Description: The KM Player is a free media player that supports a comprehensive range of media format, including broad DVD support using all internal filters and codecs. It is extremely feature-rich, offering a range of features such as applying filters during playback (sharpening, denoise, color effects, etc), excellent subtitles support, playing (and capturing) streaming media over the internet, playing incomplete files, bookmarking parts of videos, and others.

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.
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Description: BitRipper is an integrated DVD ripping and conversion program that provides AVI or Mpeg creation from DVDs in a single step.

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.
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Description: Adobe Media Player is a free video streaming application that runs on the Adobe Air platform. What it is is a desktop content delivery vehicle for “Adobe TV”, which comprises a number of licensed networks and channels offers content creators the opportunity publish their videos. Content is managed within the app so that it is saved and be accessed offline, and a range of video resolutions (480i, 720p, and 1080p) are supported.

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.
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Description: FLV Extract is a free program that can save video and audio files from FLV files in their original formats without decompressing or re-compressing.

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).
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Description: uvLayer is an Adobe Air application that allows you to watch, collect, and share videos from a cool desktop-based interface. It can also log into your Facebook account and allow you to share videos with your Facebook friends simply by dragging and dropping them on your friends’ icons.

If you are serious about collecting videos, or serious about sharing them with your friends (or both), you should definitely check out uvLayer. What it is is a desktop interface that handles videos as thumbnailed-objects that can be dragged into folders on your uvLayer desktop. The end effect is really rather pleasing; so much so that even if it never occurred to you to (a) create collections of favorite videos, or (b) start sharing these with friends on Facebook, you might be persuaded to start doing so. Here are more notes on this program:

• The user inferface: looks very good (see screenshot). All videos and drag-and-droppable. You can move your videos into stacks on the uvLayer desktop or sort them within folders. You can also drag and drop them to share them with your Facebook friends.
• Video sources: the uvLayer help file indicates that the videos are obtained from YouTube and Truveo (with more to be added in the future). It would be cool if in the future uvLayer can function as a sort of meta search engine
• Search: naturally, this is the most important function. Search results are displayed as thumbnails in virtual folders, and mousing over these will deliver more info on each video in the form of a tooltip. Keeping the search folder on the desktop acts as a saved search.While the general coolness factor is undeniable, uvLayer might not be the most efficient way to search for a specific video if you prefer to quickly eyeball a page of results for all relevant info.
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Description: F-ab is a player for online videos and other flash animations where, instead of a URL, you literally ’tune into’ channels that are broadcast over the internet in the manner of a radio dial. It offers more than 1200 such channels as of this writing, with the possibility of adding your own (including YouTube channels) to the mix. F-ab also has a flash-based videoconferencing component.

This program, as you might have surmised from the text above, is somewhat hard to describe. I knew instantly that I wanted to post it on Freewaregenius if only because of being so interesting, although for all intents and purposes it is hard to see why a user might be inclined to be browsing channels on F-ab rather than on a video sharing site or any of the free video/TV broadcasting programs that have proliferated recently. There are a number of ways in which this program is unique; here are some notes on this program:

• What it is: F-ab downloads and delivers specific content in the manner of a video sharing service. It is not a player for SWF or FLV player.
• Interactivity: Has an interactive dimension beyond the experience provided by video sharing, as it not only broadcasts flash video (FLV) but flash animations (SWF’s) as well .
• The content: there are 4 categories: advertisement, art, science, and sport. I wasn’t really able to see any single thread that connects the different channels on offer, except perhaps that the animations tend to be artsy and “hip”. A lot of the flash advertising animations seem to be there because they are interestingly made rather than as ads.
• Changing the channel: you can do this by moving a dial. F-ab can support up to 10,000 channels (from 0000 to 9999 on the dial); it currently is up to the 1200 or so channels. It doesn’t really work very well when most channels do not have content. The best way to browse F-ab is to go to the public “search” section and browse the categories/channels there, which are displayed in a list.
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Description: Amok DVD Shrinker is a free program that can compress decrypted DVDs to smaller, user-defined disk sizes without any noticeable reduction in quality. It is designed to enable the copying of commercial DVDs stored on nonstandard media in order to fit them on a standard 4.7 gig writable DVD.

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.
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Description: DVD Slideshow GUI is a powerful freeware program that can create slideshows consisting of images as well as videos, add subtitles, set to music then export them to .ISO format or DVD folder ready to be burned onto a DVD or any of a number of video file formats. Allows for adding borders, subtitles, and animating images, and provides a full editing environment where every element is customizable and a wide range of pre-defined filters and transition effects are available.

