Getting a video out has always been one of the best ways to while away an evening at home. However, these days few people choose to trudge down to the video store, preferring to download a movie, or plunder the near-infinite archives on popular video sharing sites such as YouTube and Google Video. Until recently it's been impossible to obtain movies from these sites without having to stream them online. However, Vdownloader is one of a number of programs changing that, allowing you to download these videos to your computer in AVI or MPEG format.

Essentially what this means is that you don't need to wait an age for popular videos to start streaming and can keep your favourites on your hard drive to watch at any time. This application does the job as simply as you could wish for. The executable makes a very small footprint and although the interface is very barren, it makes it easy to grab videos from YouTube, Google Video, Grinvi or DailyMotion very quickly. Basically all you need to do is copy and paste the link to the video into the box provided and hit ‘download'. Alternatively, you can browse the sites themselves by selecting the portal of your choice from the drop-down menu.

In one sense, the sparseness of the interface is an advantage, as it keeps things as clean and simple as possible. In another respect we were left wanting for extra features and options to help us peruse and download the videos we want. Practically the only setting you can tweak is the via the format dialog, allowing you to specify the format of the saved video (AVI or MPEG), the size of the video and the audio bitrate. We feel that the addition of a built-in video search tool or some video compression utilities would have lifted the program from being a good program to a great one.

Add to the fact that you can't download embedded movies like the ones you find on the front page of Google Video and you can't help feel frustrated that VDownloader doesn't do quite as much as it perhaps could. Having said this, the app is still in the early stages of development and the fact that it is so lightweight makes it prefect for those who want to grab video content with the minimum of fuss.

Download VDownloader 0.73 in Softonic

Have you ever wanted to search for and download your favourite videos without using your browser? Free FLV Converter lets you automatically access sites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, Google and Metacafé without opening anything else.

You can search by keyword and preview each video found in the rather basic interface and also download them in FLV format. After that, you can convert the files to AVI, IPod, IPhone, 3GP or PSP format. It also works vice versa and if the files in question are already in FLV format, it can convert to DivX, Xvid, MPEG, DVD and AVI with automatic HTML embed links. This means you can paste them into your website or blog to share instantly with the world. If you don't require these functions, the program interface still provides a convenient search platform because you can browse and watch videos at the same time. With just one click, you can download the video you are previewing. For ease of use, it allows you to create a download list of videos you want to save. Once it's complete, you can just leave the program to download the videos whilst you get on with something else although unfortunately, it still doesn't support batch downloading.

A very useful application for those who are not content with only having videos on the Internet but also want them on their hard drive but don't want to visit each video content site seperately.

Download Free FLV Converter 5.5 in Softonic

Apex Free 3GP Video Converter is a free converter that can convert any popular video to work on your Mobile Phone in 3GP format.

Apex Free 3GP Video Converter supports a huge number of formats. You can convert your favorite movies from AVI, DIVX, MOV, QuickTime, MPEG, VCD , DVD, WMV, ASF, RM, RMVB to 3GP. As far as converters go, Apex Free 3GP Video Converter is pretty quick and getting started is relatively easy, with a quick and clear interface.

The converter supports batch conversions so you can queue an unlimited number of files to convert and let it work through them. You can also define exactly which in and out points you want, so you can select exactly how big you want files to be. The limit is 2GB which is pretty big and you can set it to automatically shut down your PC after conversion.

Apex Free 3GP Video Converter has everything you need to convert files to 3GP format although it's shame it doesn't support just a few more file formats.

Download Apex Free 3GP Video Converter 6.49 in Softonic

VirtualDub is a video capture and processing utility licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It is designed to be a general utility that can trim and clean up video before exporting to tape or processing with another program. It does not possess the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video.

It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files, which you can extend with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is best at processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and handle BMP image sets.

Download VirtualDub 1.8.5 Stable in Softonic

All My Movies is a nifty utility for cataloging one's movie collection. It supports all formats, new ones - DVD, Video CD, AVI and MPEG files, and old ones as well - VHS tapes, for example. The program helps easily track films - which movies are loaned, which ones are borrowed, etc. Most importantly, the program is specifically designed for DVDs and works fully automatically with all digital carriers.

Basically, all a user has to do is to insert a DVD or scan a hard-drive. The program will extract all movie information - title, director, actors, description, genre, languages, subtitles, etc. If absent, this information can be imported from online movie databases, like IMDb.com with one mouse click or entered manually.

The best thing about All My Movies is how easy it is to use. Having a tree-like database structure, program owner can quickly sort movies by genre, actor or director. Another great perk is an option to capture movie screens for DVDs and AVI files and attach them to the database. User comments can be added too.

True movie fans with thousands of titles in their collection are certain to like the fact that movie data stored with All My Movies can be exported to HTML, MS Excel or plain text files. In addition, the program comes with password protection options to prevent unauthorized access, and a straightforward loan manager. Another advantage is that the program support third-party plug-ins, including database import from other popular movie cataloguing applications.

Download All My Movies 5.0 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

One of the best things about the PSP, apart from the brilliant games, is that you can watch films on it.

