Features

Version 2 ("Twoflower") brings a new interface, faster decoding, support for more formats and the ability to play HD and BluRay. It still remains however the most stable, flexible and lightweight audio and video player around today. While other media players will play unusual formats after downloading a codec, or simply refuse to play things,

VLC media player handles tons of formats, from MPEG to FLV and RMBV files. Version 2 has seen some important additions too such as support for 10 bit codes plus multi-threaded decoding for H.264, MPEG-4/Xvid and WebM.

Also useful is the fact that you can use VLC media player to preview files you are downloading since it plays incomplete parts of video files. VLC media player is not just for video playback however. It also offers superb integration with video channel streaming services such as Channels.com giving you access to channels such as ESPN, Reuters and National Geographic. Just right-click or CMD-click on the playlist, select Services Discovery and Channels.com.

Channels.com will then appear in your VLC media player playlist. Click on it to reveal the the different categories of channels available. Click on the category you want and a drop down list of all available channels appears in VLC media player. Just click on the channel you want to watch and streaming should begin almost immediately.

Usability

VLC media player also has great hotkey support and if you take the time to learn the shortcuts so it can be controlled without touching your mouse. If you're watching DVDs or video files through it, this is not an issue. For music, it plays more or less any file and features an equalizer and playlist creation. VLC media player isn't as intuitive as iTunes as a media manager, but it's a much more flexible player in terms of file formats. You can even use VLC to convert your files, and on top of all the formats and physical media it will play, many streaming protocols and TV capture cards are supported.

VLC media player makes it easy to add subtitles to your video files too - just add the SRT file to the folder where your video is kept, and it will automatically play with subtitles.

Finally, the interface in VLC media player has been somewhat improved in version 2 although it remains strictly functional. However, you can download skins to completely change VLC media player's appearance. The preferences menu is comprehensive without being overwhelming, and there is extensive documentation online.

Conclusion

VLC Media Player is quite simply the best multimedia application for Windows and Mac. It plays just about anything, hassle free - what more could you need?

What's new

Rework and fixes of the Mac OS X interface

Fix Pulseaudio initial synchronization

Fix MKV, SWF, AIFF and subtitles demuxer crashes

Translations updates and new Welsh translation

DVB-S delivery system detection

Fix audio and video track selection through libVLC

Fix system sleep issue on Mac OS X 10.5

Download VLC media player 2.0.6 in Softonic

Because it's open source, XBMC has been modified by some users to create Plex although XBMC is the original base on which Plex is built. Which one you prefer will depend on what you want in a media center but XBMC is a pretty good contender being easy to use, slick, and supported by a large community of enthusiastic users.

XBMC has a highly “skinnable” interface meaning that it can look radically different based on which skin is used. Confluence is used by default, so this is what will greet you upon install but you may wish to change it to something else using some of the free skins here. Some of them are absolutely stunning.

XBMC functions very well as a standard media player although it's far better if you use as a complete home hub for your entertainment needs. XBMC supports a huge range of remote controls and keyboard shortcuts, and it feels like a real entertainment center. XBMC can be used as a standalone player or to stream videos over a network. You can stream your multimedia from anywhere in the house or directly from the internet using practically any protocol available. For example, XBMC can play CDs and DVDs directly from the disk or image file, most popular video formats on your hard drive, and even files inside ZIP and RAR archives.

If you want it to detect what you have, XBMC will scan all of your media and automatically create a personalized library complete with box covers, descriptions, and fanart. Finally, there are playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations.

XBMC is a fantastic media center although if you don't want to go to the hard work of customizing it, Plex may offer you a better alternative.

Download XBMC 12.0 Frodo in Softonic

If you want to play video or music files and not worry about format, Portable VLC media player is the best application for the job. With this portable app, you can have the powerful media player with you anywhere.

Like its big desktop brother, Portable VLC media player is simply the most stable, flexible and lightweight audio and video player around today. While other media players will play unusual formats after downloading a codec, or simply refuse to play things, Portable VLC media player will never complain. In addition to this, you can also use it to preview files you are downloading, because it will play parts of files. It takes no time to start up either, so opening it up to preview something is no trouble at all.