In the outset it is important to point out that there are two ways that you can use this program (a) you might want to upload a whole bunch of images, perhaps tweak the background color and add an soundtrack, and then export your slideshow to DVD or video file. Simple and easy and not too involved.

Or, (b) the other way to use this program is deliberately produce and plan out exactly what happens every step of the way in your slideshow, decide on what kind of transition you want between each and every picture/video, what filters to apply to your images (that might change or tweak the way they are displayed), and exactly how to animate each picture: where it comes in and out, what parts (if any) to zoom in or out, etc… In fact when used as described here this program functions nothing less than a video editor; and, at that, it does an extremely good job and brings to the table a set of very powerful tools for you to work with. Here’s more info on this program:

• The program: this program is a frontend that brings together a number of free tools including Avisynth, Dvdauthor, HCenc, Media Player Classic, FFmpeg, Flvtool2, Mplex, Demux, mkisofs, etc. All tools are included within the installer.
• The user interface: is one of the nicest things about this program in that it is really simple and straightforwad. If you’re the kind of person who likes to just pick up a program and figure it out you’ll be up and running with DVD Slideshow GUI in very short order. One rule of thumb: if you can’t figure out how to do something its probably in the "presets" section.
• Imports: the following types of media: image files, PNG images with alpha, AVI videos, and Avisynth scripts (AVS). Also accepts MP3 and WAV audio file for the soundtrack.
• Exports: into an impressive range of video formats: DVD folder or ISO (for burning onto DVDs), MPG, AVI, FLV (and will generate HTML code to embed FLVs into your website). Also exports to DVD audio, DVD chapters, DVD subtitles, Avisynth script, storyboards, single images with backgrounds.
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Rating: 5 pick

Version tested: 2.8.0

Description: CondecInstaller can display a list of all audio and video codecs installed on your system as well as analyse media files to identify the codecs needed to play them. It can also download codecs from the author’s website for easy installation.

[Note: this is an updated review of my CodecInstaller v2.5.6 review published in Jul 2007 that reflects the changes and new features in the latest version 2.8.0].

We’ve all had this experience: a media file that shows video but no audio, or vice versa, or simply returns a codec unavailable or unidentified format message or somesuch. CodecInstaller can help you identify the codec(s) you need as well as download and install them easily.

I’ve been looking at this program for a while. Here are some notes on this software:

• Codec detection: will display all installed codecs within 3 tabs; audio, video, and other. In the list view the name of the codec is shown as well as the company, version, and install path; you can zoom in on any single codec for more detailed info.
• File analysis: point it to a media file and it will tell you the audio and video codecs needed for playback, or at least give you a very good guess (this function is very reminiscent of programs like MediaInfo or AVICodec).
• Codec Download: allows you to quickly and easily pick codecs from a list and download their installers. Connects to the author’s (Jockersoft’s) own site and not a third party site, which means you will likely get what you think you’re getting. Includes a good description of the codecs or codec packs on offer. Read more »

Rating: 5 pick

Version tested: 4.0

Description: DVD43 is a program that runs in the background and decrypts copy-protected DVD’s on the fly. It has the effect of making a DVD unrestricted and region free, allowing for simple copying of files to your hard drive within the Windows file system and/or unrestricted access to the DVD by third party software. It will also remove audio CD protection.

The first thing that I’d like to note is that this software is different from DVD ripping software in the vein of as RipIt4Me/DVD Decrypter or DVD FAB HD Decrypter. What DVD43 does can be though of (in a way) as transforming an otherwise encrypted DVD into what for all intents and purposes acts as a ’normal’, unencrypted DVD (similar to the shareware software AnyDVD).

In many cases using a program like DVD43 is will save you the need to spend 20-30 minutes ripping a DVD to your hard drive first (not to mention the 4.7gig-to-8gig hard drive space you might not have on hand). For example, if your objective is to ’shrink’ an 8gig DVD and copy it onto a standard size blank DVD (for which you would use DVD Shrink), DVD43 would spare you the need to rip the entire 8gigs into your hard drive first, allowing DVD Shrink to get access and get to work on the files on the DVD itself.

Or let’s say that your interest lies not in copying the DVD itself but rather in converting it into a video file that you could load up on your Ipod or mobile device using a program such as Handbrake. In this case as well DVD43 will allow Handbrake to process/convert your desired titles straight from the DVD itself, saving you the time, effort, and hard drive space of ripping the DVD first.

Here are some notes on this program:
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