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

Nero is a mammoth multimedia solution that does just about everything from CD and DVD burning to audio and video editing. This latest version is a bit of a disappointment as it doesn't really bring anything drastically new from version 7. The main improvements are an updated design and reinforced security. Let’s look around at the features available in Nero 8.

This latest version is Windows Vista certified and if you have Microsoft’s latest OS installed you’ll be able to enjoy the Nero sidebar gadget and sleek, clear Vista interface, such as the “Glass” window for StartSmart. Nero Home, the multimedia manager with a DVD menu-like interface, has been slightly improved. Apart from handling all your photos, videos and songs it can also play radio stations and, if you have a TV card set up, play and record TV stations. Furthermore, Nero can stream content to your brand new Xbox 360.

The StartSmart interface is your gateway to all the Nero tools. You can select the individual applications from the left sided menu or choose the file you want to work with (data, audio, photo and video or backup) from the main menu. It’s best to choose the disc type, CD or DVD from the drop-down menu at the top to get the most relevant possibilities. Even though StartSmart gives quick access to all the Nero applications, we found the whole interface too small and cluttered. The window can’t be resized and you need to scroll through to find the tools you need. RSS feeds added to version 8 feel a bit clumsy. They don't show items in a proper feed list and only seem to link back to the Nero help and support pages.

Before it became a full multimedia suite though, Nero was renowned for its burning tools, essentially due to its flagship program, Nero Burning ROM. With it, you can adjust the disc type, set restrictions and control the writing speed. SecurDisc technology has also been added in the latest version to encrypt your CDs or DVDs. If you don’t want to get bogged down in the details, use Nero Express instead to burn your project and design your own disc cover quickly.

Another of the classic Nero apps that has been improved is Nero Showtime. This DVD player boasts support for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, and will save you from upgrading when these formats become the norm. Just use Nero InfoTool beforehand to check if your system can handle these new formats. The program has also seen the introduction of AVCHD playback and authoring technology used in camcorder videos. Support for Windows Media Format DRM is also part of the deal and you can encode videos to play on your iPod, mobile or PlayStation Portable (PSP) thanks to Nero Recode.

Nero’s strength lies in the wealth of multimedia tools it offers to users. You can do just about everything from managing your media to burning CDs and DVDs or editing and watching high quality videos. The latest release has added a number of significant improvements to handle all the latest technological advances like Windows Vista, iPods or the Xbox 360.

Ironically, Nero´s power also contributes to its downfall. Nero packs so many applications into one package that it’s very easy for the common user to get lost in the menus. The size of the suite(600 MBs) and its draining of PC resources also means that you’ll need a high-spec PC to run it smoothly.

It's a bit surprising that Nero decided to jump to version 8 as there's nothing really that new in this latest outing. Once more, Nero will cater to those users looking for a full multimedia suite and not worried about eating up their PC's resources.

Download Nero 8.3.6.0 in Softonic

The evolution of computers reveals a trend towards multimedia centres where users can listen to music, watch videos, surf the net, work and view photo albums. If you’ve gotten your hands on media files, you’ve probably been in the situation at least once where you had to convert the files to transfer them on a different device (such as a phone or an iPod) or in order to play it in another application. SUPER makes audio and video conversion a breeze thanks to a well presented interface and a slew of options.

SUPER’s single window interface is divided into audio and video and the selection of output options is done via the three drop down menus at the top. We appreciated the number of formats available. SUPER allows you to convert movies and music to play on recent devices such as Apple iPod, Sony PSP and 3gp for use on Sony Ericsson and Nokia mobile phones. The huge bit rate menu, from 64 to 9792 Kbps, means you can truly optimize and quicken the conversion process. We were disappointed however that SUPER only offered 2 video codec outputs (H263 and MPEG-4) and 3 audio codecs (AAC, AMR wideband and narrowband).

On the audio side, SUPER allows you to select your language from individual tracks, but audio is limited to one channel and one sampling frequency (8000). It seems the program is more suited to video conversion. Luckily the program includes recognized encoders such as ff mpeg or mencoder, ensuring a decent conversion process for both audio and video.

Use the buttons at the bottom of the interface to play files and check their quality after having converted them. The ’Player Options’ button gives you the chance to tweak video features such as aspect, saturation, hue, brightness and contrast. All files converted or waiting to be converted are visible in a list and you can verify the streaming link and the output status.