Portable VLC media player has great hotkey support - if you take the time to learn the shortcuts - so can be controlled without touching your mouse. The interface is functional, but by no means attractive. If you're watching DVDs or video files through it, this is not an issue.

Regarding music, Portable VLC media player plays more or less any file and features an equalizer and playlist creation. It isn't as intuitive as iTunes as a media manager, but it's a much more flexible player in terms of file formats.

For video, Portable VLC media player is the best application you will find. Its minimal interface is great for viewing, it's got excellent tools for effects, and doing things like adding subtitles is easy.

Download Portable VLC media player 2.0.5 in Softonic

User interface is very professionally done with ability to change the skin for your own taste. It is very easy to use and stable. It supports all major format including MP3+G, DAT, MPG, AVI, MKV, MP4, WMV, ASF, VOB, RM, RMVB. More media formats support can be added later with no need to purchase expensive hardware.

Song selection based on intelligent spelling matches or artists are the most convenient ways. You can save your favorites songs in a play list.

This software supports input devices including computer mice, keyboards, remote controls and touch screen.

You can preset the volume of your media file (0-100) to avoid uneven sound outputs during media playbacks.

You can preset Karaoke sound channels for non-standard tracks. (Default: 1. Non-Standard Tracks: 2)

The software now has great support for Karaoke DVD songs and MP3+G songs playbacks!

Support for remote control keys user setting function.

The Best Music Organizer & Player.Creation media database automatically.

Download Advanced Karaoke Player 5.2 in Softonic

Nero Multimedia Suite is comprehensive and if you are looking for a one-stop shop for your video editing, burning and back-up, it will definitely fit the bill. Although getting started is a bit of a mystery (the app installs lots of icons for features that can be managed via the StartSmart button), the various components are slick, easy-to-use and meet most basic to intermediate needs.

As in previous versions, Nero Multimedia Suite offers a range of quick burning/ripping tasks on the left and the complete range of features divided into tabbed areas at the top. When you choose an option, a window will open. You control the feature from there, choosing options and tweaking configurations.

The whole Nero Multimedia Suite experience is very simple. There are loads of online tutorials, wizards and step-by-step instructions for burning, ripping, backing up and editing - among Nero Multimedia Suite's most interesting features are the ability to digitize tapes and records, the file recovery application and, of course, Nero's famous burning skills.

Nero Multimedia Suite's critics will call it bloated and filled with unnecessary features. That's not entirely wrong, but what it brings in bloat, it makes up for in ease of use and centralization. Sure, you could carry out all of Nero Multimedia Suite's functions using other, cheaper software, and it's true that you may never use many of its functions, but users who will be interested in Nero Multimedia Suite won't care, because it allows them to do exactly what they want, when they want, and with minimal technical knowledge.

Nero Multimedia Suite 10 is bloated, but provides centralization and flexibility that many users will find irresistible.

Download Nero Multimedia Suite 12.0.02000 in Softonic

ChrisTV PVR Professional comes as a shareware application for Windows with a FREE 21 day trial period, before it requires to be purchased.

Using this product you take full advantage of the Advanced Scheduler functions, Radio Recording Module, Advanced Recording Features (use of Deinterlace Filters, Image Processing Effects while recording), Recording Profiles (for AVI, MPEG video recording and WAV/MP3 audio recording), customizable MPEG Recording Settings, Video Frame Cropping Feature for Recording and Image Processing Features.

ChrisTV PVR products work with simple analog TV cards and also with Graphic Cards with Video Input (VIVO cards) or with Combo Cards (Graphic Card + analog TV tuner) which have WDM support.

Download ChrisTV PVR Professional 5.75 in Softonic

FreeSmith Video Player looks nice, with a slick interface, easy full screen mode and clear controls. What we didn't like was that although the full screen mode looks good, there are no on-screen controls - except by right-clicking and selecting Play. There are fully-customizable hotkey controls, but we'd like to see both options for the full "movie experience".

