Possible uses are up to your imagination, and include merging disparate chapters or parts of an audiobook into a single file, archiving and organizing albums, and creating a single file for easier publishing or sharing on the net.

Ir ecently downloaded an audiobook that was dispersed over 36 or so separate MP3 files. As I started listening I realized that it was quite difficult to keep track of where I last left off and which of the numbered files I had already listened to. Also, it was impossible to get an overall mental picture of how many minutes I had listened to and how many still remain.

This is when I started looking for free programs that can merge audio files into one, and MakeItOne MP3 Album Maker is one of the best that I found. Here’s what I like about it:

1. The merging process is reversible: MakeItOne seems to store the information needed for this within the audio file itself.
2. Preserves audio tags: with the ability to edit this data before combining.
3. Ability to add album art: within the MP3 file itself, from a locally saved image file. Will not fetch from the internet.
4. Nice Interface: with drag and drop functionality
5. Command line interface/scripting option: is available
6. Can split Albumwrap-merged files: which you may occasionally encounter on the internet.
7. Supports VBR: in some fashion. MP3s that are between 96-320Kbps 44KHz 16bit Stereo should play fine, but the duration of the album will be misreporeted. However, to quote the developer’s site, the program’s "support for VBR is no worse currently than any other Album Maker/Joiner/Wrapper Mp3 application." Go here for more info.

The verdict: if you need to merge MP3 files this is one of the best options around. If I could ask for one feature, however, it would be the option to save CUE files, which some related programs utilize. Aside from that I can report this program does exactly what it promises and does it well. Recommended.

Version Tested: 3.4

Compatibility: WinAll. Requires MS .NET Framework 1.1 or higher for XP.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 432K).

Want to convert your videos so you could play them on your Ipod or Iphone? iPodMe is a handy little program that can do this for you. iPodME is built around a handful of pre-determined conversion "profiles" designed to make it easy for users to decide on what kind of conversion they want based on 3 parameters: the desired speed of conversion (slow/fast/turbo), and whether to optimize for video quality or for optimal video size. It also offers a "custom" profile for user who, like me, prefer to have more control over what the conversion parameters are.

Note: if you want a simple, short guide for how to make quick, good conversions with iPodMe see my "Recommended conversions" section below.

Here are seven eight reasons why this program is cool:

1. The way it deals with video resolution: when making your decision as to the resolution you prefer (640×480, 480×320, or 320×240), iPodMe will automatically resize to the closest resolution to the one you request while maintaining the original aspect ratio, without stretching or distorting or surrounding your video with black lines on top and bottom. If you actually want to stretch and resize your video you can check a box and the program can do that as well.
2. Encoders: you can choose from either x264 or Xvid. Both are built in; no need to worry about getting these installed on your system separately.
3. Three quality modes: you can either choose to (a) set average bitrate, (b) set a constant quality quantizer, or (c) set Output size, and let the program determine the bitrate. This third one is the most useful in my opinion and makes the program much more practical to use than other similar programs that do not have this option.
4. Batch conversions: are possible. Will use the same settings for all selected files, which can be useful if, say, you are converting a bunch of episodes from a TV series and want the same output parameters.
5. Portable: a single, self contained file, approx 4 megs. Unzip and run. Note that it requires MS .NET to run.
6. The user interface: simple, uncomplicated, straightforward. Doesn’t drown you in options and does not throw unexpected curveballs.
7. Can burn subtitles: use an .srt subtitle file with the exact same name as the video you are converting.
8. Open source: yes, you can download the source freely

Recommended conversions: here’s what I do to get excellent video conversions for my iPhone every time.

1. Resolution: set at 640×480. This is suitable for most recent Ipods/Iphones (5th gen+). If you have an older Ipod you may need to use 320×240. I like this resolution because it plays well on both the Ipod and the PC screens.
2. Profile: custom
3. Click the "More options" button and set the output folder where you want your converted files.
4. Encoder: x264
5. Profile: Best Quality. Might take slightly longer than the others, but usually I’m not concerned about that.
6. Mode: Output size. Tell it the size of your output file in megs. I usually set it somewhere close to the original or 700 megs to fit a single CD, if that is a concern.
7. Check "resample audio track", set Frequency at 48000
8. Set bitrate at 160 kbps (which is the max that can be used on an Ipod video).
9. Voila. You’re done.

The verdict: a terrific program that does the job brilliantly. What I like about this program is that I can recommend it to people who want to convert videos for their iPods/iPhones knowing that it supports 640×480 resolutions (some Ipod video converters don’t), not worrying about whether they will have the correct encoders installed on their machines, and knowing that they have the option to just set the output video size, instead of messing with bitrates and such.

Also, I have tested this with about a dozen or so conversions and found it to be very reliable. I highly recommend it!

Version Tested: 2.0

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista. Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or newer. (This is already pre-installed in Vista).

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 3.9 megs).

[Editor's note: this review was written by reader Gaurav Paul with some subsequent editing by the webmaster].

Imagine a situation (or perhaps this may have actually happened) where you may have cleared a very difficult level in a game that nobody from your circle ever dreamed of. “I did it man” you tell them, to which their response is, unfortunately: “give us the cheat, where is it ?!”. The problem is that almost all screen recording/capturing software will record normal desktop activity but will not handle 3D graphics. Don’t fret, though, for this tiny software, which comes up to a mere 257K download, is here to help you produce some proof.

Taksi is able to record 3D applications that use DirectX 8, DirectX 9, OpenGL, or GDI API. It screen-records your favorite applications, allows you to choose your FPS setting, and encodes the output into video files using your favorite codec(s). It can also capture screenshots easily so you can share them with others – and it’s FREE. Here are more notes on this program:

• How to use: the first thing you have to do is let Taksi know which app you want it to record. You cannot specify an area of the screen; it will record the output generated by the app you select (whether it is 3D graphics output or normal app activity).
• App Hook: this allows you to tell Taksi to latch on to the next app that you open or select.
• Recording: Taksi will (optionally) superimpose a small, square indicator on the top left of your screen that is there to show the current app which is being recorded/captured.
• Half-size output: you have the option to produce full size videos or half the original output resolution. The latter can be very valuable in terms of cutting the video size down. I personally would always use this option by default, especially if the videos are intended to be ultimately published on the net (where chances are they will be made even smaller).
• Hotkeys: you can define hotkeys for various controls such as record/pause/stop functions. Many of these are function keys by default but can be changed, which is good in the case that your game or app actually uses that hotkey (for example you can change “begin recording” from F6 to Alt+F6 if you need to).
• Codecs: choose the type of video and audio codecs (installed in the system) to encode with. Keep in mind the device you may want to play it on when you do this. If you are unsure of a good codec, download and install Xvid, found here.
• Target frame rate: choose the target FPS as per your convenience. Be mindful that the higher the frame rate the larger the size of the captured file.
• Performance: is generally very good although the game I was recording was somewhat choppy and less “smooth” in its 3D rendering than usual.

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

• Audio support: will make a huge difference, obviously. The Taksi website states that Audio support is in the works but it seems to be taking a long time (the last update of this app reviewed here is dated June 2006). You may want to record audio separately (e.g. with a program like Mp3MyMp3) and re-combine with your video using an editor such as VirtualDub or AviDemux.

