In a crowded field of freeware music players what makes this music player/manager notable is the way it marries your music library with a world of information/artwork which it downloads from the internet. More notes below:

• Online integration: esp. with respect to album art and images that represent the band and/or artist you are listening to, which it will automatically download from Last.FM. It will also download and display information such as artist bios, reviews, lyrics, etc.
• The user interface: the interface consists of multiple "panes" that can be maximized, minimized, added or removed, and works very well once you get used to it.
• Advanced search: comes with a very impressive search function. Aside from filtering by specific fields (e.g. artist, title, album, or location) it can also search lyrics, comments,and/or your own personal comments if you have them. Also keeps track of your history and can deliver interesting stats on demand (e.g. top songs, top artists for a specific time interval).
• Tag editing: very powerful. Right click to perform all major tagging operations. For researching track information you can access online reference via right click r(e.g. AllMusic, Amazon, Discogs, etc).
• Video playback: is also supported, although it seems restricted to .AVI (didn’t play MKV or MP4 when I tested)
• LastFM scrobbler: can be enabled in the settings.
• Low memory footprint: at around 25 megs in memory.

What it does not offer:

• No Internet Radio support
• No Audio podcast support
• No Support for hardware devices (i.e. hardware MP3 devices)
• No CD ripping.

The verdict: this is a great little program. It looks good, feels good, and generally provides a great user experience. The downloading of info and artwork works really well and is very well implemented. Recommended.

Version Tested: 0.97.951

Compatibility: Windows XP/2003, Vista.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 2.2 megs).

Imagine that you’re at work pulling reports from the database or working on spreadsheets, but that you also just absolutely need to follow developments in the Wimbeldon match that is going on at the same time, or a landmark speech by President Obama (that would be me in the latter case). Typically what I would do is use my headphones, minimize the browser or media player, and follow the audio alone. Except now multitaskers and bored workers everywhere can rejoice: with Double Vision you can do your work while having your video showing semi-transparently under your spreadsheet or whatever application you’re using.

studies have shown that worker’s productivity increases by 15% while they use Double Vision (yes I’m just making this up). The irony is that I was actually introduced to this software by a coworker (thanks DAK!). More notes below:

• Plays video from the internet: i.e. anything that you would use the browser to view; does not play local video files.
• Transparency: you can control the level of transparency you want through a slider.
• How to use: browse to or type in the URL of the website you want and navigate to your video. In some cases (e.g. for YouTube) Double Vision seems to automatically zoom onto the video and hide all other page contents; if not, resize Double Vision around the video such that only the video is showing. Finally press the “Go Double Vision” button on the top left, which will sort of “burn” the Double Vision semitransparent player onto your screen so it shows through all other windows.
• Hotkeys: Ctrl+Alt will bring the player back into focus, while Ctrl+Esc will exit the semitransparent state and allow you to use the controls. You can set it to mute the sound as well, although curiously it doesn’t automatically un-mute when you resume playing the video (for that you’ll have to go to your volume control dialog).
• Auto skins: an option where Double Vision automatically changes its skin to match that of the video service being used (for example Netflix, Hulu, and Youtube).

Wish list (or how this program can be even better)

• A redesign of the user interface: currently it looks somewhat … unprofessional; they could do a lot better.
• The ability to customize the hotkeys used.
• Hulu support: while both the website and the player purport Hulu support, I was not able to get Hulu videos playing on this (got page missing/404 errors). And yes I am in the US and can get it to play on other browsers.

The verdict: I would say this is a very innovative and interesting software that does exactly what it purports to do and does it quite well. I would be happier if they made it look better (as per my wish list above), but other than that I would recommend it to overworked people everywhere!

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista. Requires an internet connection

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 2.15 megs).

Hulu desktop is a free desktop client for Windows and Mac that connects to the Hulu service and plays Hulu videos and programs within a sleek, feature-rich interface, without the need for an internet browser. It features a spectacular look-and-feel, high-definition video, and offers the ability to resume partially watched shows. It also supports standard Windows Media Center or Apple IR remote controls.

Hulu, if you’re unfamiliar with it, is a web site set up by a group of TV networks in order to publish their programming in high quality, as a means to keep their content under their control and as an alternative to video sharing sites like YouTube.

You might ask: why watch programs on the Hulu desktop client rather than in the browser? The answer simply is that Hulu desktop manages to offer a user experience that is simply excellent, and is far better than the desktop experience. Here’s a rundown of some of its features.

