eXtreme Movie Manager (formerly DivxManager) is a powerful program used to manage your movie collection. It lets you catalogue your collection with detailed information and supports many video formats such as DivX, XviD, DVD, VHS, SVHS, VCD, DVD-R, or LaserDisc. eXtreme Movie Manager is not just a movie/video collection manager, it's also a movie and actor database and a cover manager.

With the exclusive "MagicScript" Technology, and the appropriate script, XMM allows you to retrieve movie information (especially pictures, images, and covers) from any online movie databases. You can also create and edit your own scripts with the built-in editor.

Download eXtreme Movie Manager 6.3.5.0 in Softonic

Fresh View is a free program designed to help you organize and view multimedia files (images, audio, and video). It gives you the ability to watch movies, listen to music, and view graphics in a slide show.

Image files in a folder can be displayed using a number of views, such as thumbnails view that lets you quickly see what your images are without having to open them. You can convert graphics from one type to another, print, and even create a HTML album. This easy-to-use software supports 86 different formats.

Download Fresh View 7.54 in Softonic

Spyware is the most common computer security menace; it impacts more than 80% of all PCs and recent reports show that estimate is probably low. CounterSpy protects your computer from spyware, adware, Trojans and other malware threats. It's the choice of IT Pros and a favorite of technology editors around the globe.

One of the most powerful features of CounterSpy is the History Cleaner which erases the trails you leave on your computer as you surf the Internet. It also features a PC Explorer that allows you to view and modify computer security and Internet browser settings that are normally difficult to change.

Finally, it also has a great Secure File Eraser that ensures the complete elimination of all files you want removed from your computer. Completely removes all traces of any document, image, music, movie, or application you choose.

Download CounterSpy 3.1.2315 in Softonic

With so many movies watched on computers these days, sitting around the telly to watch a film or a show is becoming a thing of the past. If you want to reclaim your DVD player then Smart DVD Creator is a decent solution. The program lets you turn virtually any video into a DVD, VCD or SVCD and, as a result, transport your movies from the computer to the living room.

The application is a doddle to use since you only need to load a video, select the format which you want to save it as (not only DVD, VCD and SVCD but also AVI, MPEG, WMV or RM) then choose the quality of the outputted file. Selecting the quality of the video is done through a simple slider and the resulting video can be previewed easily via a pane on the Smart DVD Creator interface. There are lots of other adjustments you can make to the output file, making this a great tool for both beginners and seasoned DVD authors.

Download Smart DVD Creator Pro 2.6.0 in Softonic

Computers are great and all that, but some tasks can get a bit boring if you have to do them every day. That's why it makes sense to install a macro recorder to perform these mundane activities for you - and JitBit's solution isn't a bad option. The application lets you record mouse click sequences, typing and the movement of the cursor on your screen for later use. Once these actions have been recorded they can be 'replayed' at any time and even compiled in an EXE file.

The program saves you a lot of time in filling out forms, generating information and performing maintenance tasks, and it's also good for creating presentations and video tutorials (although you can't export to different movie formats). However, the best thing about the app is its scripts, which allow you to program certain commands, such as launching programs or web pages, or even shutting down your PC without you having to record the action yourself.

When it comes to accessing the web, the app is a little cumbersome, but for general computing tasks JitBit Macro Recorder can be a real godsend.

Download Jitbit Macro Recorder 4.11 in Softonic

There's plenty of DVD and CD managers out there but there are few that allow you to organise DVDs, CDs, DivX files and even cassettes in one easy to browse and search database.

Since I'd rather have my video and audio collection all under one program, I quite liked Ant Movie Catalog. First of all, it's completely free and the source code is open to modification by its users who are brought together by the program's forum. There are several reasons why this database appeals.

First of all is simplicity - it's not bloated in any way so searching and navigating through your collection either by format, genre, alphabetically or year is extremely easy and fast. Second of all, it takes a lot of the hard work out of cataloguing your collection because it imports information about your media from the internet using scripts. These include scripts for the IMDB, DVDFR (a French DVD website), Allocine /a French film site) and Culturalia (a Spanish multimedia site).