In SUPER, we found a very open media converter that even the klutziest of users will get to grips with. If you watch a lot of videos and movie clips and would like to be able to enjoy them anywhere and on any device, SUPER is a program you’ll need to get your hands on.

Download SUPER 2008.30 in Softonic

If you're looking for a suite of tools with which to make the most of your DVD collection, look no further: Roxio Easy DVD Copy features everything you need.

This complete DVD suite gathers the most common DVD tasks under a single interface, making it easier for you when you need to burn discs, compile movie collections, manage ISO files or create labels for your CD and DVD. These tasks are conveniently organized in several categories, with a quick access for the most frequently used ones on the welcome screen.

With Roxio Easy DVD Coy you'll be able to copy DVD discs (not protected ones though), create data discs (perfect as backups) and convert DVD to a format compatible with portable devices, such as PSP or iPod, among other options.

Roxio Easy DVD Copy works very smoothly, and its visually appealing interface makes all tasks easy and light. Thought the configuration window is definitely not the most complete we've seen, the program makes up for it with easy menus and wizards that help you throughout the steps of any process, be it burning a video to DVD or creating a label.

A complete DVD suite that includes the most frequent tasks in managing DVD: burning, converting, copying and labeling.

Download Roxio Easy DVD Copy 4 in Softonic

If you want to download podcasts directly onto your mobile device then JsiPodFetch is a simple application that allows you to do so with ease.

The program downloads the files and RSS feeds into well organized playlists so it's really easy to keep track of what you have and haven't listened to and what type of content it is. The trick is however that the program does not download directly to your external device - it downloads to your PC which "sycnhronises" with JsiPodFetch so in reality, it's a synchronisation tool. To set it up, first you have to configure a folder on your media player where you want to store the podcasts. You then instruct the application how much space it can use on your phone or media player as well as on your computer. In the main window, there are four clickable images - Feed Manager, Information, Refresh and Copy. The Feed manager is the most important image as from here, you manage all your inputs. When you have listened to a podcast, tick the checkbox to the left of the title and it will be removed the next time you copy to your player.

A very ingenious idea, it's a shame it doesn't allow you to download directly to mobile devices but nevertheless, this is an excellent podcast manager.

Download jsiPodFetch 8.05 in Softonic

MAGIX Ringtone Maker lets you add some spice to your mobile device by creating your own ringtones and animated pictures. The program is extremely friendly to use. The interface itself is clearly divided in sections to select your media, edit the ringtone and export it. A help guide is easily accessible from the bottom right of the interface and tutorials for specific actions from the menu bar. We were impressed with the advanced editing tools on hand to add effects like distortion, filters or delay. Similarly, the equalizer was very effective at adjusting sounds. If you want to add extra elements, you can also access the extensive Catooh online library from the menu bar. MAGIX Ringtone Maker features a "simulate ringtone" button, quite useful to test your creation before exporting it.

We were also well impressed with the export function. The application provides a list of many mobile manufacturers and models to allow you to export to the format which most corresponds to your device.

Overall, the structure of the interface feels great, especially the timeline view, which really makes it easy to edit your media. We did feel however that some elements, like the media selection part at the top, felt a little bit crowded. It's a shame that you can't resize the interface window. Similarly, the installation process was a bit lengthy.

On the whole though, MAGIX Ringtone Maker is a great application to create and add media to your mobile device, providing a very accessible interface and loads of advanced editing tools.

Download MAGIX Ringtone Maker 2007 (UK) in Softonic

Yahoo! Messenger has long been one of the world's most popular IM clients, mainly because Yahoo! itself is such a large presence in the realms of web-mail, communities and so on. It now sits comfortably in second place to Windows Live Messenger in terms of user-base.

Among the new features in Yahoo! Messenger 9, the emphasis is very much on looks rather than functions. For example, the brand new IMVironment feature (which completely customises your chat windows) looks pretty impressive at first until you realise that nearly all of them are simply complex advertisements or marketing campaigns from firms like Gatorade and Kleenex. Improvements to the way contacts' images are displayed, as well as new photo-sharing via the excellent Flickr are welcome additions but even they can't dispel the bad smell emanating from IMVironment.

New emoticons have been added to this latest version of Yahoo! Messenger, as have new skins for the main window. To me, these represent fairly minor aesthetic changes rather than important new functionalities, and as such aren't enough of a reason to upgrade. More handy features like improved handling of PC to PC calls, MP3 voicemail, and better integration with Yahoo! sites have also been included but again, none except for the Flickr tool seems really useful. Really, this Beta feels as if it's about matching Live Messenger for features and not much more.