As features go, FreeSmith Video Player covers the basics, but is unlikely to amaze you. It's got the full selection of extras that make it user-friendly - like a screenshot function, subtitles and good playlist options, but that's about it.

FreeSmith Video Player's technical options are middle of the pack - you'll be able to make basic changes to your videos, like cropping and rotating, but the program doesn't offer the advanced options that you might see on players like VLC.

Overall. we thought that FreeSmith Video Player was a nice free application that will suit many people's needs. That said, if you've got a bit of experience with multimedia players and are looking for something a little special, you're unlikely to find it with FreeSmith Video Player. We also noticed a lot of lag, which, for a player that prides itself on being light, was a little unusual.

FreeSmith Video Player covers basic media player needs, but really offers little to make it stand out from the pack.

Download FreeSmith Video Player 1.2.3 in Softonic

In a market that's saturated with media players, Zoom Player attempts to be two players in one - a no fuss simple one and an advanced one with just about every imaginable tweaking and customization option.

It's a unique offering and chances are that if you've found your current player lacking in some department, you'll find what you're looking for in Zoom Player. If you just want a bare bones media player, then you may be better opting for something like VLC Media Player but Zoom Player lets you have your cake and eat it if you need something with a little more to offer.

The basic version of Zoom Player comes installed with a graphic equalizer, playlist editor and everything else that you'd expect in a basic player. Zoom Player's professional version however comes with a whole lot more power, including a more powerful Playlist Manager, added safety features (such as password protection), Media Definitions plus Web Remote (so you can control Zoom Player from your web browser) and an Extended command line interface, exposing many Zoom Player functions directly from the command line. Finally, the professional version also supports playback of DRM protected movies and music (Windows Media DRM).

Zoom Player's interface is slimline but expandable very easily. By clicking on the circle of dots in the bottom right hand corner however, you reveal a top bar within the main screen which is packed with features. The symbols used in the menu aren't particularly helpful as they look like hieroglyphs so your only option is to work out what each one does by trial and error. These advanced features include a station manager (for streaming radio and TV channels), skin changer and media library editor.

Indeed, the amount of options in Zoom Player available will intimidate anyone that just wants a playback application. It takes quite a while to understand what all the audio options offer, for example, although there is an extensive list of help files that comes bundled with the installation to help you. This is probably the biggest annoyance of Zoom Player: the advanced options seem extremely "spread-out" and it's rather overwhelming to get to grips with where they all, let alone what they do.

On the plus side, one particularly useful feature of Zoom Player is that if you don't have the correct codec installed, it will tell you the exact one you need without the need for a third party inspection device. Playback is smooth, files are loaded quickly and the playlist supports ID3 tags. You can also easily change skins through the skins editor plus you can download more from the developer site.

Zoom Player is two players in one - a basic player that serves you well and an advanced player that offers a lot of options that you'll probably never need but will no doubt appeal to power users.

Download Zoom Player Professional 8.6.1 RC2 in Softonic

J. River Media Center is an intuitive program that will allow you to manage all of your multimedia files - audio, video, images and more - from a single interface. It isn't very pretty, but it does provide a great platform for your media and pretty much every configuration option you could hope for.

Although there are a number of skins for the J. River Media Center, none of them particularly help in the looks department. What is attractive, however, is the variety of viewing modes available: the four screen options available will take you from quick access to more theater-like viewing for movies and television. Playback quality is good, especially for audio, and larger screen options don't compromise viewing.

J. River Media Center has all the features you would expect from a modern player. As well as the standard audio, video and images, you can also subscribe to and manage podcasts, burn and rip CDs, sync with handheld devices, control via remote control, stream from the 'net and connect to high definition television (although to do this you'll need a tuner). Add this to J. River Media Center's extensive organizational, tagging and management abilities and J. River Media Center begins to look like a serious threat to other multimedia players.