In addition, it can store all information in two formats - either binary or XML - the latter makes it possible to export your collection to Excel and other database applications. If you do add too many album and film covers to Ant Movie Catalog, it can start to slow down a bit but there is the option of linking to external pictures rather than importing them. You can also display in graphical format, stats relating to your multimedia collection - how many of a certain format you have, genre, date etc.

Lightweight, easy to use and covering just about any conceivable media you might own, Ant Movie Catalog is an easy and free way to bring your collection together.

Download Ant Movie Catalog 3.5.1.1 in Softonic

Limewire, one of the world’s most popular peer-to-peer filesharing applications, has received a lawsuit from the RIAA, who are demanding $115 million in damages, claiming the application promotes the infringement of copyright. Similar applications like Grokster and Kazaa have been forced to go legal and there is speculation as to just how long Limewire will resist until they have to buckle and pay up. The existence of the popular P2P application is not under threat, but if you haven’t given it a try yet, here’s just what makes it a standout program.

In terms of file sharing, Limewire is the cream of the crop, offering the essential peer-to- peer tools in what is probably the friendliest interface of applications in its class. Beginners will appreciate the search bar, which allows you to select the type of file you’re looking for, video, image, audio, program or file. Limewire has a “what’s new” button to check out what popular files users have recently exchanged. We also enjoyed the direct connect option. If you know the IP address of one of your friends, type it in the box and Limewire will browse that user’s files. This is a quick way of sharing files with someone else and can come in handy when working on a project and exchanging documents. The only little snag we have with direct connect is that it doesn’t let you enter the username, much simpler than looking for your friend’s IP address.

Downloading with Limewire is very intuitive. After you’ve searched and found the file you are looking for, double-click on it to start the downloading process. The speed of your download depends firstly on the quality of your connection (broadband is a minimum), if you’ve correctly opened your router’s ports and whether you’re downloading a popular file or not. We would like to point out the effort that Limewire takes to make itself accessible to beginners. Not only does a tip pop up every time you launch the application, the help option also leads you to Limewire’s support centre, FAQs and a forum to get in contact with other users.

The lawsuit carried out by the RIAA is all the more surprising because of the measures Limewire takes to keep you in the realms of legality. If you decide to download Limewire from its website, you will first have to agree you will not use it for copyright infringement. When you’re configuring the application, you can set content filters, to avoid downloading files that copyright owners do not want you to share. To avoid embarrassing situations, make sure you tick the “block adult content” box, which will filter out any pornographic files from your searches.

The best way of checking the quality of the audio or video you’re downloading is via Limewire’s mini player. It’s fairly basic and to par with the players you find in similar filesharing applications, but we appreciated the way it was integrated in the application.

If there’s one thing that we’re still expecting from the Limewire team, it’s that it finally decides to jump on the BitTorrent bandwagon. Torrents are the way forward when it comes to peer to peer file sharing because of the speed, the security and freshness of downloads. Large files like movies or complete seasons of TV series are much easier to download via BitTorrent. We were also annoyed by the “buy the PRO version” window that popped up every time we started Limewire.

For its wealth of possibilities and huge base of users, (more than 4 million simultaneously on the Gnutella network) we encourage you to give Limewire a test drive. Because of the controversial nature of the application, you should always make sure that you aren’t using Limewire for illegal activities like copyright infringement. However don’t be scared off by the legality issue. Limewire, like most P2P applications is one of the most exciting possibilities that the internet gives us. It would be a shame not to give it a try. You should also check out Frostwire, the not-for-profit project of the Limewire development team.

Download LimeWire Basic 4.18.6 in Softonic

Silo 2 is an extremely accomplished and complex 3D modeling application that is able to switch between what the developers call "high-polygon models" to "controlling hard-edged surfaces."

For anyone new to 3D modeling, this won't mean much and working out how to use Silo will be a job in itself. Silo can be used for creating anything from 3D characters for video games and movies to exploring 3D architectural ideas. So it's great for those developing games or those that are involved in interior design or construction.