• Quality: unlike the web version, Hulu desktop displays high quality streaming video by default. Very nice indeed. For slow connection low-bandwidth situations you can lower the quality to “medium” or low.
• Control using IR Remote: for those who use their PC as a media center and/or like to use a physical remote control device, Hulu desktop offers full IR support support for both PC and Mac.
• Navigate: the player can display full video unencumbered by controls until you hover with the mouse. Can navigate using the keyboard, mouse, or remote (or combos). Navigation feels very sleek and professional: press Ctrl+F for fullscreen then use the keyboard arrows, mouse and mousewheel for zooming. Breadcrumb-style browsing history makes it easy to retrace your steps and find your way around.
• Ads: Hulu desktop will display some ads in the programming itself (much like watching TV), but it comes without the display ads that are featured on most websites (including the Hulu site).
• Resume shows: at the moment where you last left them. Very cool.
• Personalize: once your register an account and log in you save videos of interest in your queue, you can subscribe to certain channels or programs, rate programs, and look at your viewing history (note: you can do all of this in the website version as well).

Cons: issues that can be addressed to make this a better product

• Memory consumption: is very high at around 250 megs on my machine. It is actually less resrouce intesive to watch Hulu in Firefox3 (apprx 150); surely it should be the other way around? I am hoping that resource consumption is improved once this is out of beta.
• Bugs: this is beta software and in my testing of it had a couple of hiccups where it became strangely unresponsive, but went back to normal after a few seconds. I am assuming these will be eventually ironed out post-beta.

The verdict: a very impressive viewer that will surely become the preferred vehicle for accessing Hulu videos for all but the very casual Hulu users. If you’re an avid Hulu viewer you should check it out immediately; if you are an occasional Hulu user … you should also do the same .

Version tested: 0.9.3.1 BETA

Compatibility: Windows XP or later; Mac OSX10.4 or later. Requires Intel Pentium Core Duo 1.8GHz (Windows), at least 2.0 GB of RAM, a 2 Mbps Internet connection, and Flash 9.0.124

Go to the Hulu Desktop page to download the latestr version (approx 866K).

Songbird is a an open source, multiplatform music player intened to rival players such as iTunes; but does it have much more beyond the basics?

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com]. 

I’m taking a look at Songbird version 1.1.2. Songbird has been out for a while but only reached 1.0 at the end of 2008. Version 1.2 is expected to be out this month adding features like an equalizer and a customizable toolbar. I used to use iTunes and left that after getting sick of the ever-increasing size for updating and bloat. I’m now currently using MediaMonkey and am pretty content with it. We’ll see how Songbird stacks up against the two.

If you’re familiar with other Mozilla products like Firefox or Thunderbird, the install process will feel very familiar. An additional part of the Songbird setup process is locating your media collection and importing it for the first time. You can also set this folder to be monitored for any changes. Along with the import, you can install some add-ons that the setup recommends. You can always add these later but installing them during the setup makes for a much improved first impression. Setup recommends these add-ons: MTP Device Support, QuickTime Playback, Windows Media Playback, SHOUTcast Radio, Concerts (songkick.com), Last.fm, mashTape, 7digital Music Store.I would recommend the MorningPeeps (alarm clock), LyricMaster (lyrics) add-ons as well. They’re pretty cool and add more versatility to the player allowing you to set an alarm with your music collection and automatically pulling down lyrics for your songs to add to the tags. I would recommend a few more plug-ins based on their description but they did not work for me upon installing them; MinimizeToTray (Songbird version) and The Exorcist (remove broken tracks and duplicates) were two that I tried. It seems the Songbird community is not as rigorous as the Firefox community for the reliability of add-ons.

Songbird uses tabs like Firefox and allows for a lot of configuration. You can open separate web pages in these tabs which might allow further integration with the player. It also has an about:config page like Firefox for advanced tweaking. Of course, the standard configuring with an interface is also available and allows for a lot of customization.

Songbird comes with a built-in tag editor and much of these can be automatically populated through the various plug-ins. You can rate songs and add all the metadata you want including your own comments.

One of the coolest features of Songbird, in my opinion, was the Smart Playlists. You can have a playlist randomly populated based on different filters and criteria. If you want to listen to something but you’re not quite sure what you’re in the mood for this can definitely help narrow down your music collection.

If you’d like to change the look of things around Songbird, you can change the theme, or Feathers in Songbird terminology.

I was pretty impressed with the import process. It imported more than 4500 tracks in less than 30 seconds. You can use Songbird to play DRM titles if your machine is already authorized. Unfortunately, to authorize your machine that likely requires you to download and install the client for the other systems.

With a 13 MB download, Songbird measures in on the light-weight side of things compared to the ever-increasing 64MB iTunes 8 download. When running, Songbird brings with it a 70MB process and feels snappier than iTunes and MediaMonkey.