The verdict: overall this is a great app to work with and use. Initially you might have to experiment with codec, compression, and FPS settings as these relate to your desired video quality, but you are certain to figure it out quickly after two or three trials. You will finally end up loving it just as I did!

Anyone will quickly be able to use this tool, from budding gamers playing Counter-Strike (or any other game) to people who may want to create and publish video tutorials on, say, 3D modeling software.

While Taksi specializes in 3D graphics, it is also great if you are interested in video-recording a specific (3D or non 3D) app or apps without worrying about specifying the exact recording area around it, etc. For screencasts of general desktop activity other free apps such as CamStudio or Debut Video Recorder are probably more suitable (and will record audio to boot).

Version Tested: 0.76. Tested apps: Counter Strike 1.6, Google Chrome, winRAR, Notepad.

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 258K).

t

• PowerPoint to video to DVD: using “EM PowerPoint to Video Converter Free” (PPT to AVI), then doing the DVD authoring using DVD Flick (AVI to DVD).
• PowerPoint to Flash SWF to AVI to DVD: using iSpring Converter Free (PPT to SWF); then using either SWF2AVI or CamStudio (SWF to AVI), and finally DVD Flick (AVI to DVD).
• PowerPoint to JPEG to DVD: using PowerPoint Image Copier (PPT to JPG) then authoring a DVD slideshow using DVD Slideshow GUI (JPG to DVD).

Notes:

• All of the methods described here require that PowerPoint be installed on your machine.
• While I use PPT to refer to PowerPoint files you could in fact convert any PowerPoint file extension that your version of PowerPoint supports (e.g. PPS, or PPTS, PPTM, etc. if using PowerPoint 2007).
• It took a while to research and write this post so if you like this post please Digg or Stumble it.

I am going to segment the process of converting a PowerPoint file into 2 parts: (1) capturing the visual part of the presentation, and (2) packaging it into a DVD.

1. PPT to AVI: EM PowerPoint to Video Converter Free .

• Experiment first to see if everything works out as you want it to; note that in testing this application I have encountered instances where a visual element in the original presentation is incorrectly placed in the output video.
• This program installs a media player and DVD burner in the program directory, and these cannot be uninstalled seperately. The DVD burner component, moreover, requires VOB or MPG files as inputs to author a DVD, but refused to burn my resulting presentations when I converted them to MPG.
• Burning to DVD: see “DVD Flick” in “Part2 below – Packaging the presentation to DVD”.

2. PPT to SWF: iSpring Converter Free . This is a powerful free PowerPoint extension that can convert PowerPoint files to flash (SWF) files. Some notes on this one:

• Output: the resulting SWF file when I tested this program was 720×526 in resolution ; it did not offer me any resize options. iSpring will preserve all animations, transition effects, sounds, and videos that may be in the PPT file but will not capture any rehearsed narration that may have been saved into the PPT file (this is available in the paid version only).
• HTML/Player: iSpring will also generate an HTML page that incorporates a player to play the converted SWF within your browser (or, alternately, uploaded and played from a web site).
• Settings / auto play: if you plan to eventually convert your SWF to a video file (AVI) in an automated fashion using a SWF to video converter, in the “Publish” settings, make sure to check “change all slides automatically” and “auto-play on-click animations”. This will ensure that your resulting SWF file plays continuously and does not wait for user input to advance (and therefore behaves like a video rather than being interactive).
• Settings / manual play: if you plan to convert your SWF to a video file (AVI) using a screen recording program and would like to set the pace/speed of the presentation manually, uncheck “change all slides automatically” and “auto-play on-click animations”. This will give you on-click control over animation events and slide transitions.
• If you’ve not sure what I mean by the “settings” above, see the “SWF to AVI” sections (2a) and (2b) in Part 2 below.

3. PPT to JPG: PowerPoint Image Copier . This little free gem will process a PowerPoint file and output each slide and/or animation event as a series of JPG’s.

So, for example, a slide with 2 animation events (say click: get a bullet point, and then click: a chart flies in) will output 3 jpg’s with PowerPoint Image Copier (the initial slide with just the title, the slide with the bullet point displayed, and the slide with the bullet point and chart together).

This program is a small, no-install program that is able to capture all of the visual content of a PowerPoint presentation as distinct JPG images; on the other hand it will not capture any animations or transitions that may have been used and certainly not any sound or narration.

PowerPoint Image Copier works in a rather quirky way: it will open your PowerPoint presentation using PowerPoint in full-screen mode and then proceed to scroll through all the slides and events and take snapshots of them. However, any on-screen events that may occur during this process will also be captured (for example your IM client window suddenly popping up on-screen, etc.) – so make sure to have a controlled environment where nothing else is going to interrupt the on-screen activity.

I will not mince words: this little program has unexpectedly come out of nowhere to become one of my favorite video conversion program hands down. The primary reason for this is in it’s user interface: the design is simple and makes sense, yet delivers a high degree of control and advanced functionality. Here are the top 8 reasons why this program rocks:

1. Set output width, not output resolution: you can tell Automen, for example, that you want your output video to be 640 pixels in width and it will determine what the height should be based on the input video aspect ratio. This is a good thing, as one thing I do NOT understand in most video converters is their insistence on the user defining the full, fixed output video resolution (e.g. 630×480), which is totally needless and in many situations results in converted movies with aspect ratios that are out of whack. You will not have to worry about wrong aspect ratios with Automen.
2. Encode by desired file size, not bitrate: how many people know what bitrate is? Not many, yet many video conversion programs insist on asking the user for their desired video bitrate. Instead these programs can do what Automen does and ask the user for the desired video size in megs, something which everyone can understand (the larger the video the more bitrate it can give you and the higher the quality). If you must adjust the bitrate manually, however, you can do so in the “advanced settings” tab.
3. Supports multithreaded processing: i.e. will take advantage of multiple core CPUs for faster conversion (check the box in the lower left corner of the ’basic settings’ tab to turn this on).
4. Offers multiple encoding quality settings: aside from setting the output size, which will greatly influence the output quality, you can select from a number of encoding presets (e.g. single pass or two pass, slow or fast, etc). In this case the tradeoff is between quality on the one hand and how quickly you want the conversion to be completed on the other.
5. Process only video, only audio, or both: simply check the appropriate box in the “advanced settings” tab. You can extract (demux) audio tracks from video files by checking the audio tab and unchecking the video tab.
6. Split output videos into multiple files: simply set the size in megs for each desired chunk to split into.
7. Normalize audio: for your audio track, whether as part of a video or when demuxing. Check the appropriate box in the “advanced settings” tab for this.
8. Self contained: once you download and uncompress, the Automen directory comes with all the tools/filters you will need to perform conversions. Note that on first use you will need to adjust the paths to point to the various tools inside the Automen folder (see screenshot on the right for an example whereby Automen is placed in the root (C:) drive); MKVMerge is optional). If you need a freeware program that can decompress .RAR check out Tugzip, Jzip, or ExtractNow.

More info on this program:

• Other advanced functions: cropping (with preview option), denoise (light/normal/severe), and the ability to pick and choose a resizing filter. There’s even the option to download and convert streaming video from a URL in the clipboard, which I tried without success (but wasn’t really that interested in anyway).
• Containers: are bound to codecs, such that encoding with Xvid will always result in an AVI file, and encoding with x264 will always produce an MP4 file, etc. This, is to provide “simplicity and automation” according to the program’s author.
• Batch encoding: is possible. Add jobs to the queue then start all jobs at once. One glitch here is that if you close the queue window for whatever reason then continue adding jobs there does not seem to be a way to get it back again.
• Source code: is available for download.