Yahoo! Messenger probably isn't aimed at users like me who prize usability and simplicity above bright colours and lots of advertising. If you like the sound of branding every chat window you use with Kleenex or Axe deodorant then Yahoo! Messenger 9 Beta is for you. If you'd rather use a simple, elegant and uncluttered chat interface, switch to Google Talk and you'll never look back.

A bloated, brightly coloured IM client packed with advertising and not much more.

Download Yahoo! Messenger 9.0.0.907 Beta in Softonic

Nearly all software can be categorised as being from one of two groups: the programs that do one thing, normally fairly well, and the programs which do everything - often with some loss of quality. Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite (EMCS) is a classic case of the second type. While its capabilities are huge and impressive, they bring with them other problems like reduced performance and long load times.

The original cornerstone of Roxio's flagship product is CD and DVD burning. EMCS still packs a powerful tool for writing to disks but it's really all the extra functionality that makes this suite interesting. EMCS does it all: photo slide shows, video editing, iPod and MP3 player management, secure backups, multimedia organisation and video playback - to name but a few.

We tested each of the components and found that most of them perform to at least a satisfactory level. Sadly, Roxio included several design-related elements which annoy (like using custom window decorations, buttons and even file browsers when the Windows default shell is perfectly usable). Also, the suite contains numerous advertisements for new Roxio services which appear a little odd given that this isn't a free program. Likewise, Roxio's insistence on opening web links using Internet Explorer whether it's your default browser or not was disappointing: it's never a good sign when a program effectively forces you to do things its way or not at all.

The worst feature of the suite is without doubt the video player (called 'CinePlayer') which is nothing more than a run-of-the-mill movie player. After loading for nearly 30 seconds, it took ages to load a simple DivX file and crashed when a couple of buttons were clicked. When free players like VLC can do so much better, one has to wonder why Roxio didn't make an effort to deliver a really fast, lightweight player instead of the slovenly, unstable one bundled in this suite.

All that said, Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite is actually a pretty good bundle. We love the photo editing application which is fairly fast and has just the right balance of basic and advanced tools. The mobile phone photo wizard is a particularly cool utility which really did help camera-phone pictures look better.

The most significant problem with Roxio is the way it treats your PC. This is not a program which is designed to be removed once installed. It installs so many components to your system that you can easily lose track of them... and it fails to include a comprehensive uninstall application for the whole bundle. Instead, you must uninstall each component separately, a time consuming and irritating hassle. I'm still having trouble getting the 1.4 GB installer off my computer!

Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite is a powerful and comprehensive media suite. If you're looking for one bundle of software, which you'll never remove from your computer, to handle all your media tasks then this is the software for you. If, however, you prize quality over convenience, and have some respect for your hard-disk and registry, Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite is not recommended.

Download Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite 10 in Softonic

In order to play YouTube videos on your mobile phone or portable device you need to do two things: first, download the movie from YouTube (or locate it in your PC's cache) then convert its FLV format to another more compatible format. Nowadays, programs exist (and even extensions for browsers) and others to download YouTube videos, and others to convert them.

This program falls into the latter category, providing you with a very simple way of transforming FLVs into AVI format. Converting files is simply a matter of selecting the video and clicking a button and the whole process takes next to no time. Although the program can only convert to AVI and there aren't a great many options for tweaking output quality, YouTube FLV to AVI Easy Converter is exactly that - an easy way to output your favourite YouTube videos for transportation on other devices.

Download YouTube FLV to AVI Easy converter 2.1.3 in Softonic

Monkey’s Audio is a lossless audio compressor which aims to reduce the size of audio files as much as possible without losing any sound quality. The program uses its own file format, .ape, which is known to have a better compression rate than the lossless FLAC format, but files tend to be larger than lossy compression formats like MP3 or AAC.

We recommend using Monkey’s Audio to compress audio CDs to your PC. Your songs will not lose their quality but will take up less space than if they were uncompressed. What’s more, Monkey’s Audio handles tag support, keeping all your file information, like artist name, track numbers and playing time.

Monkey’s Audio can decompress files back to their original type without losing any quality and the program features an option to verify the MD5 checksum of compressed files. Compressed .ape files can play in any of the major media players and the program can also install a plug-in to compress audio files directly from Winamp.