This is no user-friendly product, though. It's designed for developers and designers who really know what they're doing as Silo is used at top design studios and professional 3D modelers. However, it's not as complex as something like 3D Studio Max because it's a much smaller package and it does come with extensive documentation to get you started.

You can create some stunning 3D graphics and models with Silo but if you're new to the genre, don't expect to learn it in a hurry.

Download Silo 2.1.1 in Softonic

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

Xilisoft DVD to 3GP Converter is one of those applications: a full featured DVD ripper than has been especially developed to extract all data inside your DVD movies and convert it right away to the most popular video formats for portable devices such as mobile phones, Blackberry, iPod, iPhone and PSP.

The program 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. 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 the program is generally very easy to use.

With Xilisoft DVD to 3GP Converter you can rip the contents of your favorite DVD movies and convert them to mobile video in just a few easy steps.

Download Xilisoft DVD to 3GP Converter 5.0.40.0729 in Softonic

While the iPod is best know for being the music lovers best friend, it can also be a useful tool for movie buffs.

Xilisoft DVD to iPod Converter lets you extract DVD video and audio tracks of DVDs and convert them to audio and video formats compatible with the iPod Video (MPEG-4, MP3, AAC or M4A formats). Like most Xillisoft converters, it's very easy to follow and use with a good looking interface to boot. Conversions are fast but most impressive is the quality which is as good as any iPod converter you'll find. The conversion process is very simple - you can choose to either rip and convert a whole film or sections of a film. Apart from this, there are some customisation options too such as setting a file limit for your conversions, normalizing audio or the ability to compress files that have been extracted to fit your iPod - useful for if you've filled your hard drive with too many tunes. You can also customise the audio, subtitles and part of a DVD that you want to rip. If you've got an iPhone, the program has also now been updated to allow you to put films on your hard drive too.

Flexible, simple to convert and fast, Xilisoft DVD to iPod Converter has more than enough to fulfil your conversion needs.

Download Xilisoft DVD to iPod Converter 5.0.40.0729 in Softonic

Don't be fooled by the name - Alarm Clock Pro is much more than just a flashy way of getting you out of bed on time.

Alarm Clock Pro is a fully functional organizer and scheduler that aims to ensure you never miss an important date again. As a wake-up alarm, it allows you to configure the tone as anything from an internet radio station to an MP3 and even a movie or daily task. If you don't have your PC in your bedroom that's no problem either - Alarm Clock Pro can be configured to send wake-up text messages to your cell phone.

An alternative use for the application is to have it periodically check your webcam and automatically send security screenshots to your e-mail address. This way, you can use your PC as a closed circuit TV monitoring device. In addition, you can program it to randomize the iTunes playlist, remind you of holidays and special occasions, perform system tasks, automatically send out birthday cards, text message your daily task list to a cell phone, amongst other things.

One slightly unusual aspect of Alarm Clock Pro is the ability to speak inspirational quotes at random moments throughout the day. This can be programmed to occur at virtually any specific time interval set by yourself to keep you going through the day.

An attractive interface combined with an array of different uses make Alarm Clock Pro one of the best alarm clocks around - it's just a shame it's not free.

Download Alarm Clock Pro 8.4.7 in Softonic

Slideshows are one of the best ways to add colour and life to a photo collection no matter what the subject matter is.

Slideshow Magic is aimed at both home users and business professionals who want to impress friends or colleagues with their photo slideshow creations. Best of all, it doesn't require the viewer to have the program installed as all slideshows can be saved in any QuickTime compatible format.

The easy to use interface is somewhat like that of a video editor allowing you to add music or audio tracks either for the whole slideshow or just specific segments. You can add some impressive transitions and titles much in the same way as you do with Windows Movie Maker for example. The program also features a useful guide to help you get your photos online or burnt to DVD. However, unfortunately the program doesn't provide either it's own webspace or burner for uploading and saving photos. For uploading, you'll need an FTP client and web host and for burning, a third party burner such as Nero.