Wish list:

• The ability to merge output files: please.

The verdict: this program combines a simplicity of user experience while simultaneously being powerful and offering advanced functionality under the hood. One thing that some users will miss I am sure is the ability to use and or create “profiles”, which has become fashionable in many video converters. It also lacks some functionality such as support for hardcoding subtitles, joining output files, and the ability to mix and match container formats and codecs.

On the flip side, the reason I am giving this program the (coveted ) Freewaregenius Pick award is because Automen is an intuitive tool that delivers effective video conversion very well and is flexible and powerful enough to do exactly what I want quickly and easily. Definitely a keeper.

Version Tested: 5.0

Compatibility: WinAll. Also coming soon for Linux, it seems.

Go to Automen forum page to download the latest version (approx 10.3 megs).

I’ve always had an interest in the various software that can remove DRM protection from MP3s, and with iTunes becoming the biggest music retailer in the US I am sure that a lot of people out there would love to find a solution for stripping DRMS protection from their purchases. If this applies to you I present the very strangely named yet rather brilliant “DVDnextCOPY iTurns Manager” (and yes it actually is iTurns, not iTunes, no typo there!). I tested this program on DRMS protected MP3s downloaded from the iTunes store and it worked brilliantly. Here’s more info on this program:

• How it works: it takes advantage of the option in iTunes to burn DRMS protected audio files to CD. It will install a virtual CD-writer driver on your machine that you burn to instead of your actual CD writer, and subsequently captures the data then re-encodes it as a normal MP3 (without the need for an actual physical medium).
• Tags/metadata: are fully preserved in the resulting MP3, including album art.
• Requirements: iTunes has to be installed, and it has to cooperate; (i.e. it has to play the DRMS protected songs). You cannot simply remove the DRMS protection of a track that, say, is copied from a friend’s computer as your iTunes will not play those to begin with.
• Re-encoding: be aware that your music will be re-encoded rather simply being stripped of the DRMS (output file format supported is MP3 only in the free version). The good news is that all information is digitally transferred rather than re-recorded, as the case would be in a straight recording program like Mp3MyMp3. If you like to get as close a copy of the original as possible you can make the re-encoding settings as close to the original audio file as possible.
• Legality: according to the developer’s site, this program is actually perfectly legal and does not violate copyright law. This is because DVDnextCOPY iTurns Manager does not actually alter or strip the DRMS protected files from their protection, but rather uses them to encode new files. The tracks also need to be legally yours in the first place as confirmed by the fact that your iTunes will actually play them.
• Difference between the free and paid versions: the paid version offers a range of possible output formats in addition to MP3 (MP4, WMA, OGG), offers various audio CD burn options, direct support from the developer, playlist creation, and a number of other options. Interestingly, it will run even if iTunes is not installed, presumably to allow for the creation of DRMS free files virtually burned from other players not just iTunes, although I am not sure about that point. As far as I am concerned the paid version really does not add that much more value, as there are many excellent freeware software for audio format conversion and burning to CD (e.g. Xrecode, Pepsky, BonkEnc).

The verdict: this program just works! It provides a single-step process that automagically generates DRMS-free copies of your protected tracks in short order, does this fairly quickly and without affecting the audio quality. Kudos to the developers for coming up with such a creative and innovative solution that not only circumvents the DRMS protection but is perfectly legal to boot.

This is good news to me because I never would let myself buy any audio tracks from iTunes as a matter of principle, because of the DRMS protection, and now I feel that I can if I want to (to test this software I downloaded a free single of the day type of thing, which “happily” for my purposes was DRMS protected).

Version Tested: 1.5.4.2

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista. Requires iTunes.

Go to program page to download the latest version (approx 5.7 megs).

If you need a program that can split large MP3 or OGG files, look no further than Mp3splt-gtk. What makes this program noteworthy is the number of different ways that it offers to determine split points inside your audio file. Here are more notes on this program:

• Split by autodetecting silences: you will need to provide the parameters for this such as the threshold level to mark a "silence", the cutpoint offset (0 is the beginning of the silence, 1 is the end), minimum silence length to detect, how many silences to process, and whether to remove the silences between tracks. It actually is quite easy and intuitive; you’ll be on your way the first time you use this method.
• Downloading album info from the internet: (my favorite feature) if what you are splitting is a commercially available recording you can simply search for the audio/album you want to split in the "FreeDB" tab and select the correct match from the list of results. Mp3splt-gtk will use the downloaded track length information to determine the split points, which you can then audit and/or modify if needed in the "splitpoints" tab. This is also a great way to import tag info into your split files.
• Create, view, and edit splitpoints: you can do this visually from the "player" tab (press the play button to get your audio file to load and play your file using the internal player; can also use SnackAmp as an external player). Or you can click on the "Splitpoints" tab and create or edit split points there by typing in or editing time values (by minutes, seconds, and hundred fractions).
• Split by CDDB or CUE files: if you have access to these Mp3splt-gtk is able to use this information for quick audio file splitting.
• Wrapped files: can process files created with Albumwrap or the open source MP3Wrap (these programs can convert multiple audio files into a single file while enabling playing the components individually and maintaining tag information).
• Split by fixed time segments: also supported.

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

• The option to autodetect silences and create split points without actually splitting (i..e. stopping short of splitting, but creating splitpoints in the "Splitpoints" and "Player" tabs). This will give the user the opportunity to audit these by listening to the result and/or edit them before actually splitting.
• Visually representing the audio waves in the "Player" tab, in the style of a sound editor such as Audacity. A little bit of eye candy that could be a really cool addition (although I would settle for just implementing the first point of the wish list above).

The verdict: if you are looking for a program to split MP3 and OGG audio files Mp3splt-gtk is one of the best free programs out there and certainly one of the most feature-rich and most innovative. Highly recommended!.

Version Tested: 0.5.2 (Windows).

Compatibility: WinAll, Linux, MacOSX

Go to program page to download the latest version (approx 17 megs).

I was recently faced with the need to make videos of a user (me) interacting with a site that we’ve created at work. This presented me with the opportunity to do some research and find a good screen-recording program; the last time I’d posted something like this was the Krut Computer Recorder way back in April 2007, but since then there seems to have been a proliferation of good free options. I decided to post this program because it is simple and straightforward, extremely easy to use, and offers a good number of output encoders and formats. Here are more notes on this program:

• Input sources: you can record any input coming from a USB video input device (including a videocam with USB input). You can also record your visible screen or a sub-section of the screen.
• Defining an area of the screen to record: is extremely easy; click on the "select a desktop rectangle tool" and draw a rectangle anywhere on screen. Debut will only record that area and any visible events that take place within it. Alternately you can click the "capture the whole desktop" button to record the entire screen.
• Output: can output in a variety of formats, including AVI, WMV, ASF, MPG, 3PG, MP4, MOV, and FLV). You can use a number of encoders which the program – I believe – installs (including DV video), as well as any encoders that you might have installed on your system (e.g. I installed an Xvid encoder and was easily able to use it to encode video screen captures with Debut).
• Editing output: you can resize the output video on the fly while recording and/or change the framerate to something that you set manually.
• Video effects: you can apply a number of filters on-the-fly (black and white, negative, sepia), and also have the option to change output color settings (brightness, contrast, gamma).
• Text annotation: also supported is adding an on-screen text message that is present across the entire video. You can choose it’s on screen placement, alignment, whether or not to use a background color, font, font-style, and font size, etc. The program also allows for variable date and/or time stamping.
• Hotkeys: you can define hotkeys for most program functions. This is useful when you do not want the program dialog to be visible on screen, and therefore can minimize it and control Debut using the keyboard.
• Other options: include pre-determining the recording time, sending a recorded video on completion as an email attachment, uploading to an FTP server, recording to multiple drives (including network drives), and running an external program, command based or otherwise, after recording to process the resulting file.
• Audio setup: the first time the program runs it will present an "audio setup wizard". There are two sources of audio: internal audio and an audio input device such as a microphone. If you are not interested in the latter you can dismiss this dialog and probably not need it again (if you need to re-run it later you can).
• Installation: please note that the installer for this program will present the option to download and install a number of other programs as well. Most of these programs are non-freeware trial versions. For the purposes of this review I unchecked/disallowed all of these and simply installed the Debut Video Capture software only. If you do not know what the other programs are that are on offer I suggest you not install them.

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

• Selected area: the option to dim the screen around the selected recording area and/or the ability to (optionally) draw a frame around it. Would be great. Also the option to point to an open window and have its dimensions be automatically selected as the screen-capturing area.

The verdict: I really like this program because it presents just the right amount of features and options while still managing to be extremely straightforward and easy to use. The output formats comprise those that 99% of users will ever need (including FLV and MP4 for Ipod/PSP).

The developers of this software are making it available for free in the hope that you will like it and want to add some of the other, related for-pay software that they have on offer, which is fair enough. Just be mindful when installing to pay attention to those checkboxes that will download and install other software that in fact you might not want.

Version Tested: 1.34

Compatibility: Windows 98/2000/XP/2003/Vista .

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 416K).

I received an email from reader Christ T (CT) which had insightful things to say about a number of freeware titles written by Dirk Paehl. CT kindly allowed me to use his mini reviews as a posting.

He has a LOT of nice SMALL programs, notably:

• SimplyZip: 2.22 MB Multi-Archive Tool, with GREAT Encryption ability, spanning/multi-zip, supports Many, MANY Archive types, and it can even run Portably! It’s directory looks like “Universal Extractor”, but it can Create as well as Extract, and more – Very Nice! (screenshot above).
• DP MediaInfo: 0.54 MB, kind of like “GSpot”, only much more comprehensive, IMHO! [Note: for a full Freewaregenius review of the related MediaInfo, go here].
• IndexMaker: 187.28 KB (yes, ’KB’!) & CDtoHTML, 208.35 KB – Which create HTML from Files & Folders and from CD’s/DVD’s (respectively), very handy for cataloging.
• UPXG [UPX Graphical]: the reason I found his site, only 372.55 KB (with Docs & Uninstaller); It’s a Single-File GUI for UPX, but with the UPX 3.03 ’Engine’ BUILT-IN to the single 351 KB ’EXE’ file, Totally Stand-Alone or with optional Shell Integration, plus many other options – I still haven’t figured out how the heck he did it, UPX is 265 KB by itself! Maybe his brain thinks at Machine-Language Level? Beats “UPX Shell”, “UPX Front End”, or “UPX Tool+” – Scary Efficient!

I really like UPXG & SimplyZip particularly, and have been using them a lot lately, with no problems at all.  SimplyZip and Pismo File Mount are working beautifully together.

[Mr Paehl] has many more, not as many as Nir Sofer [NirSoft], but close, and because he speaks German, some documentation takes re-reading/interpretation, but TRULY worth a good look! This guy honestly compares to Nir Sofer or SysInternals software!”

It is also worth noting that Dirk Paehl is involved with the Amok group, who have their own site full of good freeware programs. (See my review of Amok DVD Shrinker; also noteworthy is Amok CD/DVD Burning - a portable full featured “Nero Replacement” type CD/DVD burner.

Go to Dirk Paehl’s Freeware page. Also go to the Amok freeware page.

I’ve been making terrific conversions of DVDs into video files using all freeware tools for a long time, my programs of choice in this regard being AutoGK and more recently Handbrake. Both of these, however, will start processing your files from the DVD/VOB files after the DVD encryption/protection is removed using another, external, program and in most cases after the DVD had been saved (“ripped”) to your hard drive. What BitRipper offers is an integrated solution that consolidates the ripping and conversion parts into a single process, and then attempts to make it as simple to run as clicking a single button.

BitRipper started life as a commercial product that only recently became freeware. Note that in my evaluating this program I will be implicitly comparing it with Handbrake (mentioned above).

What I like about BitRipper: some cool features

• Decrypts and converts: combines the DVD decryption and conversion processes, so that you no longer have to think of these as two distinct parts requiring different programs. More convenient but also will save you a lot of time and manual involvement with the process.
• Handles any DVD: whether its a normal 4.7 Gig size or a double density 8 Gig+ DVD. “Decryption” mentioned above means that BitRipper will copy most commercial, copy-protected DVDs (includes “3rd party” CSS decryption module. (I am guessing that some very recent DVDs might have protections that it will not be able to decrypt).
• Converts on the fly: i.e. does not save the DVD to your hard drive first and therefore does not require gigabytes of free space on your hard drive to run.
• Installer includes codecs: installing BitRipper will also install a number of codecs that you need to perform a conversion, but the program will also use any codecs that you might have pre-installed on your system. I would advise downloading and using the LAME MP3 codec which provides better audio quality options than the included MP3 codec.
• Simplicity: the program is designed to suggest a simple, 1-click conversion (see screenshot above), where you merely insert a disc and press a button. My experience, however, is that this is the case if you do not want/need to customize the conversion settings, at which point things can become both complex and confusing.
• Ability to convert all parts of a track at once: by this I mean that BitRipper will allow you to select all tracks within a DVD at once. Can be very useful, especially when you want to convert all episodes of a TV series at once into a single AVI.
• Customizable: to a good extent; in terms of quality, resolution, aspect ratio, and output file size. More on this in the “wish list” section below.
• Audio normalization: you can easily raise (and lower, if you like) audio volume from the main conversion interface.
• Performance: is quite fast, although this is somewhat subjective and variable.
• Compression: use the Xvid video and Mp3 audio codecs for high compression.

Wish list: what could have been changed and/or done better

• Only AVI/Mpeg supported: which is good and well, except that many would want to watch DVDs on Ipods/PSPs/Handhelds and support for MP4/M4V would have been a great idea. If you want to convert to Ipod Handbrake can do it for you.
• Quality customization is somewhat confusing: e.g. I’m not sure why there are two bit-rate calculators (the function of both being to tell you what you should set the bitrate of your video to be if you want a certain AVI file size and a certain audio quality). If you dig in you will find that there are profiles and presets aplenty that are not intuitive and somewhat difficult to figure out, and not much by the way of explaining what all of it is about. Rather confusing, esp. for a program that prides itself on its simplicity.
• Aspect ratio: although I am listing this as a liability it could conceivably be considered an asset of sorts. If you set the video height/width such that it is larger in aspect ratio than that of the source (and ask it to preserve the original aspect ratio), the program will insert black colored bands on top and bottom of the visible video. I personally prefer how Handbrake automatically resizes the height of the resulting video in accordance with your desired width and the original’s aspect ratio.
• Batch processing: is not supported, although as mentioned above BitRipper will allow you to convert multiple parts of a track (e.g. episodes in a TV series DVD) into a single AVI. (Again Handbrake can do this).
• Subtitles: do not seem to be supported in BitRipper.