All in all, I’d still recommend MediaMonkey over either of the others. MediaMonkey has its own dynamic playlists to stack up against Songbird’s Smart Playlists and I really make use of MediaMonkey’s ability to auto-organize files by different tag attributes, particularly genre and artist. That’s just my opinion though. When the price is free, give them all a go and see which you like best. Songbird will likely continue to be developed and bring a lot of cool features with it, so it will be worth keeping an eye on.

Version Tested: 1.12

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista.

Download Songbird from Mozilla (approx 13 megs).

The KMPlayer (not to be confused with simply “KMPlayer”, which is another product) is the kind of free software that is so good it makes you wonder how anyone can still manage to charge money for a program in the same category. The reason I give it such a high endorsement is that software manages to juggle four things at once, each of which is remarkable in its own right:

1. Supports a very wide range of formats: (including obscure ones).It includes all essential decoders internally (including RealMedia, Flash video, and Quicktime) that are not registered to the system, but also interacts with system filters through a “fully controlled environment”. This means that The KM Player will (a) eliminate any possible errors due to codec conflict, (b) none of its internal filters will be running in the background at all times, taking up resources, and (c) If you have a media file that you cannot get to work this program will most certainly play it.
2. Has a very light footprint: takes up only 16 megs in memory and a (negligible) 50 megs on your hard drive.
3. Delivers an unusually rich selection of features: from those features that make you think “finally someone thought to include this” to “I can’t believe they thought of this”.
4. Delivers a simple and straightforward interface: despite all the supported features, everything is context-menu based, and the program can be used in a simple way without overwhelming the user with the diversity of options. On-screen tooltips are displayed on hovering over an element that tell you what it is.

This does not mean that this program is perfect but, in my view, is very close to it. There are a number of drawbacks which I will get into in my “wish list” section below. For now here is an overview of some of the features on offer:

• Formats supported: a listing would take a lot of space and would be superfluous. Suffice it to say: every conceivable video format (including DVD), audio format, playlist format, image format, and even disk image formats.
• Image processing: allows you to apply a wide range of effects to your video as it is being played, including color controls, (e.g. greyscale, auto-level control), sharpening, blurring, denoise, resize, flip/rotation, etc. Resize, flip, etc. Variable playback speed also supported.
• Capture: frame (image) capture, video capture, audio capture. Also playback by frame (e.g.single frame forward, backward, etc.)
• Plays incomplete/partially downloaded files: will not make the missing parts appear magically but will play what is there, even files that are “locked” by another app such as a torrent client and corrupted files.
• Plays streaming video/audio: delivered via HTTP (ASF, OGG, MP3, AAC, MPEG PS, MPEG TS, including non-streaming media). Internet radio supports both Shoutcast and Icecast. Can capture these to the hard drive (see below).
• Custom codec use: allows the user to select which codec to be used on per-video basis and to specify the external/commercial filters, if any, that they might wish to use if they want (e.g.commercial h.264 decoders).
• Support for compressed archives: will play media files that are compressed into archives (.ZIP, .RAR).
• Favorites: not favorite files, but rather selecting parts of a media as favorites. How cool is that?
• WinAmp plugins: can use general plugins of Winamp2/5.
• Dynamic skins; i.e. change a skin dynamically depending on a media type playing. (Which I find interesting, but not my cup of tea ).

Wish list (or things that can be addressed make this software even better)

• Comparatively low playback quality has been reported while playing some files. I haven’t seen this personally, but it was mentioned in forums as happening in some cases.
• Does not add itself to the Autoplay menu as the default DVD player. This can be easily remedied with a program like TweakUI or Autoplay Repair though.
• Help file: is underwhelming, especially for such a feature-rich app.

The verdict: that I like this program is pretty much summed up in the 4 points listed at the beginning of the review. Although designed as a player for both video and audio, I am inclined to use it only for videos/DVDs and use a music manager type software for audio. However, if you need to install only one program to play video files this is the one you need.

The KMPlayer holds its own alongside such freeware heavyweight media player (VLC Player, GOM Player), and probably has the edge. See the image on the right for a feature by feature comparison (adapted from Wikipedia’s “Comparison of media players” article).

Note on the sale of The KMPlayer: before concluding this review I will mention that as of Dec 2007 this program has been sold by the orignal developer to a Korean YouTube-style streaming video site named Pandora TV. This prompted some concern in various forums about the new owner bundling spyware and/or adware into it or changing its freeware status; however from what I’ve read the new owners have since stated their intention to keep The KMPlayer free and in any case so far after more than 6 months this is still the case.

Version Tested: 2.9.3.1428 final release

Compatibility: Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista.

Go to the official KM Player forums to get more info and the download link for the latest version (approx 14.2 megs). Download link here and also here.