In addition, although it's a cross platform application, sharing with other platforms requires some form of network solution between clients (although this needn't be something complicated - a program like MSN Live Messenger is enough

Slideshow Magic is a relatively cheap but powerful way to get your photos either online or burnt to DVD.

Download Slideshow Magic 5.0.5 in Softonic

Librarian Pro is a very flexible application to organize all your books, movies, games or whatever you wish to keep a list of. Although the program still feels quite unstable (importing or exporting didn't work properly for me), we'll let that go for now as the program is still a pre-release. What makes Librarian Pro interesting is how easy it is to view your list and create new smart collections.

You can customize the layout of lists you export and send them to the web or to your iPod. Librarian can also import elements from mulitple sources, like borrowers from your Address Book or item information from a number of sites. You can view your Amazon cart from the application and even retrieve things like album covers.

Librarian Pro is a great program to keep updated lists of your favorite items and always be aware of who's borrowed what from you.

Download Librarian Pro 1.3.3 in Softonic

Do you have a favorite DVD movie that you would like to watch on the move on your mobile phone? Are you having trouble in finding the right app you convert it?

Plato DVD to 3GP Converter is what you're looking for. This simple video converter has been especially developed to convert DVD movies right into the standard video used for most mobile devices, 3GP.

The program is very easy to use. Simply load the DVD movie you want to convert from the DVD drive on your computer and tweak the conversion options according to your needs or the characteristics of the target mobile device: video size, bitrate, frame rate, aspect ratio and a lot more. The program can also be set to automatically shut down the computer when the conversion is finished. Apart from that, there are no other configuration settings.

I especially liked the simplicity of use of Plato DVD to 3GP Converter. On the downside, the interface is a bit too dull. Also, it would be great to have predefined profiles for certain devices, such as the iPod, the iPhone or the PSP.

If you want to convert your favorite DVD movies to 3GP and carry them on your mobile device wherever you go, this is the tool you need.

Download Plato DVD to 3GP Converter 7.86 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

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

Xilisoft DVD Ripper Platinum 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.

The program 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, though I must say the profile creation process is not very intuitive. 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 the program is generally very easy to use.

With Xilisoft DVD Ripper Platinum 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 Platinum 5.0.40.0729 in Softonic

Watching television is no longer a dining-room activity. With the number of available online TV channels constantly increasing, chances are you'll end up watching TV on your computer rather than on a TV set.

Internet TV is the perfect tool to watch television on the PC. This free app gives you access to more than 5,000 TV channels that stream content over the Internet. Among such a wide offer you'll surely find something you like, from news to sports, from music to documentaries, from religion to education.

Using the program is a piece of cake. Simply select the channel you're interested in and click on the "Play" button on the right-side screen. After a few seconds of buffering, the show will start. I have to say most of the channels I tested worked perfectly fine and only a few failed to start, most of them when I tried to filter contents by country. Apparently it's better to just leave the "All countries" option enabled. Also, when a channel didn't work sometimes it showed music instead, so in the end it wasn't that disappointing.

Internet TV lets you add your own Internet TV channels, if you know any that's not currently on the list and provided you have all the necessary data. A Favorites list completes the array of included features.

Internet TV is a basic viewer with which you can access thousands of streaming TV channels worldwide. Perfect to have a sneak peek at how television looks like in other countries and other cultures!

Download InternetTV 7.12 in Softonic

With the release of Vuze, Azureus is jumping onto the legal torrent bandwagon. This application features the classic and extensive Azureus torrent client and adds to it an online platform from which you can download and submit legal audio and video content.

