FireANT is an RSS video aggregator and media player that helps you keep up to date with the latest internet TV channels and programming.

With the FireANT Player, you can subscribe to any RSS 2.0 channel and automatically download fresh media content to watch and listen to. In this way, you don't need to keep checking your favourite channel - whether it be CNN or ESPN - to see whether there's anything you want to watch on as FireANT delivers it all to you in much the same way as Google Reader tracks your favourite blogs.

The other big draw of FireANT is that the media player is incredibly versatile - rivalling VLC Player in some respects - as it's able to play just about any format without the need for codecs including Quicktime, Windows Media, Flash, Real Media. FireANT can even sync downloaded files with portable media players such as iPod and Sony PSP.

In addition, FireANT player comes with an integrated Yahoo! Video Search function. When FireANT was originally released this was probably quite useful but now that Google is king, you probably won't find much use for it. You can also interact with video creators by sending comments to them based on their content although I'm sceptical as to whether this actually works properly.

A format free and fun way to keep track of your favourite programming, FireANT is maybe a bit dated now but better than having to keep checking channels for new content yourself.

Download FireANT Beta in Softonic

Portable VLC media player is the popular VLC media player packaged as a portable app, so you can take your audio and video files along with everything you need to play them on the go. It reads all types of formats like MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, WMV, DVDs, VCDs and streaming.

Download Portable VLC Media Player 0.8.6i in Softonic

Organize, manage and download your RSS and PodCast. Noopod is an ITunes alternative to manage your podcasts. It has many interesting features that you will like:

Manage all your news and podcasts and find it quickly

• PodCast playing in streaming with VLC Media Player, play all podcasts file without QuickTime or another codec
• Noopod use RSS-one Directory to have a lot of RSS and podcast.
• Show your podcast and RSS from your desktop with the Noodock
• Real time notif when you new news is available
• Podcast download manager

Download Noopod 3.0.3 in Softonic

There was a time when video files all conformed to some basic requirements and could be played without protest using any media software. As technologies change and licensing becomes more restrictive and specific, simply playing a video file has now become a challenge and thanks to the plethora of obscure proprietary formats now available, finding a media player that works for the majority has become more hassle than it’s worth. Thankfully the open source community have come up with a solution in the form of VLC, otherwise know as VideoLAN.

This cross platform player doesn't strike as particularly good-looking when put side by side with Windows Media Player or Winamp, but you'll appreciate its far superior usability within moments. Its power can be demonstrated with any video files you happen to be downloading, which can be played in whatever form they exist, be it an actual video format or an unclassified temporary one. As you preview a video, it will skip the parts that have yet to be downloaded and let you see the rest – Media Player in comparison, can't preview files in this way.

Apart from playing incomplete videos, because lets face it not many people want to do that anyway, VLC has support for a huge range of video formats. If it doesn't recognize the file type it will try playing it anyway often successfully or if it's an encrypted file it will display the scrambled video in its raw form. The interface is stripped down to the bare bones, with the apparent objective of making it as unobtrusive as possible. With superb hotkey support, you can do practically everything you want without touching your mouse.

Put simply, VLC is a video player that doesn't stray in to other areas. There is only one alternative skin available, but all it will take is one look and you'll quickly be switching back to the default.

This free player should appeal to true cinephiles who want as little distraction as possible from their viewing experience. Being open source it's free to use and thanks to a small file size and a friendly installation process, we would recommend it to absolutely everyone as their "backup" or "catch-all" video player.

Download VLC Media Player 0.8.6i with Softonic Toolbar in Softonic

Kantaris 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 can be played in full screen mode with control panel only appearing when you move the mouse. As for music, Kantaris 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 0.3.6 in Softonic

It's considered to be a must have free video player. It can play any type of video including 192 video codec and 85 audio coded - like VLC player, but with a nicer interface. It is also supposed to optimize CPU usage and use as few resources as possible. The package contains optimized builds for Pentiums, Athalons and Dual Core processors. You just select the one suitable for you during the installation process.

The package installs both MPlayer and the front-end SMPlayer, which is the same program but with a nicer looking interface. A number of useful features are included: the subtitles option for example, allows you to load subtitle files and link them to a video. You also have many options to deinterlace, denoise and apply filters to improve the video rendering.

I've noticed minor usability issues: when you stop the video for example, the pointer in the status bar should restart from the beginning, whereas with this player it just stays at the point of the film you stopped it, making no difference with the pause function. Also the program doesn't remember the volume of the sound when you close and re-open the application.

MPlayer supports 192 video codec and also video streaming, QuickTime and RealAudio files making it the perfect choice if you don't want to mess around with a different player for each video format.

Download MPlayer 1.2 in Softonic

This open source multimedia player allows you to watch films by just dragging and dropping the file on the video screen. It claims to support so many codecs that you’ll no longer need to download them. According to our test, though, this is not so true.