The verdict: this program is fantastic if you (a) do not care to customize your video, inwhich case the default settings used (original aspect ratio, original resolution) will probably work just fine, and you can worry about the file size later on, (b) you value the ability to convert in a single click, without ripping to the hard drive first and messing with other programs, and (c) if you are OK with AVI or Mpeg as the output container.

For myself I (a) require more control over the conversion process, and (b) need to convert to Ipod format, which means I will stick to the combination of Handbrake and DVD43 (which when run together can also deliver the option to convert straight from DVD without ripping to hard drive first). Ironcially I find Handbrake to be the better designed of the two despite BitRipper’s focus on a 1-click conversion. Alternately I would also recommend the combination of RipIt4Me or DVD FAB HD Decrypter, and Handbrake.

Version Tested: 1.31 (018)

Compatibility: tested on XP; no info on Vista.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 1.15 megs).

This program is a frontend to FFMpeg, the transcoding engine behind the majority of freeware video conversion programs. Here are some notes on this one:

• No decisions to make: except whether you want to convert to FLV or SWF. No resizing, changing aspect ratio or bitrate, etc. This is part of why I like this program. The resulting video will have the same resolution, aspect ratio, bitrate … etc, as the original. For a more ’transformative’ FLV conversion use Super, Internet Video Converter, etc.
• Super fast: probably because it is not re-encoding individual video and audio tracks but simply creating a new container.
• Supports SWF: which is simply fantastic, and another reason why I decided to feature this program on Freewaregenius.
• Memory use: a nice compact 8 megs.

Wish list

• The ability to go the opposite way (FLV to AVI). I know you can do this with any number of freeware conversion programs (which I mentioned above), but it would be nice to have this functionality here as well using the same simple interface, without giving the user a battery of decisions to make.
• Portability. It would seem that a portable version would be very easy to implement.

The verdict: a very nice free tool to keep in your collection, especially if you just want a simple 1:1 format conversion and re-encoding. You will especially like this tool if you do SWF conversions as well as FLVs.

Version Tested: 3.0

Compatibility: Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP & Vista (not tested on Vista 64-bit)

Download Flash This v3.0 here (8 megs). Program seems to have been removed from the developer’s page.

If you weren’t aware of it, FLV files are containers that house audio and video files which may be encoded in any number of formats. FLV Extract gives you the ability to unpack the video and audio files without needing to re-encode or re-process.

This little program will be very useful if you (a) are downloading music from music-sharing sites in the FLV format, or (b) need to demux the audio or video from FLV files.

Converting FLVs to MP3s is possible using a number of programs such as Super or Any Audio Converter; however, these will perform re-encoding operations which take time and in most cases require that the user make a number of quality and format decisions. With FLV Extract, however, the extraction happens in a flash and is almost instantaneous, and the files retain the format and quality with which they were encoded. Here are more notes on this program:

• Nothing to install: just unzip and run.
• The UI: a simple dialog with 3 options: extract video, timecodes, and audio. All you need to do is to drop files onto the app for processing.
• Performance: you can drag multiple FLVs onto FLV Extract and they will be processed immediately within the space of a second (or a few seconds at most).

The verdict: although I do not expect this to have a very broad audience, those of us who need it will greatly appreciate it. Simple, straightforward, and free — just the way I like my software.

Version Tested: 1.3.0

Compatibility: WinAll. Requires .NET Framework 2.0.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 50K).

Imagine the following scenario: you’ve just successfully decrypted a DVD and copied it to your hard disk, but when you try to burn it to a DVD you realize that the decrypted data exceeds the 4.7 capacity of your burnable media and will not fit.

If this has happened to you then Amok DVD Shrinker is what you need. Not only will this program quickly and easily compress the DVD on your hard drive into any size that you want with no apparent loss in quality, but it will also preserve all the elements of the original including menus and extra features (or, otherwise, if you specify that you are only interested in the main title it can do that as well).

More info on this program:

• The User interface: is simple and straightforward, with only a limited number of decisions that the user is asked to make (see below).
• Performance: in my test, Amok DVD Shrinker successfully compressed a 6+ gig DVD into 4.7 gigs in 20 minutes (with the quality/speed slider pushed past the mid-point to favor quality over speed, and the preview window enabled). The Amok site states that Amok DVD Shrinker is faster than the well known DVD Shrink, and although I did not scientifically compare these two under the same conditions I remember that DVD Shrink, hitherto the freeware standard bearer for this kind of task, typically took hours to process anything, not minutes.
• User input: the user is only required to make 4 decisions, as follows; (1) the desired output size (e.g. 4.7 gigs for a normal DVD), (2) whether you want the only main movie or the whole DVD with menus and features, (3) whether you want all the different language tracks included or select a singe audio track from the dropdown, and (4) the user’s preference for speed of processing vs. performance on a 5 point scale.
• Encryption: please note that this program is not designed to remove encryption from commercial DVDs, but rather processes the DVD data once it has been decrypted. If you need a freeware DVD decryption program try RipIt4Me/DVD Decrypter, DVD FAB HD Decrypter, or DVD43 (which decrypts in real time without needing to save to the hard disk first).
• Creates ISO: at the end of the shrinking process. If you need a free program that can burn your ISO file to DVD use IMGburn.
• Portable: two versions available, a setup version that installs normally and a zipped version that you can unpack and use without installing.
• The preview window: gives you a glimpse of what the program is processing at that particular moment (the aspect ratio in the preview is incorrect but don’t worry the DVD is processing correctly). Switch this off for faster processing.

The verdict: this is simply a great program that finally brings another free alternative for doing this sort of task aside from DVD Shrink. What I like about it is that it is simple, straightforward, and narrows down the decisions that a user has to contend with to the bare minimum. It’s also probably the fastest freeware program that does what it does.

Version Tested: 1.30

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 585K).

I’ve been looking for an all-around audio conversion solution for some time now after discovering that my previous staple audio converter (Any Audio Converter) inexplicably did not support some common audio formats; namely FLAC, APE, M4A (the ITunes default format) and M4B. MediaCoderAE, on the other hand supports these formats and more; in fact, the strength of this program is the sheer breadth of the supported formats (really everything you might imagine, although ironically not FLV, which Any Audio Converter actually supports).