Monkey’s Audio is a great solution if you’re worried about losing any quality when compressing audio files. However, because it only compresses to .ape, you’re pretty much stuck with playing your converted files on your PC. To enjoy them on your mobile music player you’ll have to use another program, like dbpowerAMP Music Converter or Switch Free, to convert your audio files to MP3 or AAC, which remain the most widely supported audio formats.

Download Monkey's Audio 4.01 beta 2 in Softonic

Digital MediaRescue Professional recovers lost data from a whole host of multimedia devices - from digital cameras, audio recorders, MP3 & WMA players to PDAs and mobile phones. The program supports Hard Drives, CompactFlash cards (type I/II), IBM Microdrives, SmartMedia cards, MultiMedia cards (MMCs), Secure Digital (SD) cards, Memory Sticks and any other storage devices, with the addition of wide-range file format support: JPEG, AVI, MOV, MP3, WMA, WAV, etc.

Modern Digital Still Cameras and other digital devices allow files to be erased and the space on the media reused. So sometimes your information gets erased or crippled, either by physical damage to the medium (e.g. flash card crash), or because someone clicked the wrong button on your recorder. Through momentary carelessness, valuable data can be lost in an instant.

The media can also be bulk-erased or formatted, removing everything from the storage media. Of course you don't want to lose your valuable files such as important photos or favourite audio and video recordings. And there it is, our MediaRescue Pro is here to easily, quickly and absolutely reliably reconstruct the missing multimedia files.

Hope is at hand with Digital MediaRescue Professional for your lost digital media.

Download Digital MediaRescue Professional 4.4.3 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

Avex DVD Ripper Platinum is a one-click solution to convert DVD movies to iPod, Zune, Sony PSP, Pocket PC, Palm, Mobile phone, Media Center and PC with superb video quality!

This DVD Ripper Platinum version combines DVD Ripper, DVD to iPod Converter, DVD to PSP Converter, DVD to 3GP Converter and DVD to Zune Converterinto one for only a fraction of the total price.

Features:

• Rip DVD to AVI, Xvid/DivX, WMV, MPEG, MP4(H.264, MPEG4) video formats in one simple click.
• Built-in X!-Speed™ transcode technology. Up to 3x faster than conventional dvd ripper.
• Fully optimized for HyperThread/Dual-Core (dual 100% usage); SSE2/SSE/MMX/3DNow!
• Supported devices include: PC, Pocket PC, Palm, iPod, PSP, Mobile Phone, Zune player, etc.
• Easy to use. Adjustable settings.
• Support DVD DTS surround audio.

Avex DVD Ripper Platinum simply does the job much better.

Download Avex DVD Ripper Platinum in Softonic

SoundTaxi allows you to easily convert DRM protected music files and various audio files to unprotected MP3, CD, iPod and other MP3 player file formats at high speed and CD quality. This is all done legally.

Features of SoundTaxi:

• Very easy to use and install
• Converts any song that can be played with Media Player to MP3, AAC, WAV etc for use with iPod, any other MP3 player, CD player, mobile phone or PC
• Unprotects practically all DRM audio files
• Unprotects and converts songs for use with iPod, any other MP3 player, CD player, mobile phone or PC
• Converted songs have NO DRM restriction anymore
• Preserves ID3 tags for artist, album, title names etc.
• Batch mode for converting or unprotecting large song collections
• Allows you to convert complete folder structures and recreates these structures on output
• Selectable compression level and output format
• Very fast conversion, up to 13x the playback speed

Download SoundTaxi 2.2.0 in Softonic

PMM - Pocket Movie Master can convert various video to Windows mobile device playable WMV movie files, which could be played by Microsoft Windows Mobile devices, such as Windows Pocket PC, Smartphone or WindowsCE devices.

It is a converter, including convert from Mpeg2, DVD (VOB, mpeg), Mpeg1, VCD (DAT), AVI (AVI), Mpeg4 like 3ivx, Divx, h.264, Real Media file (RM, RMVB, RAM)...­etc, actually it can convert any video file to WMV if the source video can be play with Windows Media Player on your PC. By installing the correct codec or decoder you can convert any future video formats like HD-DVD or Blu-ray.