This program pulls a very interesting trick: it takes up less than 2 megs in memory for the program itself (apart from libraries/music data loaded into it; more info in the comments section) — yet nonetheless provides enough functionality for most people to use as their primary audio player/manager. Compare this to, say, a program such as iTunes, which consumes 51 megs in memory, Mediamonkey or JRiver Media Jukebox (both of which consume approx. 30 megs).

You might wonder whether it is appropriate to compare BBoxV2 with these programs, and in many ways it is oranges and apples since the scope of these latter programs is so much broader; however, BBoxV2 does provide an impressive array of functions in a nice little package, and in truth if you preferred a slim and compact audio player/manager that is simple yet powerful BBoxV2 delivers (and delivers very well). Here are more notes on this program:

• CD Player and Ripper: rips tracks and pulls tag info from an online database. MP3 format only with a wide range of quality options (CBR/VBR).
• Tagger: the tagging function is surprisingly powerful, and includes the ability to do auto tagging based on an online search, including album artwork. (Allows you to change the search string used, which is very useful).
• Music library functions: includes quick filters (artist/album) as well as (a very useful) keyword search.
• Internet Radio: with 68 pre-defined stations. Although I was not able to determine how to add my own stations to the list, I was able to add shoutcast (.pls) shortcuts to the music library and add/play shoutcast stations that way. (Update: see comments section for how to add stations).
• Smart volume: i.e. normalizes volume for different audio tracks playing in succession, eliminating any sudden variations in volume.
• Supported audio formats (playback): MP3, WMA, Wave, MP1, MP2, MP4, AIFF, OGG, M4A, M4V, M4P, AAC, AC3, APE, TTA, OFR, SPX, FLAC & CDA.
• Audio conversion: any of the supported formats above can be re-encoded into MP3.
• Music organizer: BBox can re-organize your music collection into a hierarchical directory structure automatically if you want it to.
• Other features: comes pre-loaded with some fantastic visualizations, an equalizer, crossfader for song transitions, spectrum analyzer, export to M3U, etc.

What BBox does not offer

• Audio conversion restricted to MP3 format (honestly, what is the percentage of users that would want other formats?). For more conversion formats, check out Pepsky Free Audio Converter.
• No audio CD burning (use CDBurnerXP or Pepsky Free Audio Converter if you want this).
• No Podcasting support. (Use Juice or Doppler if you want this functionality).
• No smartlists or rule-based creation of playlists.
• No auto monitoring of folders and syncing with the music library.
• No uploading audio files to portable audio devices (for Ipods, use Floola)

The verdict: BBoxV2 manages to hold its own alongside some fantastic audio players/managers that are out there (aside from the ones mentioned above, I might also mention Quintessential Media Player, AIMP2, Foobar2000, etc). It manages to combine a very low resource utilization with a very full (and powerful) set of functions that in many cases preclude the need for a larger, more resource intensive audio player. Its also very well designed, with a very intuitive layout. (You can also easily find other freeware programs that provide some of the functions it does not provide if you need to). BBoxV2 is definitely a winner.

Version Tested: 2.0.0.440

Compatibility: Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP; [UPDATE] now works on Vista!

Download link here (approx 4.94 megs); also visit the program page for more information.

This is Adobe’s foray into the content streaming market, competing with the likes of Miro, Joost, and a few dozen others that have mushroomed over the past few months (see this posting).

With all these streaming video services popping up its hard to see why a user would favor any particular one over the others. I think I am a typical user in that I personally would seek out YouTube first and foremost whenever I am seeking video content, but Adobe Media Player is distinct from YouTube in a number of ways, although it is not really differentiated from the many other desktop content management/delivery platforms. Here are more notes on this program:

• The content: the video content offered is licensed from a number of networks such as CBS, MTV, PBS and others, such that you are able to watch older episodes of CSI for example.
• Finding what you seek: although the videos are sorted into subject categories as well as networks, I got a feeling that the complete unpredictability of the kind of programming that is offered will make it unlikely that I or a user like me would be turning to Adobe Media Player to watch video content. Unless the user has the time and inclination to simply browse what’s on offer, in which case he/she might find some gems. The search box, unfortunately, offers search within episodes but not across networks.
• The user experience: the program feels like a very sleek iTunes or Podcasting client for videos. It actually looks and feels good, very responsive and intuitive, making navigating through the program quite a pleasant experience. The option to bookmark favorite channels is quite convenient.
• Downloading: although in general downloading media takes places efficiently and seamlessly, some programs are blocked and are only viewable when online.
• Quality: in general the quality is excellent.

The verdict: overall a nice product, whether or not it will be successful and/or relevant. Programs such as Miro and Joost have an advantage and Adobe has some ground to cover (Miro has a large, thriving community that contributes content, Joost has a larger network and more licensing deals). It is difficult to imagine that any of these content management platforms will differentiate itself based on content, as they are all dependent on the same content sources/networks, so perhaps what it will boil down to in the end is the design of the product and the community that is built around it. I do not think that the fact that Adobe requires the installation of it’s AIR platform to run this will end up being a liability for the product.