Don't be fooled into thinking that the J. River Media Center is just a pretty face. It also has a fully functional browser, allowing you to search for information related to your music - and more - on the internet. Tech fans won't be disappointed either - J. River Media Center has a huge variety of configuration options ranging from the esthetic to the advanced, including a DSP (digital signal processor) studio for tweaking your audio, a media editor and audio recorder.

Often, a major problem with programs that try to do a lot is that they overreach and end up compromising quality. Not so with J. River Media Center. In the short time I tested it, the program performed perfectly, was easy to use and gave great quality output. If you just want a program that will play your CDs, you can probably get away with something lighter, but if you are looking for an integral multimedia manager with plenty of options, J. River Media Center might be the program for you.

J. River Media Center provides options galore and great quality - what more can you ask for in a multimedia player?

Download J. River Media Center 17.0.68 in Softonic

Overview

Digital animation technology has improved so much that it’s now possible to animate your own talking heads from your home PC. CrazyTalk promises to give you all the tools you need to import images and photographs before quickly applying mouth, head and eye movement to create realistic looking avatars and fun animations.

At first users might be a little skeptical about the value of CrazyTalk, Give it a try though and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the power of the utility. Granted, most peoples' initial efforts with the program will likely be limited to taking pictures of friends and adding famous song or movie audio clips to them just for kicks. These first experiments in CrazyTalk will be a little clunky and look far from realistic when you rely on the automatic lip-syncing functionality.

Features

Once you delve deeper into CrazyTalk's settings though, you'll start to realize that you can actually produce some impressive animations.

With enough tinkering you can customize everything in CrazyTalk, from the teeth in the character’s mouth to their facial movements and their range of movement. Best of all is the built-in timeline, which gives you complete control of the animation and sound, much as you would do in Flash, or a video-editing suite.

CrazyTalk offers alpha channel support, making it ideal for producing talking images to welcome visitors to your web site or in presentations. The simple-to-use export facilities also allow you to save to a range of formats as a media file, email attachment or a personalized greeting.

There are a few flaws with CrazyTalk that are a little frustrating though. The auto lip sync feature isn't all that impressive or accurate, for one, and there's no support for MP3 format audio. There also aren't all that many preset templates to work from, which might be bothersome to some users.

CrazyTalk requires some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it you'll be able to create unique facial animations.

Download CrazyTalk Pro 7.12.1302 in Softonic

If you're a frequent watcher of videos on your computer, you probably know just how many different file formats videos can come in. Sometimes it can be difficult to find a multimedia player that supports the format of the video you want to watch at a given time.

JetVideo is a solution to this issue. The developers claim that JetVideo can play a video in nearly any format, and it seems to be pretty accurate. JetVideo can play videos in AVI, MPG, MPEG, ASF, WMV, AVI and DIVX just to name a few. As an added bonus, Jet Video can also play a variety of different formats of audio files.

On top of that, you can edit tags easily in JetVideo, control sound and video speed and implement various sound effects. JetVideo also comes with an alarm and timer feature. The player's sound quality is very good, and it has a visually appealing interface. The only complaint some beginners might have is that it takes a bit of fiddling around with before all of the player's features become clear.

JetVideo solves the problem of how to play a video or audio file that might not be in a hugely popular format.

Download JetVideo 8.0.0.0 Basic in Softonic

Kantaris Media Player is a polished multimedia player that enables you to play files in a wide variety of formats. It features a simple but nicely designed interface with not many configuration options which makes it very easy to use.

Videos in Kantaris Media Player can be played in full screen mode with control panel only appearing when you move the mouse. As for music, Kantaris Media Player offers four visualization modes that add a touch of color to your songs.

However we noticed that if you show the playlist, the visualization is not properly centered. Another problem we had with the playlist is the fact that you can only add tracks one by one.

Download Kantaris Media Player 0.7.7 in Softonic

(Possible without hardware Overlay support). Now with shadow ! ! ! * Universal re-sizing with constraining proportions or without it (possible adjustment of aspect ratio, sides proportions, image center).

