DVD protection is advancing at an ever increasing rate but unfortunately for the manufacturers, so are the ripping programs. If you’ve ever had problem’s copying one of your favourite DVD’s (just to make sure you’ve got a backup of course) then DVDFab could be what you’reve been looking for. It has proved popular a hit with thousands of Softonic users so far and there seems little prospect of its popularity waning.

DVDFab is an all-in-one DVD copying/converting/burning software. In just one or two steps, you can copy DVD’s to DVDR/PSP and even iPods. For such a powerful package, it only requires a mere 1.3MB of your hard drive hardrive so its not bulky like similar packages. However, note that this is the ‘lite’ version of the software; and the fully featured Express edition will probably weigh-in at somewhat more than this.

The conversion process itself couldn’t be easier. There are 5 DVD to DVD copy modes available - Full Disc, Main Movie, Split, Customize and Clone. To use any, its simply a matter of inserting your disk and Windows will ask you if you want to open it with DVDFab amongst other programs installed on your PC. In Full Disc mode, all movies, menus and trailers, are copied to a DVD in one click. In “Main Movie” mode, only the movie is copied with your specified audio. In “Split”’ mode, you can copy a DVD-9 onto two DVD-5 discs but also preserve the original menus on both discs. According to the developers, this rare little feature is apparently ideal for TV series DVD’s.

The handy “customize” mode allows you to personalize your DVD’s by recording such things as only your favourite scenes, removing adverts or selecting only certain audio tracks. Finally, “Clone”’ mode allows you to make exact 1:1 bit-to-bit copy of DVDs or even copy games disks such as PS2 DVD’s. There is also a DVD to Mobile option so you can reduce your favourite films to watch on your iPod or other favourite hand held device. Formats available include MPEG-4, DivX, XVID and Mp4.

DVDFab is a tough cookie – even those disks that refuse to be copied with other programmes can usually be cracked. The customise option allows you to get rid of pesky files that stand in your way and just rip the actual movie or essential files. It can also help in reconstituting recovering scratched or dirty disks that don’t play properly in your DVD player anymore. In addition, the ripping speed is remarkably fast. Depending on the size of disk, you can record a new one in less than 10 minutes although the average time is around 30 minutes.

One of the minor drawbacks to this ripper is that the inevitably heavy processing power needed to rip a disk often results in crashes. This will obviously be less of a problem on more powerful machines but on machines with old processors, using DVDFab may become impractical. Many user forums are however full of praise for DVDFab claiming that it can rip more disks and whatsmore, faster than comparable products such as DVD Shrink or ShrinkTo5. At the end of the day, most users consistently report they appreciate the simplicity and power of this rip-roaring ripper.

Download DVDFab HD Decrypter 5.0.9.0 in Softonic

If you've ever played the guitar classic Guitar Hero then you'll see immediately that this game is a tame imitation both in name, graphics and just about everything else.

The game employs the same scoring meters and song listings right down to the font and layout. At the moment, the game only supports a guitar controller so you'll need a PS2 to USB adapter to play it which is a major downside for most people for a start. It's also very similar to Frets on Fire but the music is nowhere near as good or original. That said, despite the distinct lack of originality, this is one of the few Guitar Hero style games available on PC and has a definite appeal for those that have never played Guitar Hero or Frets on Fire. For those users, the game will seem like a revelation and once you've got your USB adaptor, you should have hours of fun on it.

For prospective Van Halens or those that really love to rock out but can't play the guitar, this is a great if heavily copied Guitar Game.

Download Guitar Zero Alpha in Softonic

The PCSX project has been running for a little over four years now, and since it's initial release has grown in compatibility. From initially just being able to run a few public domain demos, it's current state enables many games to boot and actually go in game, such as the 'famous' Final Fantasy X or Devil May Cry 3. PS2 Emulation is a complex task, far worse than emulating a console from the previous generation (PlayStation1, N64, Saturn), simply due to the CPU power required to get 'playable' speeds from a PS2 game under emulation.