To summarize, a good product with good content and a good user experience, but to be honest I’m not sure that I will keep it installed on my machine, the simple reason being that I do not have the time to browse random content. The question is whether Adobe Media Player can get to the critical mass of content that can compel users to actively install and use it, and that remains to be seen.

Version Tested: 1.0 Build 391096

Compatibility: Windows Vista/XP, Mac. Requires Adobe Air.

Go to Adobe Media Player page to download the latest version (approx 1.4 megs).

Rating

Version tested: 1.0

CD Art Display is a small, memory resident program that displays the cover art and lyrics on the desktop for whatever song is being played on your media player. It will look for the song artwork locally on your hard drive and, if not found, will download it from various sources on the internet. It also provides a comprehensive range of media player controls from the desktop.

This program reminds me of moreTunes, but there are differences between the two (see below). Here are some notes on CD Art Display:

• Displays album art: will look for artwork files locally and, if not found, attempts to retrieve it online. Allows you to set rules/priorities for where to find artwork. For example the program defaults are : read ID3v3 tag cover first, the look for folder.jpg in the song folder, then in the same place look for front.jpg, then look in a specific folder under %artist% – %album%.jpg. If not found it will then do a search on Amazon.com (or any of the other country Amazons). Rules are customizable and priorities easily changed.
• Lyrics: can download and display song Lyrics, and will save these locally for future access. Will show Lyrics in a nice floating window above the artwork thumbnail (as opposed to the browser, which is how most programs do it). Can be set to display lyrics on all songs played by default.
• Player controls: the program interface includes all the controls that you need pinned straight on the desktop, including interactive progress bar, mouse-wheel adjustable volume, 5-star rating, repeat/shuffle, add to playlist, as well as the prerequisite stop/start/back/forward/etc.
• Skinnable: select from multiple display styles; many skins available and downloadable. While you can customize every single detail related to how this program looks, the implementation is rather confusing and a bit too much work (simply making the thumbnail bigger took me quite a while to figure out).
• Placement: your thumbnail can positioned anywhere on the screen; you can optionally apply “magic borders”, always on top, pin to desktop, and lock position.
• Cover Search: you can manually start an artwork search using different resources such as: Amazon, Google, and Discogs.
• Supported media players: AlbumPlayer, Helium Music Manager, iTunes, Winamp (not Winamp lite), Windows Media Player, MediaMonkey, foobar2000 (with Winamp API Emulator plugin), MP3Toys, QMP and musikCube.
• Windows Live Messenger: apparently this app can send a notification of the song being played as well as the artwork through Windows Live Messenger. I don’t use WLM so I did not try this.

Quick comparison with moreTunes: while moreTunes has more information-gathering options (band info/biography, album info) as well as acting as a recommendation engine, I kind of prefer the fact that CD Art Display is more straightforward. I particularly like the way CD Art Display displays Lyrics in a nice floating window rather than in the browser. The CD Art Display interface is also highly customizable whereas moreTunes isn’t, and CD Art Display provides desktop-based player controls, which moreTunes doesn’t. Strangely, CD Art Display takes up approximately 15 megs of memory while moreTunes occupies roughly a third of that.

My wish list (or how this program can be even better):

• The ability to save artwork straight to ID3v3 tag. It would be nice if the program allowed for doing this either through prompting the user or automatically.
• The ability to change the look and feel through a graphical interface; e.g. to be able to resize or move elements around rather than by changing values in boxes.
• Setting priorities for automatic cover search: e.g. something like: if you don’t find it on Amazon, try Amazon.fr, then Discogs, then Google, etc.
• Bugfixes: when using CD Art Display with Mediamonkey, I experienced a crash whenever I tried to rate a song using the displayed stars. That was the only bug I experienced, though, and I’m sure it will be fixed in future versions.

Compatibility: Windows XP/Vista; requires VB6 Runtimes.

Go to the program page to get the latest version (approx 1 meg).

Rating

Version tested: 1.0

JLC’s Internet TV is a freeware program which lists and displays over 1,300 TV channels that are available for streaming over the internet.

I’ve seen a number of “free internet TV” programs that promise hundreds of channels, but I usually shy away from featuring them on Freewaregenius. There are a number of reasons for this: the programs are usually poorly designed with a gaudy look and a small screen that is virtually drowning in a sea of ads. Moreover, the notion of “free internet TV” itself is a bit of a misnomer, given that the featured programming is typically a streaming, pre-recorded short segment that repeats over and over.