Now possible to select some part of video and play it on full screen. (With Ctrl pressed, you can drag video in window with mouse, with Alt you can change zoom with mouse).

* KeyFrame search in avi files. (Very fast changes a position of playing). * Subtitles support. Useful feature for people, studying foreign languages or for persons with weak hearing.

* Bookmarks. Now possible to set unlimited bookmarks for each file, marking the favorite moments. * PlayList. * 10 bands Equalizer SlyEQ (Without skin support yet).

* Position and filename saving (you can continue playing next time). * Sound channel select (if file contains many sound streams). Useful for films with multylanguage support.

* Automatic delayed mouse hiding* Screensaver disabling. * Mode for displaying video as wallpaper on windows desktop (If it is supported by video type and video card)* Skins support.

* Drag&Drop support. You can simply drag file at the application window for playing. * Options an windows position autosave. Just tune your player once, and it will stay forever.

* Changes priority in a system. * Absolute coordinates positioning of video window (Useful for dual monitor or TV out support). * Correctly support dual monitor and Twin View mode.

* Tray minimizing. Sometimes is better to control playback with OSD or popup menu, then with control panel. * Continuous loopback feature. * Still Image Capture.

Video frames saving. * Multilanguage support. Interface can be easily translated on any language (Now there is English/Russian/Ukrainian). * Adjustable hotkeys for most of operations.

* Added &Shutdown after play&feature (for those who likes watching movies in bed before sleeping :)))* Listing and adjusting of used DirectShow filters.

Download CenturionPlayer 2.5.6 in Softonic

Also, it gives you the full control of screen saver stoppers, finally you won`t suffer of accidental moves or a click of the mouse while the screen saver is running.

Besides, you can add scrolling message capabilities to your video/slide show screen saver. NO, I didn`t forget, I added a powerful password protection for security purpose of your computer.

I advice you to download this screen saver and try it your self. There are 2 types of screen saver provided in Kabapy Screen Saver, the first is Video screen saver, which plays many types of video files including: asf - asx - wm - wmv - wve - wvx - avi - mpeg - mpg - mpe - m1v - mpv2 - mp2v - mpa - mov - qt - dat - DivxThe second screen saver is slides screen saver, which plays images with a music background, it supports many formats of music files include: wma - wax - wmv - wvx - wav - mp2 - mp3 - m3u - mid - midi - rmi - aif - aifc - aiff - au - snd - ra - rmIt also supports a reasonable number of image formats like: bmp - ico - jpg.

Download Kabapy Screen Saver Pro 1.80 in Softonic

264 Flash Video. It can also be used to build FLV and H. 264 Flash video conversion into multimedia applications. H. 264 is a state-of-the-art video codec, which delivers stunning quality at remarkably low data rates.

H. 264 means clear video in much smaller files, saving you bandwidth and storage costs over previous generations of video codecs. Contrasting with other FLV video encoders, TVE SDK licensing is designed to be very simple and affordable.

The SDK is much more than a simple Encoder - it is a complete tool for the automated creation of Flash streaming video, allowing full control over a wide range of audio and video settings from stunning visual FX to useful video quality and bitrate control.

Download TVE SDK for Desktop Usage - FLV Codec 4.0 in Softonic

264 Flash Video. It can also be used to build FLV and H. 264 Flash video conversion into multimedia applications. H. 264 is a state-of-the-art video codec, which delivers stunning quality at remarkably low data rates.

H. 264 means clear video in much smaller files, saving you bandwidth and storage costs over previous generations of video codecs. Contrasting with other FLV video encoders, TVE SDK licensing is designed to be very simple and affordable.

The SDK is much more than a simple Encoder - it is a complete tool for the automated creation of Flash streaming video, allowing full control over a wide range of audio and video settings from stunning visual FX to useful video quality and bitrate control.

Download TVE SDK for Desktop Usage - H.264 Codec 4.0 in Softonic

264 Flash Video. It can also be used to build FLV and H. 264 Flash video conversion into multimedia applications. H. 264 is a state-of-the-art video codec, which delivers stunning quality at remarkably low data rates.