This program does the job remarkably well although don't throw your Playstation 2 away quite yet. It struggles with high speed action and is prone to freezing or crashing at the most annoying moments. PCSX2 comes in 2 versions, the TLB and the VM (virtual memory) one. The TLB version is the pcsx2t.exe while the VM version is the pcsx2.exe. First try running the VM version, following the instructions given (type your account user name, log off/on and restart). If the program still fails to allocate the memory, simply use the TLB version and don't worry the speed difference is not that great. After that, the setup procedure is quite lengthy although if you're Playstation 2 is broken, you'll find this a more than adequate replacement.

Download PCSX2 0.9.4 in Softonic

Digiband is a Guitar Hero clone for the PC which enables you to emulate the greatest drum and guitar players of all times just with your keyboard.

First of all, bear in mind that Digiband is not as easy as it seems. It takes lots of time and practice to obtain good results, especially if you're using a keyboard. Fortunately the game supports both the Xbox360 and PS2 guitar-shaped controller, so if you have one, plug it to your PC because it will make things much easier.

Digiband includes one song which is perfect to start practicing, but you soon end up tired of it. In that case, you can download new songs from many sites around the Web, including the one recommended by Digiband's developer (Gdamania) for which you'll have to register.

The game is a bit difficult to configure because it doesn't support mouse controlling. Apparently, you can only take the drum if you play solo, making guitars available only if there is more than one player. As for gameplay itself, it works in the same way as Guitar Hero, with notes coming down the screen which you have to press in the right moment in order to score points and eventually become the greatest rock star of all times!

Digiband is a great guitar and drum simulator that can take some time to master.

Download DigiBand 1.0.1 in Softonic

Through the easy and user friendly interface of eCover you can:

• Search several web sites for covers (all types: DVD, Audio, PS2, PSX, Gamecube), and directly load them into eCover
• Autoconvert covers from DVD (standard) format into CD (front+back) or Mini CD/DVD
• Load, autoresize and print covers in CD (front+back), DVD (standard), Stomper, Mini CD/DVD formats
• Save converted formats
• Load covers in Bitmap format
• Preview your printing job

Download eCover 1.0.6 in Softonic

Audio Mid Recorder is a powerful real-time sound recorder from any resource such as Mid, MP3, WAV, WMA, RM, OGG,VQF, CD, DVD, MPEG, AVI, MOV, GAME, FLASH, as well as streaming audio from the Internet.

You can even input from all peripheral equipment such as Microphone, Cassette Tape, TV, Radio, Electronic Organ, Video Tape, CD Player, DVD Player, PS2, Xbox. It offers professional recording features for saving as mp3, wav, wma, ogg formats without costing extra disk space.

Download Audio Mid Recorder 3.95 in Softonic

If you've created a CD or DVD for someone why not add a professional touch and design your own cover for the inlay? The latest version of Easy CD & DVD Cover Creator has a CD and DVD cover designer specifically for Standard DVD's, CDs and slimline CD cases.

The program has templates for creating covers for the following:

• Data/audio CD and slimline CD jewel cases

• Data/video DVD cases

• XBox and XBox 360 cases

• Playstation, PS2 and PS3 cases

• Gamecube cases

• PC Games

Download Easy CD & DVD Cover Creator 3.83 in Softonic

This All-in-one Windows Photo and Office Utility Suite lets you: batch convert, optimize, and print photos and images, manage documents from Acrobat PDF to Office Documents, create DVD/CD album and catalog, group rename, change properties, upload, download, and publish Web sites, plus integrated HTML, script, HEX, RTF, and text editors.

Its easy to use image tools let you work with groups of photos and give you professional results, like exact resizing, image quality adjustment, file size reduction, format conversion. Its quality is second to none!

It lets you create an album or catalog of your DVD or CD collections on your hard drive for easy management. You can enter comments for each file or for a group of files. It is fast, powerful, and easy to use.

Download Turbo Browser 9.3 in Softonic