This is why JLC’s Internet TV was such a breath of fresh air. It has a simple yet functional (ad-free) design that works very well, and a nice-size screen that you can resize freely. Here’s what you need to know about this program:

• JLC imports its list of channels from WWITV.com and the program includes a channels updater that will ensure that it features the latest list of channels. (This does not occur automatically; he help file suggests you update the channels list once a week).
• The UI is very economical and works well. You can filter the list of channels by country of origin and can sort the different fields of information within the channels list by clicking on the column header. A handy search function is also provided to help you find exactly what you’re looking for (note that it will search the filtered list; to search all entries make sure to set to “All countries” first).
• You can also filter by favorite channles; to add channels to favorites right click on your desired entry and click “add to favorites”.
• Includes over 1300 TV channels available for viewing. Note that these are pre-recorded segments that are periodically updated and are not the same as what you would see if you were watching the station live. Does not feature any adult or erotic stations.

This is an interesting program that is as good as any for-pay program of its kind. For myself, it enables me to watch the five minute BBC world service newscast on-demand (and while its not the same as watching the real thing that’s hardly JLC’s fault). If you are looking for a particular streaming TV station or if you’re curious about internet streaming TV by all means try this program out.

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program page to get the latest version (approx 105K).

Version tested: 1.0.3.1 beta

LiberTV is a local client software that can download or stream films, videos, and podcasts from online sources. It promises quality “high definition” videos updated daily that you can browse through by category using a well designed user interface.

I am going to use a question/answer format for this review:

Q: What is this program about? Is it another one of those ’streaming TV’ programs that promise access to hundreds of TV stations from all around the world?
A: This program seems to be a sort of video uploading/downloading service similar to YouTube, but one that uses a local client. LiberTV can stream content from online TV stations if you provide the URLs (which you can easily do with your browser). Its main function is giving access to its own library of videos and films. It is similar to the Democracy Player, but is also different in many ways.

Q: Why would I use this instead of YouTube?
A: There are 2 reasons that I can think of: The first is that, unlike your standard YouTube video, the quality of the videos on LiberTV is quite high. The second reason is the nature of content that is on offer; I got the sense that there was some careful selection involved in the repertoire of videos available. Click here, here and here for examples of some of the films that are on offer, just to get an idea of the kinds of films you can find.

Q: Where does the content come from? Is it legal?
A: My guess is that it is not legal. LiberTV apparently allows users to create an account and upload content. To quote their website “LiberTV Player aggregates it’s content from various online sources, user uploads and podcasts”. When you do upload you also have to provide substantial information on the video you are uploading. The main question I wonder about is how they guarantee the promised high video quality if everyone is uploading random content. Do they have some sort of screening process, perhaps? I’m not sure what the process may be but I will say that the content submission feels like its deliberate and centralized.

Q: If I am going to be downloading/viewing copyrighted content anyway, why not use a torrent client or some other P2P service in order to get the titles I am looking for?
A: For the same reasons above as to why you might use this over YouTube. With LiberTV you know pretty much what it is you are downloading and the quality of the video. I will also add that, unlike torrent, LiberTV provides a nice ’browsing’ experience where you can browse and learn about new content that you might find interesting. It also provides a lot of information on every title, as well as user comments and ratings, although these seem to be few and far between at the moment.

Q: How user friendly is this? Is it well designed?
A: LiberTV is a good looking program and the user interface is really good. The main ’channel guide’ section is very well laid out and offers filters and tags. There is a search functionality which works extremely well. There is a lot of information on every video you will find, including IMDB links in many instances. The content is categories into intuitive ’channels’, which include ’Movie Trailers’, ’Documentaries’, ’News’, ’Movies’, ’Comedy’, ’Animation’, ’Music’, as well as 4 or 5 others.

Q: How does it compare to Democracy?
A: While I haven’t used Democracy extensively, I can list some differences. The most important is LiberTV’s focus on high quality “high definition” videos, which I do not believe is necessarily a focus for Democracy. Democracy has much more content but you do get the impression that LiberTV manages to do more with less (you get the sense that there is much less random content on LiberTV, which could be both a good thing and a bad thing, depending on your perspective). I would say that LiberTV somehow manages to provide a more enjoyable browsing experience. Unlike Democracy, it does not connect to YouTube and cannot be used as a torrent download client. Oh, I also think they did a good job finding a name that stands up to Democracy’s winsome title.

Q: How stable is this and what kind of technology does it employ?
A: Although still in beta, I found it to be remarkably stable and reliable. Some minor issues still remain, as when it displays a “you are not connectible” message even when I am obviously able to browse, download, and view content. Some videos would not stream even when they would download locally. I found a forum posting somewhere that stated that LiberTV uses the torrent file transfer protocol. It seems to use its own internal codecs for playback.