However, if your favourite films are on DVD, you'll need some way to convert them and the quality of the conversions can greatly affect your enjoyment of the films. Xilisoft DVD to PSP Converter is powerful and highly user friendly DVD to PSP converter which helps convert DVD to multiple formats including PSP, MP4, MPEG-4, H.264/PSP AVC Video, DVD to PSP audio format MP3 and DVD to PS3 Video MPEG-4. In addition, it supports DVD to PSP MP3, AAC, DVD to PS3 Video (480p, 720p, 1080i) MPEG-4. Although it's ideal for beginners, it will also appeal to those who want a bit more control over conversions due to a multitude of customisation options. Depending on whether you want your video to fill the whole screen, it allows you to convert DVD to PSP by customising the resolution, file size and even the part of the DVD that you want to rip. Even better, you can avoid ripping subtitle and audio tracks that you don't need by choosing to ignore them completely. The interface is simple but elegant with a preview window in the bottom left hand corner to help you review conversions or select the section of DVD that you want to rip. The conversion time may be a little longer than you're used to with such apps but the all round usability more than makes up for that.

A quick, easy and convenient burner that will impress with it's usability and range of conversion formats.

Download Xilisoft DVD to PSP Converter 5.0.40.0729 in Softonic

The Video Converter is a powerful, universal AVI MPEG converter. Video converter can convert video file between almost all popular video formats such as converting WMV to AVI, WMV to MPEG. Xilisoft Video Converter also supports converting video file between DVD, VCD, SVCD, MOV, RM, AVI, MPEG, WMV, 3GP, etc.

You can select the video and audio codec, set the output parameters. In addition, the video converter provides a powerful way to convert video file to all popular audio file, including MP2, MP3, AC3, RA, M4A, OGG, AAC etc. all conversion processes, such as AVI to MPEG, WMV to MPEG, WMV to AVI, are very easy and fast with hight quality.

Download Xilisoft Video Converter 5.0.98.0729 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

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

With such an ever growing range of multimedia devices, no wonder format converters are becoming so popular these days!

Any Audio/Video Converter is one of those converters: a simple, easy-to-use application that support pretty much any format you can find nowadays and lets you convert both audio and video files in just a few steps.

The program works with a list where you add the files you want to convert, no matter what format they are. Then you configure the conversion options for each one of them separately and finally click on the "Convert" button to let the program do the rest. I think this method is quite handy and saves you loads of work and time; pity the trial version only accepts one file on this list!

Any Audio/Video Converter includes a built-in player in its interface, but it's only good to watch the video while it's being converted and not preview it before actually starting the process.

With Any Audio/Video Converter you can convert basically any audio and video file you can think of, in a quite easy process that involves very little effort.

Download Any Audio/Video Converter 5.3 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

Certain audio players and portable devices only work with very specific formats such as AAC, M4a and other MPEG-4 based formats. Luckily you can now convert them with Free M4a to MP3 Converter.

Free M4a to MP3 Converter is an audio converter that has been especially developed to convert AAC, M4a, MP4, M4b (audiobooks) and other similar formats to the more standard formats MP3 and WAV. The first one is perfect to enjoy those files in your regular audio player, while the latter is more suitable for further converting with an advanced audio editor.

Free M4a to MP3 Converter has a straightforward interface and is very easy to use: browse the folder structure to add files - or simply drag and drop them on the program's window – and select the target format. Free M4a to MP3 Converter also features some configuration settings, though they're rather simple.

My main complaint about Free M4a to MP3 Converter would be the fact that the program displays ads on its interface, only that they're presented as buttons on its toolbar so that the user is fooled into clicking on them.

With Free M4a to MP3 Converter you can convert any MPEG-4 based audio files into the more standard formats MP3 and WAV to play them anywhere.

Download Free M4a to MP3 Converter 6.0 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

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

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

There's nothing more annoying than downloading or ripping a film and then reaslising you don't have th right codecs to play it.

Or worse, the codecs that you have are corrupt and don't playback properly. If you've found yourself in this situation then m5Studio Codec is a neat little package which brings together most of the most important codecs you'll need. m5Studio Codec includes all the major codecs you'll need to make sure that you'll never have problems playing a film again.

Among the codecs included in m5Studio Codec are DivX or XviD, Ogg Vorbis or Cinepak or AC3 plus some some lesser known ones such as CoreAVC and Fraunhoffer IIS. Installation is simply a matter of double clicking EXE file and you've got a few configuration controls to control exactly how you want the codecs to perform.

m5Studio Codec is a useful codec package that will be able to playback most of the major formats that you can download or rip films to.

Download m5Studio Codec 8.3a in Softonic

Mac users are often said to be the most loyal customers in the computer market, but that's because they have very good reasons, such as iTunes, to stick to Apple products. And if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't miss the opportunity to have this application on my Windows PC.

iTunes has become one of the most popular music managers available today. When you run it for the first time, you can choose your music folders or let the program take care of everything. Then you can keep on adding new music, videos, podcasts and other multimedia elements from various sources and – of course - synchronize all this content with your iPod or iPhone thanks to a perfectly seamless integration.