The interface is very elegant and the option for scrolling through the film has a pleasant, immediate response. It surely supports many different formats but in our test it didn’t work with DivX files while other competitors like Media Player Classic or VLC media player did. Also, when you open Cineplay for the first time, it tells you that an update is available and asks you whether you want to update the program, but if you click yes, you’ll just get a “404: Page not found” screen. A bit disappointing as a start.

A good option if you want a multi-format reader which is very fast to run and with a minimalist-elegant interface, remembering though that there are less stylish solutions which support a wider range of video formats.

Download CinePlay 1.1 Beta in Softonic

Sometimes your video player can't play all the files that you want it to. Only the most versatile players like VLC Player can help in such circumstances but Total Video Player is a welcome addition to that family.

Total Video Player is a player for audio and video that reads all major formats including 3GP, MP4, FLV and DVD. The interface is very straightforward featuring a file menu, scroll bar, library files and shortcuts that integrate simply with the file being played. It truly is a universal player and there's little you will be able to throw at it, either audio or video, that it won't be able to handle.

For some reason however, the developers have not included the ability to view subtitles or change the audio track. You can only select one audio track which is a bit annoying and it's clear that from the perspective of audio in general, it's very limited. There are few controls over equalization options other than a simple volume control.

Total Video Player can play just about anything. If only it could handle subtitles and audio better, it would be a much better product.

Download Total Video Player 1.20 in Softonic

My favourite media player has always been VLC but I have to say, FF Player gives it a run for it's money. It plays all kinds of audio and video files quickly and with stability. It isn't packed with advanced features but as long as you've got DirectX codecs installed, it plays a remarkably wide range of formats.

To use it, you simply drag and drop the files you want to play into the playlist. Both the playlist and the video screen can be dragged to the size you want with an attractive slider. The overall feel of the player is very sleek although unfortunately, there are no extra skins that you can add to it.

A super simple little player that can handle almost anything and won't let you down.

Download FF Player 0.97 in Softonic

Anything that has something in common with VLC player is OK by me and SmoothTube uses the same codec libraries as Videolan's VLC player so I knew it was going to be a pretty effective application. The developers claim that it works as a front-end program to VLC's transcoding options, requiring no knowledge of their syntax or inner workings. However, if you're not a VLC Player fan, the good news is that you don't need VLC player installed to use SmoothTube.

That said, Visual Basic 6 and a full installation of VLC are required to build the source both of which are available on the developer site. In a nutshell, SmoothTube downloads videos from the Internet in the quality of your choosing - high, medium or low. All videos are stored automatically in the "My Videos" folder and are saved in MPEG format since this is recognised by the widest number of media players. One other nice little feature is that it is also able to smooth out some of the compression problems associated with downloaded videos which increases the quality of the download considerably.

This is a simple tool that gives you the unique option of choosing in what quality you want to download a clip. It's just a shame that it does not save in other formats too.

Download SmoothTube 0.0.3 in Softonic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite 10 in Softonic

PeerTV is another Internet TV tool which enables you to watch worldwide channels for free. Yes, there's a bunch of these going on air these days, but you know, gotta test 'em all!

What we like best about PeerTV is the wide range of channels offered by the program and also the fact that you can add manually more if you want. This list can be conveniently filtered by language or genre. Plus you can add channels to a Favorites folder.

On the downside, PeerTV takes some time to load channels and it doesn't even show a progress bar or anything similar, so you don't really know if the program is actually loading the channel. Image is usually good quality, but small sized. Well, at least you get a sneak peek at other countries' TV productions.

Download PeerTV 0.4.1b in Softonic

Some players come loaded with too many features and too many codecs - not MPCStar. MPCStar is a universal video player that can play most formats of films downloaded from the internet. MPCStar has been developed using open source libraries, so it's highly customisable if you have any programming knowledge. One of the best features however is a pop-up blocker which prevents pop-ups appearing that sometimes come loaded with films.

To ensure smooth playback and not get weighed down with too many codecs, MPCStar contains only the major codecs including Media Player Classic, FFDshow Codec Pack,
RealPlayer Codecs, ActiveX controls, QuickTime Codecs and DirectVobSub (a.k.a. VSFilter). The only problem is that these codecs are regularly updated and there appears to be no automatic update function but overall, this is one of the simplest and most powerful players I've tried since VLC player.

Download MPCStar 1.9 in Softonic

KenbushiTM is a powerful Media Server with full-screen media control (like Apple TV) and integrated support for Quicktime and VLC (so plays avi, divx, H264, flash, etc.), built-in cross-platform file sharing, web server and data backup over LAN/Internet.

it's Perfect for building your own home media server. Many home users, developers, media consultants and businesses already use Kenbushi so check it out yourself!

Download Kenbushi Lite 7.0.2 in Softonic