It can resize the video resolution to mobile size, reduce video and audio bitrate to fit your mobile's CPU, and reduce the result video WMV file size. Change video frame rates. Users can even choose the audio with mono or stereo in the target file which reduce file size, if your Pocket mobile device does not need stereo playback. User can choose any segment of the source file to be converted, clip the only needed parts. Practice or test only a few minutes before converting the whole video is possible.

Download Pocket Movie Master 1.0 in Softonic

After several minor tweaks, Flash Professional 8 is the next big leap in Macromedia’s Web video and animation creation program. Version 8 offers aficionados significant improvements in graphical effects, web-video, and creating media for 3G phones.

Perhaps most importantly, Flash Professional 8 has been widely reported as much more stable than previous versions with better text handling, advanced vector graphic capabilities and video manipulation features. As video continues to be a big driver of internet traffic, Flash 8 pays special attention to embedding videos in web content in Flash’s FLV (Flash Video) format (as seen on YouTube). The encoder quickly and seamlessly converts multiple video formats into FLV files for use on websites with few, if any, audio or synchronisation problems. Flash Professional 8 dramatically streamlines mobile content development, potentially reducing time to market from months to weeks. New features accelerate content development even more. Flash includes authoring templates to help developers get started. Templates are available in three categories: global phones, Japanese phones, and other devices.

For those that are script shy, a new feature called Script Assist allows you to create scripts with an easy-to-use interface and even offers you advice on where your scripting may have gone wrong.

If you’re an advanced designer then Flash Professional 8 will delight you with its range of options and powerful rendering. Those that are less advanced should think twice before upgrading because the new features will take some getting used but for those considering serious video work, its worth the effort..

Download Macromedia Flash Professional 8 in Softonic

With Windows Media Player (WMP) 11 Microsoft aims to counter iTunes’ dominance. The interface has been beefed-up, usability has been enhanced and Microsoft has worked at turning its flagship media application into a full multimedia center, linked to online stores and compatible with mobile devices. We take a look at its new features.

The first thing that will strike you when you start up WMP 11, is the complete revamp of the interface. No more deep blue, the whole application is now dark and shiny and you can customize it by selecting a hue of your choice. The left side is a drop down pane for your library, the centre displays your lists and the right side is used to create playlists which you can rip, burn or sync with a mobile device.

Compared to version 10, we feel that Microsoft actually made an effort to simplify the whole interface and give you more ways to browse through your media list, whether by using the drop down menu or the quick rollout line on the top left. The “play” and “previous” and next” buttons are now nested at the bottom of the interface and have a jazzy glow whenever you roll over them. Microsoft has finally succeeded in integrating a good search function into its WMP interface. As you type the name of an artist or title the application will bring up the results in the main window.

WMP 11 makes all your media more accessible. Double click the Media Library button to browse from your music to pictures, movie files and recorded TV. The thumbnail view is a great way to quickly scan through pictures and videos and to include the album image to audio tracks. By clicking the “Media information changes” option under the Library button you can also scan your PC to automatically find new media files. Creating a playlist is a case of drag and drop and oddly enough you can integrate audio, video and pictures. Burning and ripping is also very simple, yet disappointingly converting is limited to WMA, WAV or MP3.

The sync process is promising yet remains a bit unstable. While it’s very easy to create a list and sync media, WMP can occasionally crash or fail to load your mobile device, even if you press the refresh button. When we tested it with a Pocket PC, we had to restart WMP 11 so that it would recognize it and let us sync our music. As soon as the device became accessible though, it also became visible on the left sided menu, making it very easy to browse through it for music or pictures.

The Media Guide is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Media Store. The first page it leads you to is Windows Media , an attempt at music and entertainment news linking to albums on sale. The page works like an inbuilt browser window and loads up fairly quickly. Even though you will not get access to the Apple Media Store, you can still buy music via other known sites such as Napster, MTV’s Urge (the default store) or eMusic. Whilst on the subject of online features, note that WMP 11 doesn’t let you save and update podcast feeds, something that iTunes does very well.

WMP 11 is a huge improvement from version 10. The whole interface is snazzier and makes browsing through your media simpler. Microsoft has also made creating playlists, syncing, burning or ripping just a case of drag-and-drop. WMP lets you check out music on dozens of online stores and is loaded with small features to customize your interface and change how you interact with your media. While the syncing process still remains a bit unstable and we lament the lack of podcast feed support, WMP 11 is a solid competitor to Apple’s iTunes.

Download Windows Media Player 11 in Softonic