MediaCoder Audio Edition is based on MediaCoder, a global transcoder (i.e. converter) program that handles both video and audio. What makes this program noteworthy is (a) the range of formats supported, as mentioned above, and (b) the range of available options/functionalities, which is quite ambitious. Here are some of the features offered:

• Audio conversion: can be done on the fly or in batch.
• Volume Gain: you can add audio volume gain for the group of tracks that you are converting (i,e. raise the volume by a certain level). This can be helpful if your source file’s volume is too low.
• Audio normalization: is offered as an option. This will raise/lower volume gain to conform to the average, eliminating any sudden disparity in volume across different tracks.
• Metadata: can be preserved across different formats after conversion; an excellent feature that is sometimes overlooked.
• Demuxing (i.e. extracting audio from video files): another great feature.
• Renaming: MedacoderAE can rename audio files for you using the files’ metadata based on a number of user defined rules. It can also sort files within a folder structrue based on this (e.g. send all tracks from the same album to a folder, similar to a program such as Id3ToFolder). And while this is nice to have I prefer a metadata manager such as Mp3Tag to do this sort of thing personally.
• DSP plugins: MediaCoderAE allows you to use DSP signal processing plugins from WinAMP. It comes pre-loaded with the ’Enhancer’ plugin, which you can optionally enable. (I did not test this myself).
• Input options: can process files, audio tracks from DVDs, or URLs
• Audio Joining/Splitting: seems to be supported, but didn’t work for me (see wish list below).

More notes on this program:

• The user interface: while it appeared somewhat cluttered at first glance, I quickly got used to the interface and got to somewhat appreciate the attempt to streamline all the different functions/options/settings into a single screen. Note that there are 3 interface configurations to choose from: simple, normal, and expert.
• List of supported codecs: (really worth mentioning) LAME MP3, OggEnc, Nero AAC Encoder, FAAC, Enhanced 3GGP, AAC+ Encode, Helix MP3 Encoder, MusePack Encoder, Speex Encoder, FFmpeg, SVN-trunk, WavPack Encoder, FLAC Encoder/Decoder, Monkey’s Audio Codec, TTA Encoder, OptimFrog Encoder, MPEG-4 Lossless Encoder. 64-bit versions available for many of these.
• Optimized for core dual core processors.

Wish list:

• Joining/splitting functions need to be fixed: I was not able to perform splitting or joining successfully. It didn’t seem that there was any way to select multiple tracks to join (I tried CTRL and Shift click without success). When I tried splitting a 100 meg audio file into chunks of 20 megs it produced a lot of files that were 5K and 6K and so forth. I am guessing that these functions are not working properly in this early version and will be fixed in a future release. It would also be cool if it were possible to optionally split/join tracks without encoding.
• FLV support: with so many music sharing sites using this format, converting FLV audio files to MP3 ought to be supported by a program such as this (or use Any Audio Converter for this).

The verdict: overall a great program and a powerful all-round audio conversion tool. I for one am very happy about the release of an audio edition of MediaCoder as I prefer seperating audio and video conversions (or at least I am still waiting for the perfect unversal media transcoder to come along). If you need a comprehensive audio converter look no further than MediaCoder Audio Edition; it will both input and output more formats than any other freeware audio converter that I know of.

Version Tested: 0.6.1.40000

Compatibility: Windows XP/2003/2000 (recommended); Windows XP/2003 x64 Edition (experimental with 64-bit native); Windows Vista (experimental); Windows 98/ME (most features work)

Go to program page to download the latest version (approx 42K).

What I like about this program is that it is self-contained; it includes all codecs/filters that it needs. In fact you could use the no-install zipped version to convert and play a wide range of video formats without writing anything to the registry or having codecs installed and running in the background at all times (consuming resources or potentially causing conflicts with other codecs).

IVC is a frontend that uses FFmpeg or Mencoder to transcode most video/audio formats, Mplayer to play video, FLVtool2 to process FLVs (which is why converting to FLV/SWF is handled separately from other video formats), as well as other tools. It uses Downloader.net to download videos. The rest of this review will contain the following sections (1) Formats supported, (2) Video conversion, (3) Downloading videos, (4) Demuxing audio, (5) Video-to-flash, and (6) Video playback.

(1) Formats supported: FLV, SWF, Vcd/Svcd/DVD, MP3G, MP4 (Ipod, PSP), 3GP, MOV, AVI, and WMV.

(2) Video conversion using IVC: a number of pre-defined profiles are implemented that you can select from, including Ipod, PSP, and 3GP (mobile) formats. When you select a format IVC defaults to a 1:1 aspect ratio which will resize your video to the new maximum resolutions of your selected formats but will keep the aspect ratio of the original. For example if you are converting a source that, say, has a 608×256 resolution and choose the 320×240 Ipod MP4 preset from the dropdown, your video settings will be defaulted to 320×136 in keeping with the aspect ratio of the original. This for me is really exciting stuff because it avoids the blind resizing to 320×240 (or 640×480) Ipod formats that some converters default to which in many cases completely messes up the aspect ratio of the source video.

Notes on video conversion: choosing your desired output format is a 2 step process. First, you have to select your desired format from the dropdown; once you do that, strangely, you still have to click on one of the 4 format buttons (Ipod/PSP, Mobile 3GP, or “other”). Here’s more info on the available settings:

• Typical settings: include the typical conversion settings you see in most converters: width and height, 3 choices for aspect ratio (16:9, 4:3, or the aforementioned 1:1), and the frame rate (fps) and bitrate. For audio there are 3 decisions: the bitrate, sample rate, and whether the audio is stereo or mono.
• More interesting settings: you can rotate the video by +90° or -90° (but for that you will have to use Mencoder for encoding), you can deinterlace the output video and you can add black bands around the video if needed. You can also disable sound to generate a video without sound if you want, you can choose the conversion duration (did not try personally) and lastly you can use the “fit on 1 cd” button which in theory will determine the video bitrate for you that would result in a 700 meg file.

(3) Video downloading: IVC uses the Downloader.net service for downloading videos. This site supports downloading from a large list of video sharing websites, but in all honesty it seems simpler to just use that website directly rather than from within IVC. Because of this this feature seems somewhat needless/redundant to me. Moreover, when I chose one of the sites at random to test the downloading process (music.com) it did not seem to work.

(4) Demuxing audio: from the “Download and play video” tab, select a video for playback then click the “-> wav” or “->mp3″ buttons and the soundtrack will be saved in either WAV or MP3 format in the same directory as the video file. Tried this on an FLV file and it works great.

(5) Video-to-flash: a number of really cool things about this (a) it can create both FLV and SWF videos, (b) it can create a self contained HTML file for SWF’s that will play the video when launched, (c) you can specify width and have height be automatically determined, and (d) you can disable sound if you only want the video part.

(6) Video playback: from the “Download and play video” tab you can select and play any file from the supported formats using Mplayer without having to install filters/codecs on your machine. This can be useful if you are using this software portably from a zip drive, otherwsie I would installing and using VLC media player or GOM Media Player instead of this. Two noteworthy features: (a) easily get screenshots from any video, and (b) rotate video playback by +90° or -90°.

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

• The interface is a little bit quirky and at times buggy and could be cleaned up IMHO.
• “Fit to 1 CD” in seems to misestimate and generate a considerably larger size file, which is no biggie as the “File Size” button predicts size very well.
• Generated MP4 Ipod video files, while they worked very well with ITunes, required that I use a third party program to add the video title to the metadata (Mp3Tag). It would be nice if the program automatically added the filename as title.
• Real Media support would have been great insofar as it would have made the format support quite comprehensive.
• Batch processing would also be a great feature, as currently there doesn’t seem to be any way to perform a string of conversions in a row.

The verdict: I like this program a lot and recommend it highly, especially the no-install portable version. I used it to convert videos to MP4 Ipod files as well as FLVs and SWFs and it worked great, with impressive speed.

Version tested: 1.50 (English version)

Compatibility: Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista.