Vuze’s interface is a complete shake-up to what Azureus users are used to. The bittorrent developer has decided to focus on online multimedia content and introduce user participation. The first thing the user sees is a list of thumbnails of the latest videos uploaded to Vuze. You can browse these files by using the left side menu, divided in time, main channels and tags. The menu at the top also links to hot and new content. Vuze takes the web 2.0 road and you’ll see that most of the files have tags. You can write out a comment and leave a rating. The program also makes it a no brainer to send a video by email and link to content directly from your blog or website. There’s also a little diggit tag for each file, to submit them to the ultra famous social news site. It’s still a shame that Azureus omitted all the other famous social networking sites like del.icio.us or reddit. Maybe in a few months?

If you’re only interested in using Vuze as a torrent client, click the “Advanced tab” and you will be taken to the original Azureus interface. You can open up the gazillion configuration options that have come to define this as the most exhaustive bittorrent client on the planet. There’s even access to extra plug-ins like 3D view, RSS feed scanner or share exporter.

We won’t expand on the qualities of the Azureus client, for which you can read a review here. Vuze tries to innovate by adding social tools to the program and providing legal content. There’s up to nine channels to choose from, be it Tony Hawk’s Boom Boom Sabotage the Film School or Travel, yet we were disappointed with the content in general. On some channels there’s very little to watch and on others you don’t necessarily find what you were hoping for. The trailers channel for example, offers new video games trailers instead of releases of movies. However, with Azureus striking up a partnership with the BBC, you’ll soon get Dr Who, The League of Gentleman and Invasion Earth and surely other content providers will flock to Vuze. Taking this into account, Vuze also includes a special tag to let you know if a file is High Definition or not.

On the downside Vuze does nothing to atone the principal drawback to Azureus: the over extensive use of PC memory. Yes, Vuze is still a bandwidth hog, and there’s nothing to do about it. We also find the new interface to be incredibly cluttered. The old downloads and currently downloading windows are too similar to have to be separated and we don’t understand why Vuze includes a Library tab when you can access content straight from the Home tab.

While the whole interface felt a bit clunky, and the number of legal content is still limited, Vuze is a promising application for sharing and enjoying legal content. If you’re already hooked on the original Azureus bittorrent client, take a leap into the future with Vuze.

Download Azureus (Vuze) 3 1.1.0 in Softonic

If you're looking for a powerful high-quality video converter, player, editor for MPEG, QuickTime, and iPod clips then MPEG Streamclip may fit the bill.

Not only that, MPEG Streamclip now edits DivX and can even download the latest DivX releases from the DivX corporation. It's clear that MPEG Streamclip is a multi-faceted utility that can be used to do a variety of things from playing most movie formats and then performing simple editing in terms of Cut, Copy, Paste, and Trimming clips (which isn't much but enough for most of us).

Because the editing feature is so limited however, it may make more sense to import the semi-edited files you have and then import them into a DVD authoring application to burn them to disk or another editing program such as Windows Movie Maker.

MPEG Streamclip is an all in one solution to convert MPEG video to multiple formats, from AVI or QuickTime DV up through MPEG-4 and perform basic editing on them.

Download MPEG Streamclip 1.2 in Softonic

Do you have a favorite DVD movie that you would like to watch on the move on your iPod or iPhone? Then Plato DVD to iPod Converter is what you need.

Plato DVD to iPod Converter has been especially developed to convert DVD movies straight into the correct audio and video format for Apple mobile devices, so that you can easily enjoy your favorite DVDs on your iPod or iPhone.

Plato DVD to iPod Converter is very easy to use. Simply load the DVD movie you want to convert from the DVD drive on your computer and select the target conversion profile in the program's Output menu. You can tweak all settings: video size, bitrate, frame rate, aspect ratio and more. Plato DVD to iPod Converter can also be set to automatically shut down the computer when the conversion is finished. Apart from that, there are no other configuration settings.

I especially liked the simplicity of use of Plato DVD to iPod Converter. On the downside, it seems there's no easy way to select what chapters you want to convert – I'd prefer a full list on the interface rather than menus and submenus which are uncomfortable to browse.

With Plato DVD to iPod Converter you'll be able to convert your favorite DVD movies to an iPod or iPhone compatible format and enjoy those videos on the move.

Download Plato DVD to iPod Converter 7.85 in Softonic