One thing I do want to say is, given that LiberTV minimizes to the system tray when you exit (presumably to finish all those downloading jobs that you asked for in the background), it wasn’t clear to me if it is also constantly using my computer and internet connection as a P2P node all the time. Whatever the situation is, they really need to proactively make it very clear. In the meanwhile I will simply exit from the system tray whenever I am not actively using the program.

Q: Can you play the downloaded video files separately using another media player?
A: I think for most downloads you can, although there were some that were in a format that I hadn’t seen before and was not able to play independently.

Q: Do you recommend this software?
A: Yes, for a number of reasons. I really like the selection and range of available videos. Browsing videos with LiberTV is a very pleasant, satisfying experience, and you really get a sense that its possible to find good content that is high quality. One of the most valuable things that this program offers is lengthy descriptions for most of the titles available, and I really hope that they are able to maintain that as the platform grows bigger and more people start adding content. If they are doing behind the scene editorializing to keep up the level of the content, it is working. If this platform is able to maintain the sense of ’quality rather than quantity’ it will definitely be successful. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Compatibility: WinXp (no info on Vista); 500mhz processor, 128megs RAM, broadband internet connection

Go to the program home page to get the latest version.

MP3Tunes.com is a web service that allows you to store your music collection online and offers unlimited storage space for this, even for free accounts. It makes your music available for you to listen to or download from anywhere through the MP3Tunes.com web interface.

How it works: first, you create an account (called a ’locker’) with MP3Tunes.com. Initially this will likely have a 1-Gig maximum ceiling, but eventually will be upgraded to unlimited storage. There are a number of ways to upload/download your music into your locker, foremost of which is Oboe, a little program for Windows, Mac, or Linux which is installed locally and can sync your audio files between your hard drive and your online locker (or you could just do one way uploads or downloads if you prefer).

If you are downloading music from the internet you could use ’webload’, a feature within the MP3Tunes.com site, that will transfer the files (if you have the URL to download from), straight into your locker, without the need to download on the hard drive first. MP3Tunes.com also provides plugins for IE and Firefox that can identify tracks that you might encounter on websites and ’sideload’ these straight into your locker.

What would you do with unlimited online storage for your MP3s? Here are some of the possibilities:

• Make your music collection available anywhere there is an internet connection. Tired of lugging that external hard drive with all your MP3’s to work and back? Good, because once you upload all of your audio files to MP3Tunes you wouldn’t need to do that any more; you can have your music streamed into your work computer through the MP3Tunes.com website.
• Safely back-up all of your music: just imagine; you have your entire 80 Gigabytes of music in an external drive which you accidentally drop. Not a pretty image. With MP3Tunes you can have all that music backed up safely on the MP3Tunes.com servers.
• Store your entire music library in a single location. my music collection, for example, is 80 Gigs and growing. I have a 60 Gig Ipod and can only afford to store 25 Gigs or so worth of music on my laptop. The only way I can everything in one place is to buy an external hard drive. MP3Tunes.com is an option that I can resort to instead, although it is an open question whether it would be more convenient than simply buying a hard drive (see below).

Sounds good! – but how well does it really work? After using this service for a while, here’s what I found

• Music quality is very good; and streaming works well and without problems.
• Files that are re-downloaded retain the original bitrate and quality; it does not seem that there is any re-encoding or alteration of the file.
• The player offered on the MP3Tunes.com website is very competent; music is navigated through a Windows Explorer-style hierarchical structure by artist, album or playlist. A search box is available that can help find what you want quickly. The player also allows for quick and easy creation of playlists.
• On my DSL connection with wireless router I was able to get upload speeds of 45k/sec, while downloads were 200k/sec on average. To transfer my entire 80 Gigs worth of music I would therefore probably need several nights of uploading.
• It seems that there is no way to fix/edit tags for the music inside your locker; let’s face it, though, you were never going to get round to doing it anyway . I might mention here that with the paid service it is possible to automatically sync album art.
• The free version of this service is supported by ads, and maximum file size is restricted to maximum of 10 megs. Album artwork is also suppressed in the free version.
• Plugins are available for iTunes and Winamp that enable streaming/playing your music straight into these media players. I don’t use any of these so I was not able to test this.

Differences between paid and free versions: The only feature that I really want that the paid service offers ($39.95 annually) is album art displays and the ability to sync these with the music files. Other features offered are support for DRM protected iTunes tracks, a max file size of 50 megs, customer support, and playing music on “web capable” devices.
The Verdict: this service offers very reliable downloads and uploads and excellent quality streaming. Uploading all of your music, however, can be a lot of work if you have a huge library, and simply buying a hard drive may be more convenient, especially if you do a lot of maintenance on your audio files in terms of fixing tag information and album art. That being said my advice to you is to go ahead and try it; it is free, and although initially getting all of your audio files uploaded can be a little bit time consuming, it may well pay off dividends in terms of convenience and the ability to listen to your library from anywhere; not to mention simply having your music stashed away safely.