H. 264 means clear video in much smaller files, saving you bandwidth and storage costs over previous generations of video codecs. Contrasting with other FLV video encoders, TVE SDK licensing is designed to be very simple and affordable.

The SDK is much more than a simple Encoder - it is a complete tool for the automated creation of Flash streaming video, allowing full control over a wide range of audio and video settings from stunning visual FX to useful video quality and bitrate control.

Download TVE SDK for Desktop Usage - H.264+FLV Codec 4.0 in Softonic

Let’s begin with a very simple question: why should we surrender to the most downloaded software when there are good but not so popular alternatives? Robert Frost said: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by” which, applied to software, may be translated as “take a risk and use new apps... even if they’re not that famous”. So, if you’re looking for a free, fast, simple MP3 player, and don’t feel like bowing down to Winamp the Almighty, just give XMPlay a chance.

The first thing I liked about XMPlay is the fact that you don’t need to install it on your system. Just unzip it to whatever folder you like (for example Program Files/XMPlay), and you may start enjoying your music right away. The range of file formats supported by XMplay is reasonably wide, including Internet streaming, CD tracks and playlists. Surprisingly, XMPlay does not work with video, a feature that other “alternative” players such as KMPlayer do include.

Bearing in mind the large amount of MP3 players available, comparisons are hard to avoid. XMPlay does its job and it does it well, without using too many system resources. The XMPlay interface offers two possible sizes and can be customized with nice skins, a popular feature with users. But what I really loved about XMPlay is the fact that you can control almost every function in the program by means of shortcuts, which turns out to be very handy if like me, you listen to music whilst working with the computer. No need to maximize the XMPlay's window, look for the appropriate Pause button and click on it every time somebody talks to me: one simple shortcut gets the job done.

But hey, XMPlay is an MP3 player we’re talking about here so, what about the sound quality? In fact, this may be XMPlay’s major weakness, as those with a good ear will notice it doesn’t sound as good as other players I have tested so far, particularly Winamp or ALSong. It’s just one weak point, but quite an important one when talking about a program that is intended to play music. Besides, and while this may be precisely its main function, XMPlay lacks some extra tasty options that we find in other players, such as the built-in audio converter featured in Spider Player, the Lyrics Viewer included in ALSong or the impressive skins offered by Xion Audio Player.

Summing up, although XMPlay will not be able to compete against the “big ones” in the MP3 player market, it’s still a very nice, free application, as long as you don’t ask for high-fidelity sound quality.

Download XMPlay 3.6 in Softonic

It supports the powerful playback control: play, pause, stop, step, skip forward, skip backward. It can display and configure all filters properties during the playback of the video.

Download Ofilter Player in Softonic

As default setting, Movkit Zune Video Converter offers existing presets to use parameters. Just select a profile from the drop-down menu and save as the high quality output video file!

For advanced Users, Movkit Zune Video Converter can save custom settings as presets and use them next time when you convert any video. Movkit Zune Video Converter offers Accurate split mode, which allows selection of beginning and end of fragments and output Zune WMV MP4 and audio formats like MP3, WMA, AAC.

Movkit Zune Video Converter offers extreme expansion. It may support all types of video formats including the latest types through install the relation codec option.

Key Features:1. User-friendly and simple interface and buttons make the procedures of conversion easy to handle. 2. It provides extremely fast conversion speed and excellent output quality.

Fully optimized for dual core makes the conversion swift. 3. Powerful video edit functions. 4. Batch files conversion supported, which means you can convert some input files together to save more time.

5. All encoders/codec are built-in for you to finish the supported conversion directly. 6. You can also view and get your output Zune Movie files directly in the program using Magic Preview feature before converting (what you see is what you get) for supported input format.

7. Rich Default Options offered in advance let you control the formats and quality of the output files easily. 8. Various kinds of Aspect Ratios are supported such as 16:9, 4:3, full screen and so on.

Download Movkit Zune Video Converter 3.0.5 in Softonic