Managing your iTunes library is a piece of cake. The program's interface is simple and straightforward, plus there are right-click shortcuts and keyboard hotkeys for many tasks. You can view extended information about each track and edit their tags, give them a score with the iTunes star ranking tool and comfortably browse through your collection with the amazing Cover Flow system. And for those of you who work in a LAN environment, the great news is that you can share your music libraries with your network mates.

One thing I particularly like of iTunes as music manager is its ability to create playlists. The Smart Playlist tool enables you to create almost any kind of playlist based on just about any criteria you set: artist, genre, date added, star ranking or even the number of times you've played each song. Another great playlist is the so called Party Shuffle, which comes in very handy when you invite some friends over to your place. You can then leave iTunes working as a DJ and play music on its own, but if you drop by the PC at any time, you can freely add more songs to the list or rearrange them in any way.

However, if there's something where iTunes is not perfect yet, that's the player function. You may disagree here, but I think the iTunes player falls too short, especially when compared to its music manager side. It does have some interesting features, like the Smart shuffle function and crossfading playback, but I still find it too simple. The visual effects in the Viewer window are particularly poor. I also missed the ability to control the player from anywhere with global hotkeys, which is great if you listen to music while you're working on the PC with other apps. Fortunately there are some plug-ins that cover this need.

In all, despite these slight flaws, iTunes is probably the best choice to manage your music collection –and that includes Windows users.

Download iTunes 7.7.1 in Softonic

There are many necessary evils in this life including queues, rain, and, perhaps most annoyingly for computer users, RealPlayer.

The latter of the three has traditionally been cursed for its slow buffering times and the fact that it comes rammed with all manner of obnoxious advertising and intrusive web links. Unfortunately the application has always been the only tool available to play streaming media files in the rather arcane RAM format, in which many sites still insist on encoding their video and audio in. Luckily, there’s a saviour around these days, in the shape of Real Alternative, which is designed to play these files with less hassle.

The program is a streamlined advertising-free application designed to easily play most media content, including RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt), and ReadPix (.rp) formats, along with as non-Real media content such as MP3s, MPEGs, AVIs, QuickTime movies, and CD/DVD content. You can also use the program to stream media embedded in web pages.

In terms of performance, Real Alternative beats the pants off RealPlayer, and for that matter, Windows Media Player, playing all the files we tested smoothly and virtually instantaneously. The app contains enough features to keep more serious users happy, including the useful ability to bookmark favorite files, adjust volume in the window, track progress of the file, and more. Although not as quite as fully loaded with tools as its more established rivals, we can live without all manner of channel guides and visualizations in exchange for a much slicker playback experience.

There are some areas where Real Alternative falls down, such as its inability to handle .smi files or its lack of support for CDDB look-ups. But if you’re looking for something that will play audio and video quickly and without interruption, you can’t fault Real Alternative. There are programs, such as KMPlayer, which also offer superior playback quality, but Real Alternative excels in the way it handles streaming media, making it a worthwhile addition to your PC’s arsenal of programs.

Download Real Alternative 1.8.2 in Softonic

High speed Internet connections are quite common now but that doesn’t mean we don’t sometimes need some help when it comes to downloading game demos, videos, MP3 collections and other big files. So, even if you’re enjoying the fastest router in the neighborhood, take a look at Internet Download Manager, because it really has a lot to offer.

This excellent app will take care of all your downloads from the moment you install it on your PC. You can add new download tasks from the program’s interface but the usual thing is to let it capture the links. This means that every time you click on a certain file type (which can be specified through configuration options), IDM will handle the download for itself rather than letting the browser do the job. It’s a really handy option because everything is automatic: no changing from one app to another, no copying and pasting links, just no hassle at all. Also, it works with all major web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.

Once IDM captures the link, you can either start to download the file right away or add it to a download list for later, which can be a good alternative if you need all of your bandwidth for the moment and plan to leave the computer on during the night. Downloads can be classified into custom categories right before starting them and can also be resumed if the connection is lost or broken for some reason.

As regards download speeds, Internet Download Manager does meet expectations, although it all depends on your Internet access. That is, don’t expect to download at the speed of light if you’re still using one of those old-fashioned 56K modems. Anyhow, IDM achieves quite satisfying download rates as a result of establishing multiple thread connections to servers. Also, it displays a small window with some interesting information about the download process: transfer rate, data downloaded so far, time left and a neat progress bar for each thread.

The program’s configuration menu displays a wide range of functions and tools devoted to handling your downloads, such as checking files for viruses directly from IDM with your own antivirus system or limiting the amount of bandwidth used by the program. There’s also support for server authentication and proxy, FTP and HTTPS servers.

The fact of the matter is, we couldn’t really find anything wrong with Internet Download Manager. It does its job and does it pretty well, so even if your Internet connection speed is far beyond the usual limits, you should definitely give it a try.

Download Internet Download Manager 5.14.3 in Softonic