Go to the mp3tunes.com page.

Version tested: 2.5.4.978

MediaMonkey is an advanced music manager comprising a music player, cd ripper, audio converter, ID3 Tag editor, and playlist generator. It also supports external MP3 players, including the Ipod.

If you’ve been looking for a free program that can be a kind of one-stop-shop of audio, doing everything that you might possibly want to do with your library of audio files (and doing it well) – MediaMonkey just might be that program.

Here are some of the reasons why this program is so cool:

• Audio format conversions. Supported formats are MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, and FLAC.
• Rips and burns music CD’s.
• Powerful Tag editing functionality: as good as it gets, with support for importing ID3 tags and album art from external resources like Amazon and Freedb. Auto tagging tracks and saving album art from Amazon is just beautiful!
• Organization: allows you to automatically change your music library’s folder structure based on your audio files’ tag information.
• Dynamic Playlists: you can easily create these, e.g. “all tracks from the ‘Electronic’ genre from 2004 to 2006″. Unfortunately, advanced dynamic playlists based on multiple criteria are only availabe in the paid ‘Gold’ version of the program.
• Search: makes it possible to find the music you are looking for in a snap.
• It offers versatile scripting support. In fact there are hundreds of downloadable scripts and skins that a community of enthusiasts have created that enable MediaMonkey to do pretty much anything you could think of.
• Also offers compatibility with Winamp 2 plugins.
• Synchronization with MP3 players, including the Ipod is seamless. The paid version allows for automatic file conversion when syncing music with hardware players (this sounds nice but I can certainly live without it).
• It is a music player not an audio player. As far as I am concerned this is a huge PLUS, as this would have been over-reach, and I already have my favorite freeware video players which I am extremely happy with (VLC media player and GOM Player).
• The program also features a motley collection of cool little features, such as controlling the player by mouse gestures, support for skins, a right-click ‘find more from the same’ command that delivers tracks from the same artist, album, genre, etc.
• MediaMonkey seems to me to be less resource intensive than some other shareware ‘Music Management’ software that I have used (specifically Media Center and Musicmatch).

Here are some of the reasons why it is not as cool as it could be:

• The iTunes like interface is functional but not very exciting.
• No support for browsing by album art. This is surprising as many shareware music managers have this. Note that I DID find a script that adds this functionality to MediaMonkey here (works great); it required a bit of manual fiddling with the registry to run properly, though.
• No support for some protected file formats such as WMA v10 and protected AAC files (a non-issue to me, but some might want to know this).
• Forces you to manually install LAME MP3 encoder if you want to still be able to encode and convert to MP3 after 30 days of installation. This is a nuisance, but doable fairly easily (click here for instructions).

Differences between free and paid versions: The two most important features that the paid version provides are (1) real-time audio library scanning, which keeps your library updated without you telling MediaMonkey to re-scan your folders, and (2) advanced dynamic playlist generation for multiple criteria (e.g. I want a playlist for all ‘Rock’ genre tracks rated 4 and above where the year is between 2005 and 2006). Other differences include the need to manually install the MP3 encoder I mentioned above, plus a few others which to me aren’t that significant.

For all of MediaMonkey’s functions you could find strong 100% freeware titles that can do each one of them seperately. You could have the Music Management and dynamic playlists portion with the excellent MusikCube, ID3 Tagging and Amazon/CDDB resources are offered with Mp3Tag, and encoding and converting is offered by many programs, e.g. BonkEnc. MediaMonkey offers all of these functions at the same place, does a really good job at each one of them, and syncs with external MP3 players and the Ipod (as of this writing MusikCube does not have Ipod support).

Additionally, one of the real strengths of MediaMonkey is the community that has grown around it of people who absolutely love it (and create all sorts of scripts and plugins for it). If you’re an Ipod owner and do not want to use iTunes you could do worse than use MediaMonkey. I recommend it higly.

Go to the download page for the latest version. The program home page.

GOM Player is a freeware player for DVDs and Video Files.

Rating: 5

Version tested: 2,0,9,360

• It offers advanced features and a really slick look-and-feel
• Comes with its own resident codecs, meaning that you WILL be able to play pretty much every format without needing to find, download, and install different codecs for different formats.
• Also purports to have patented technology that allows you to play partially downloaded files! I haven’t tried this, but it sounds good to me.

A free alternative to: PowerDVD, WinDVD

Download Here. The Developer’s Site.