicity and power of this rip-roaring ripper.

Download DVDFab HD Decrypter 5.0.9.0 in Softonic

Forget paying for a program to rip your DVDs to your computer because thanks to the wonders of open source, HandBrake is here to convert disks to MPEG for free. Considering it doesn't cost a dime, the application delivers exceptional results. Converting any type of DVD through a simple-to-understand UI, the program whizzes through the process of producing an MPEG-4 file to save on your machine.

You'll need to have the right codec installed for the type of file you wish to convert (DivX, Xvid, OGM, 3ivx, etc.) but HandBrake lets you perform two-pass conversions and to codify a double soundtrack. Another great feature is the bitrate calculator, which alters the quality of the video according to the final file size you wish to achieve. You can even trim the black bands around a movie to maximise the size of the file. Although I experienced a couple of crashes with this version of HandBrake, it's nevertheless a great open source solution for ripping your DVDs.

Download HandBrake 0.9.2 in Softonic

Have you ever wanted to remove Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer and Messenger? How about to not even install them with Windows ?

nLite is a tool for permanent Windows components removal and pre-installation Windows configuration. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines.

With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install does not include, or even contain on CD, the unwanted components.

Download nLite 1.4.9.1 in Softonic

Have you ever wanted to remove some Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger. How about not even to install them with Windows?

nLite is a GUI for permanent Windows component removal by your choice. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines. With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install doesn't include, or even contain on cd, unwanted components.

Download nLite 1.4.9.1 in Softonic

onlineTV 2 is an extremely versatile tool, with which you can automatically record and store hundreds of music-files such as MP3, OGG or WAV. Organize your files in the integrated music library. You can copy the files on your music USB stick, then edit with the audio editor or burn it on Audio/Data CD. Get hold of hundreds of music videos and feel the multimedia experience.

Download onlineTV 4.3.0.0 in Softonic

Image burning is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to save large amounts of data to DVD or CD.

Images are increasingly popular on torrent sites and other download portals because they allow users to download high volumes of data in a relatively small file. What's more, it's instantly ready for DVD or disk burning. ImgBurn is an ultra-lightweight CD/DVD/HD/DVD and Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit. It has several 'Modes', with each one performing a different task.

These include "Read" which reads a disc to an image file; "Build" which creates an image file from files on your computer or network; "Write" which writes an image file to a disc and "Verify" which checks whether a disk is 100% readable. With this last option, you can also ensure that the data is correct by asking ImgBurn to compare your disk against an image file. Finally, you have "Discovery" which puts your drive to the test to find just what kind of speeds and disk types it can support.

If you are experiencing any burning problems, it may be that your drive is not fast enough to handle the settings you have configured or that you are using the wrong kind of disks.

A very lightweight an powerful image burner that requires little experience but will ensure all your images are burned in a flash.

Download ImgBurn 2.4.2.0 in Softonic

If you only need to burn a CD every now and then there's no need to install a mammoth
recording suite on your system. Simply use Totally Free Burner and you'll be fine.

Totally Free Burner is a minimalist CD and DVD recording tool with which you'll be able to
burn audio and video CD, data CD and DVD and also images in BIN and ISO formats. Just
make your choice on the program's main window and Totally Free Burner will take to the
next step, presenting you with a new window where you can select the data you want to
burn.

While I like simple programs, I think Totally Free Burner goes a bit beyond the limit. It's
nice to have a quick, straightforward app to burn your CD without hassle, but the
program lacks basic features such as a proper documentation and a complete settings
menu, more than just the few options you get when you're about to start burning.

Totally Free Burner is a simple, quick recording tool with which you can burn CD and
DVD, though configuration options are somewhat scarce.

Download Totally Free Burner 3 in Softonic

Listen to music, watch videos, tune in to radio, burn CDs and more from one convenient player! AMP is an application that works outside of the AOL client, and can be used to play audio and video content on your computer when you are not connected to the Internet.

Download AOL Media Player 0.6.1.7 Beta in Softonic

CUE Splitter is a freeware tool that can split a single big audio track, mostly an album or a compilation, into the relative individual audio tracks, using informations contained in the associated "CUE" file. Sometimes you can find a big compressed audio file (for example MP3, APE, FLAC, OGG, WAV, WMA, etc...) equipped with a small "CUE" text file that contain informations about tracks title, artist and length. Usually these couple of files are generated by programs like EAC, CDRWin, BPM Studio, GoldWave or similar.

With CUE Splitter you can obtain splitted audio track files without burning any CDR or decoding/re-encoding any audio data! Moreover audio files are automatically named using a user-defined "file mask" string, it's tags are filled with informations extracted from "CUE" file and, optionally, an M3U playlist file can be generated (option enabled by default).

Download CUE Splitter 1.2 in Softonic