Go to the download page to download latest version (approx 18.5 megs). Also see the program home page.

Rating: 5 pick

Version tested: 1.06

DivXMachine Shell Integrated (DMSI for short) is a free program that can convert images, audio files and videos across multiple formats straight from the Windows Explorer context menu.

Two things that make this program unique (a) all operations are done straight from the context menu; it does not have an user interface, and (b) it handles images, audio files, as well as videos. You can enable/disable file types, as for example to enable image and audio conversions only but not video. Here are some notes on this program:

• User interface: DMSI is built such that all decisions you need to make when converting a media file are streamlined into the context menu. It works really well; all you need to do is follow the unfolding ’tree’ of choices all the way to the end (see screenshot).
• Mux/Demux: i.e. add or extract an audio track to a video file. You can Demux AVI, OGM, and MKV container formats and mux AVI with up to 2 audio files.
• Batch encoding: you can perform operations on multiple files by selecting them simultaneously then performing the operation via the context menu. Note that all selected files have to be of the same type (i.e. all of them images, videos, or audio files) and that there will be a singel output format for all selected files.
• Tools and codecs: DMSI will install all the different third party tools and codecs that it needs in order to perform all of its operations.
• Advanced options: you can add/enable AviSynth filters to tweak your video output (this is extremely easy to do, just go to the AviSynth tab in the settings and click to enable the filters/options you want and change each of their values).
• Menu Editor: you can create your own context menu if you want, or edit the existing menu. I suppose this could be useful, as an example, if you want to add a standard “Ipod” video conversion option that contains your preferred Ipod video settings. Note that I spent very little time with this, but my impression is that it is rather user friendly. You can copy existing menus and customize them.
• CLIMachine: is a command line interface tool included in the DMSI installation that you can use to perform operations; there are a lot of scripts available that you can use to construct a batch script. I have NOT tested this myself.
• Supported Video formats: AVI, OGM, MKV, MPEG, VOB (input only) and RV9 (output only). Supported Codecs DIVX, XVID, and RV9 (output for RV9 container); or any that you have the directshow filter for on your computer.
• Supported Audio formats: MPA, MP3, OGG, WAV, MPC, WMA, (input only: AC3 and MP2), also outputs RA for RV9 video containers.
• Supported image formats: BMP, JPG, PNG, GIF, TGA, (input only: PCX, ICO).

This program works well. I am especially excited about the right-click audio and image conversions (the latter support resolution (pixel or %), rotation, flip, and setting compression quality for jpegs). Video conversions also work very well, although I wish it supported a “same as original” option for bitrate instead of requiring user input. The version I tested contained some bugs but these will surely be ironed out in time (for example, I selected a custom width/custom bitrate video conversion, then canceled out when prompted to enter values, which created a bit of a mess). Processing seemed to be generally efficient and quick.

Ever since DBPowerAMP became shareware I’ve been looking for a free audio converter that worked straight from the context menu; DMSI goes one better and allows for video and image conversions as well as other operations.

Compatibility: WinAll (supports VISTA).

Download v1.0.6.4 here (approx 20.1 megs). Check out the FAQ page; also visit the program home page.

Rating

Version tested: 0.7

Media Converter SA is a free small program that can convert media files across many different formats. It also has a video downloading functionality from a number of video sharing sites such as YouTube, ifilm, Metacafe, and a handful of others.

It seems like a rare week that goes by these days without encountering yet another free video conversion software and, oh, perhaps 2 or 3 Youtube video downloading titles. And given that there are a number of comprehensive freeware media conversion titles out there such as MediaCoder and Super, I feel like I need to make a list of why I think this program is so interesting:

• Ease of use: Media Converter SA is one of the simplest video converters out there; there are only 4 settings that you have to decide on: video resolution, max file size, audio bitrate, and video bitrate (actually, there are 2 others: starting and ending positions, but this is an added functionality beyond the conversion process). Despite the simplicity, you get the sense that it provides all the control you need. Most of these settings have a “same as input” option which makes conversion really simple.
• Video downloading option: the sheer range of supported websites is enough to make this your video-downloading program of choice: blip.tv break.com dailymotion.com ifilm.com livevideo.com media.putfile.com metacafe.com myvideo.de video.google.com vidilife.com vids.myspace.com youtube.com zippyvideos.com 
• Online versions: the makers of this program provide both an online file converter and an online video downloader called Mediapirate.org.
• Extract audio stream: out of a video file. Just select an audio file type as output (e.g. mp3, ogg, wav). Works very well.
• Choose beginning and end points: allows you to convert only part of a video file if you want, just set the beginning and end times. Works well for honing in on a specific audio segment in a video file and extracting just that part.
• Large range of supported filetypes: Audio: mp3, ogg, wav, wma; Video: 3g2, 3gp, avi, flv, m4v, mov, mp4, mpg, mpeg, rm, wmv. Note: you set the output format by choosing the file extension in the “save as” dialog for the converted file.
• Looks good: nice and sleek; see screenshot.
• Small footprint: occupies only 16 megs of memory or so while running in the background.

Wish List: 3 issues

• Ability to set 160 bit rate for audio: for some reason it jumps from 128 to 192 bit rate on the dropdown. Given that Ipod video files support a max of 160 bit rate, I don’t see why I should be forced to encode my mp4’s using 192 bps when 160 is what I want.
• Ability to select multiple audio files when converting audio: although the program converts audio to audio formats very competently (e.g. mp3 to ogg), it only allows selecting a single file at a time, which makes converting an entire 10-track album quite the chore. It would be great if it allowed selecting multiple tracks at once for conversion.
• Help section on the website: at the time of this writing this was “coming soon”.

The verdict: I really like this program because of its simplicity, a rare commodity when it comes to video conversion programs. I also like the video downloader part quite a bit (although for the moment I am using Orbit Downloader for my video downloading needs; I still like this program very much, though).

Compatibility: Windows NT/2000/XP; no info on Vista. NET framework (you can get this from the program’s download page).

Go to the program page to get the latest version (approx 4.21 megs).

Rating

Version tested: 3.2.0.15

DVD Shrink is a free program that can rip DVD’s into the hard drive and compress them, if needed, to fit on a standard 4.7-gig DVD. It will create a DVD image that can be burned into a DVD using a number of third party programs. It can also re-author DVDs to allow the creation of custom DVD program compilations.

An increasing number of the DVDs that you watch are stored on a so-called double density DVDs that can store up to twice the amount of data that a standard DVD. What makes this program unique is its ability to compress DVD data to the standard 4.7 gigs, which means you can use a standard DVD instead of having to buy expensive double-density blank DVDs. You will rarely, if ever, notice any decrease in video quality.

This review will include 3 sections: (a) ripping, (b) compression, (c) burning, and (d) re-authoring.

DVD ripping: DVD shrink can read an encrypted DVD and save it to the hard drive. This is a very simple process; just press the ’backup’ button and the program will analyze your DVD and be on its way. I will be honest in saying that I do not use DVD Shrink to rip DVDs myself as I prefer the more powerful RipIt4Me/DVD Decrypter combination. I ripped a DVD using DVD Shrink for the purposes of this review and it worked very well; however, you will find that some more recent copy protection methods will require something like RipIt4Me to rip/decrypt (you can still use DVD Shrink to compress the ripped DVD afterwards).

