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

When it comes to P2P file sharing, eMule usually wins hands down but UseNeXT is an interesting, slightly more sophisticated offering which has a lot to offer.

For starters, depending on your connection, it can be remarkably quick. You can download at speeds of up to 25 Mbps with DSL/Cable and it¡s pretty constant rather than the fluctuations you often get with such services. The network also prides itself on security over it's rivals such as Limewire and eMule - with ISPs continually cracking down on users, UseNeXT promises users far more anonymity than most.

The Usenet archives are supposedly some of the biggest in the world - more than 300 Terabytes of data available at all times and they claim that around 2,000 Gigabytes of new files are added daily. The problem in the past was that UseNeXT used to be a very complicated affair that only tech geeks can handle. However, nowadays, it's been simplified to such an extent that eMule, Limewire and other P2P users will feel more than comfortable with it.

While it can't possibly hope to compete with the reach and depth of the major P2P networks, UseNeXT offers an impressive selection with some super fast downloads.

Download UseNeXT 4.81 in Softonic

MediaCoder has set itself as a software referent for video conversions and now is offering the same functionality and capabilities for portable devices.

After releasing a PSP and iPod Touch versions, we've been presented with MediaCoder for Mobile Phone, a new MediaCoder edition that has been especially developed to convert video files to mobile formats such as MPEG-4, 3GP and AVI. While the format selection is not that wide in itself, it should be more than enough to fit most mobile phones nowadays.

The program features three possible interface configurations (Simple, Normal and Expert) from which we recommend the first one, as you don't really need to tweak all the program's settings and it's clearly the easiest to use.

Available formats and codecs can be selected via a drop-down menu: this means you can select them manually, but there are no profiles ready to be used. A standard mobile phone image lets you get an idea of how the video will look like on your device. Sadly there's only one to choose from.

MediaCoder for Mobile Phone converts your favorite videos to mobile compatible formats in an easy, fast and efficient way, so you can carry them anywhere with you.

Download MediaCoder Mobile Phone Edition 0.6.0.3902 in Softonic

While Apple is slowly rolling out their highly coveted iPhone across Europe, many developers have started to create software apps to be used specifically with today's most fashionable mobile phone.

MediaCoder iPhone iPod Touch Edition is one of those tools, a video converter that enables you to adapt your favorite movies, shows and video clips to the video formats used both in the iPhone and the iPod Touch. This app is in fact a simplified version of the original MediaCoder that has been adapted to these two new video platforms.

The program features a highly detailed interface that displays all the necessary information for each conversion, including an iPhone-like preview window. In fact, it's so complete that it may feel a bit overwhelming for first-time users.

The confusion still goes on – and even grows – when opening the program's exhaustive configuration menu. But once the initial shock is gone, MediaCoder iPhone iPod Touch turns out to be an excellent conversion tool that works really fast and obtains excellent results.

MediaCoder iPhone iPod Touch is pretty much everything you need to convert and transfer videos to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Just take your time to learn how to use it.

Download MediaCoder iPhone iPod Touch Edition 0.6.1.4077 in Softonic

Cliprex DS DVD Player is a free Windows DVD video player software program built on the advanced Directx 9.0 technologies for playing DVD, any movie DIVX, XVID, MPEG, WMV, ASF, Video CD, Super Video CD and any other videofile you have the codec installed for. This free DVD software player supports aspect ratios 4:3, 16:9 and more. The DVD menu contains a chapterlist which makes navigation through the DVD a piece of cake!

With this full-featured free dvd and video player you have the possibility to create huge playlists and take advantage of the nice options the playlist offers like saving your playlist to load at a later time, or publish your playlist to a html website! This version of Cliprex DS DVD Player is free for viewing DVD videos and other videos on a home PC or notebook computer. The package also contains free DVD decoders, mpeg-2 audio/video and divx codecs.

Download Cliprex DS DVD Player 1.0.5 in Softonic

Windows Essentials Codec Pack is a collection of video and audio codecs and tools that are required to encode and decode (that is, play) audio and video files. With this pack, according to the developer, you should be able to play 99% of all the movies and music files that you download off the Internet, and stay up to date with the latest codecs through the program's Codec Update Service.

Windows Essentials Codec Pack is free and user-friendly, as you get all the work done with just a couple of clicks. Also, it keeps your computer up to date with the latest codecs and it's 100% spamware / adware / spyware / free.

But more importantly, unlike other codec packs which include several filters and decoders that are capable of decoding the same media format (which usually cause many conflicts and errors) Windows Essentials Codec Pack was especially designed to assign each file type to the most appropriate filter or decoder, which not only reduces the installer size but also eliminates many of the conflicts and errors caused by multiple codecs being used to decode the same file type.

Download Windows Essentials Codec Pack 1.0 in Softonic

The GX::Transcoder is a flexible audio converter software, which is able to convert in a batch mode between a lot of audio formats. Additionally the Transcoder uses plugins to add more functions for transforming and playing audio files.

The GX::Transcoder in it's standard version is able to en- and decode MP1, MP3, MP2, MPC, OGG Vorbis, PCM up to 7.1 Channel, G.721, G.723, G.726, G.729, ADPCM, GSM, VOX, DSP, VQF and RAW files as well as decoding QuickTime MOV and QT files. There are also AddIns available, which extends the Transcoder to handle the formats AAC, M4A, M4P4, LA, LPAC, WMA, TTA, OptimFrog, WavPack, FLAC, rkAudio, Real Audio, Speex, Bonk Audio and Shorten. There are plans to support even more audio formats. The transcoder also contains a video converter. This converter can transcoder between all installed avi codecs, mpeg with dvd, vcd and svs extension and wma video files. The GX::Transcoder can transfer the tags ID3v1, ID3v2, APE v1 and v2, Vorbis Comments, FLAC and WMA Tags.

Download GX::Transcoder 3.0 in Softonic

This suite provides free encoding, decoding and converting of mp3 files. Make use of it to expand and fully enjoy your music library. With the MPEG Suite 2001 you will no longer have to worry about not being able to read your MP3s correctly.

Download the MPEG Suite 2001 1.5.5 in Softonic