Compression: when you compress your DVD into the desired size (typically 4.7 gigs for use with a standard DVD), DVD shrink will allow you to choose exactly which parts of the programs you want to include. This means you can leave out bonus features, audio data for languages that you do not want, previews and other programs, etc. (Or alternately you can choose to include everything).

The process is surprisingly fast (compressing the data for a ripped 6.5 gig DVD took all of 19 minutes (on my Pentium core duo 1.66mhz/ 1.5 gigs of RAM) using default settings. The quality of the resulting DVD was virtually indistinguishable from the original. Note that I’ve used this program to back up more than a dozen DVDs that I compressed to fit on a standard DVD; I’ve not once noticed any deterioration in quality that I could see.

Burning: DVD Shrink can burn the resulting DVD images by integrating with Nero if you have it installed. But since Nero is not freeware we will not dwell on that … instead rest assured you can burn the resulting DVD image (in ISO format) using freeware programs like Imgburn or DVD Decrypter.

Re-Authoring: this option used to create your own compilation of programs on a DVD. I did not really use this functionality so I cannot say much about it. Note, however, that this is NOT the program you want if you have media files that you would like to a standard DVD (for that, check out AVI2DVD or DVDFlick).

The Verdict: I love this program, and here’s why:

• It works really well.
• It has a simple, straightforward user interface.
• Its the only freeware program of its kind/

Note on downloading: use the download link below (the last line of this review) for version 3.2. Read this scam alert to learn about fake DVD Shrink sites.

Compatibility: Windows 9x/2000/XP (no info on Vista).

Download DVD Shrink v.3.2.0.15 here (approx 1 meg). Also visit the official DVD Shrink home page.

Rating

Version tested: 1.0.0.8

Ipodifier is a video to Ipod conversion software that can be scheduled to scan user-specified directories for video files and, when found, convert these to Ipod mp4 videos. Once the conversion is complete it can transfer the resulting video to iTunes and your Ipod. The basic premise is that if you capture videos from a source such as TiVo, SageTV or another device or download through Torrent or any another source, Ipodifier can be set up to work with these files once they become available and take them through all the necessary steps to get them on your Ipod without any user intervention.

Picture this: you’re sleeping, but your favorite TV show is being saved on your computer’s hard drive from TiVo or Torrent. As soon as the download or capture is finally completed, Ipodifier starts converting it based on your pre-defined conversion settings. When done, it transfers the files to your Ipod. In the morning your TV show is ready for you to watch on the bus ride to work.

At least that’s the basic idea. Here’s what you need to know about this program:

• Setup is extremely easy to do using the video-source wizard.
• It will run in the background and monitor any folder you specify for video content. You can specify the length of the period between each scanning of the directory.
• You can tell it exactly which file extensions to look for (e.g. “*.avi,*.mpg” to look for all AVI and MPG files). Can convert WMV files as well as DVR-MS.
• You can limit actual video encoding/conversion to specific times (e.g. only encode between 2am to 8am). You can also set the priority of transcoding process (normal, high, or only when idle). 
• Setting up the video encoding settings is a breeze using the wizard. Choose from 3 quality settings (good, better, best). Can encode using 320×240, 320×180, 640×480, or original video resolution.
• Itunes integration: can add TV shows to iTunes as podcasts. I do not use iTunes and cannot evaluate this, but apparently this allows different people to subscribe to the show feeds they want even on different computers.

Here are a few notes on my personal experience using Ipodifier:

• Video conversion works really well; very fast/efficient conversions. I selected the ’best’ quality setting and got excellent quality results.
• Cannot say much about the iTunes integration. Sorry. (What do I use instead of iTunes? Floola, of course).
• May be a bit buggy: I told it to look for all files (*) in my video download directory, however torrent downloaded a non-video file before my video was complete. Ipodifier spent the whole night trying to convert that file, erroring out, and re-trying. I am certain this and any other bugs will be eventually ironed out.

This program is a rarity: its original, its interesting, it looks good, it works well, and its free. Enough said.

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the download page to get the latest version (approx 7.8 megs). Also visit the program home page.

Version tested: 0.9.2.1

Krut Computer Recorder is a free program that can record anything that occurs on your computer screen (both video and audio) and encode it into a MOV video file. It can be used to create demonstrations/presentations or to capture and record streaming video.

What I like about this program is its simplicity. Once set-up, there are only 3 controls that you will ever need; “Record”, “Snap” (to snap a still picture), and the little arrow button that you is used to set the boundaries of the recording area. Here’s how to use this program:

• Enabling video: you do not need to change any of your computer’s display settings if you are recording a presentation, but will likely need to disable your graphics card’s video acceleration it if you want to record streaming video or video from a media player. You can do this from the settings for some media players or through Windows’ “Display Properties” control panel (for my system I got there thought Display Properties, settings tab, advanced, troubleshooting tab, and then disabling graphics acceleration using a slider. Remember to re-enable acceleration once you’re done with recording (it is generally a desirable thing).
• Enabling audio: for sound, double click on the sound icon in the system tray, go to options, properties, click on the adjust properties for recording radio button, and then check “stereo mix” (may also be called “wave out-mix” or something similar). After this, you will see the Recording Control dialog; check the select box underneath “stereo mix” (or “wave out-mix” or whatever it may be called).
• Installing:unzip Krut in the appropriate location and run either Krut.bat or Krut.jar (this is a no-install Java application).
• Defining capture area: click the arrow on the main console to set the capture area. Place on top left corner and press control; keep pressed and move to bottom right corner, then release the control key.
• Settings: if you want to change encoding settings, click menu then settings. Setting video encoding quality is done very simply using a slider with a range from zero to 100. You can change audio encoding quality here as well.
• Volume levels: max out the system volume before you begin recording. This will give the recorded video the best sound.
• Recording: Click the “Record” button to start recording (if you are recording a video start playing and recording in quick succession). At this point you want to make sure no video or audio events occur unexpectedly, as anything that occurs within the capture area will be recorded (for example, moving your mouse into it, moving other windows within it). Any sound events will be recorded as well, so if you change the volume during recording it will change in the resulting recording, or if your computer beeps to notify you of new email that will be recorded. Click “stop” on the Krut console when you’re done; the program will encode and mux your video.
• Output files: by default, your new video will be named movie.mov in the Krut directory. You can also find the files for video or audio alone (temp.mov and audio.wav respectively). You can use Krut to just do audio recording, but if that’s what you’re interested in I suggest you use Mp3MyMp3 instead.

Other notes/observations on this program:

• While this is a good screen recorder, if capturing streaming media is what you’re after you may be able to download these more easily using URL Snooper to identify their URLs and Flashget to download.
• My wish list: although the program’s simplicity is really its strong suite, there are a few things that I wish it had, such as encoding with a different codec and container format (xvid AVI’s would have been great), and a timer to start the recording process (as it is you kind of have to scramble to get recording and playback to occur as close to each other as possible). Also, a magnifying function when selecting the recording would be really useful.

I like this program because of the simplicity; all it is is a straight recorder rather than a fancy presentation-creation software, and at that it works remarkably well.

Compatibility: Multi Platform (WinAll, Linux). You need java JDK 5.0 or JRE 5.0 to run this program.

Go to the download page to get the latest version (approx 4.69 megs; make sure you download the “full” version). Also visit the program forum page.