We've rounded up the best downloaders, rippers, burners, converters and what-you-call-its in order to give you one handy repository for all your multimedia needs.
DOWNLOADERS & EXTRACTORS
Video & YouTube downloaders
Free YouTube DownloadFree YouTube Download is one of the most popular and powerful programs for downloading YouTube videos, single videos as well as whole collections and convert them to AVI, MP4, and WMV formats.
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YouTube DownloaderYouTube Downloader is software that allows you to download videos from YouTube, Facebook, Google Video, Yahoo Video and many others and convert them to other video formats. When installing, be careful to uncheck options for crapware.
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Free YouTube DownloaderSimple but effective converter of video with many video codecs (DivX, Xvid, MPEG4, H.264, ...) and file formats (AVI, MP3, MP4, MKV, ...). Small window but effective.
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Freemake Video DownloaderThis is part of the Freemake collection. These are very good programs so we include them on the disk, but there is a price. They install crapware - including a toolbar that needs uninstalling. If you are prepared to get rid of the crapware you get a very good product that lets you download video from thousands of websites, not just YouTube and also extract audio, MP3s and convert any video to AVI, MKV, MP3, iPhone, iPod, PSP, Android.
Click hereYouTube Music extractors
Free YouTube to MP3 ConverterUse Free YouTube to MP3 Converter to extract MP3 files from YouTube videos and output them to MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, WMA, OGG, FLAC and APE. The files are saved to the folder Music and they retain the name of the source video. Free YouTube to MP3 Converter automatically fills the title tag and the artwork, which can be seen in iTunes, Winamp or Windows Explorer folder.
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AoA Audio ExtractorAoA Audio Extractor provides you with a handy tool to extract audio/sound or background music from video files.
Click here STREAM RECORDERS
KrutKrut Computer Recorder records any audio - including streaming - and video from your computer screen into MOV and WAV files. It can be used to make video tutorials or to record games.
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JingFrom the company that brings you Camtasia. Capture an image of what you see on your computer screen, record screencasts and everything you see, hear and do on your monitor.
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MP3 My MP3Record internet radio or any streaming audio from the internet and save directly to MP3 or WAV formats. Works directly with your system sound card so if you can hear it, you can record it.
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Free Sound RecorderFree Sound Recorder lets you record any sounds from your sound card and save the recording directly into MP3, WMA or WAV files. Can also record your own voice, music or any other sound by working directly with your sound card. Records into MP3, WMA or WAV format directly.
Click here RIP DISCS
Rip audio from discs
CDexCDex can extract the data directly from an audio CD into a plain WAV file or compress it using an audio encoder. Many encoders are supported.
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Exact Audio CopyExact Audio Copy is an audio grabber for audio CDs using standard CD and DVD-ROM drives. The main differences between EAC and most other audio grabbers is that it can treat various audio tracks for distortion all at the same time, instead of having you do it one by one after downloading them.
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HandbrakeHandBrake is the crazily popular open-source multithreaded video transcoder. It supports any DVD or Blu-ray-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image, real DVD or Blu-ray (unencrypted -- removal of copy protection is not supported), and some .VOB, .TS and M2TS files. It can output to MP4 (M4V) and MKV; MPEG-4 (ffmpeg), H.264(x264), or Theora (libtheora) and to audio, including AAC, CoreAudio AAC (OS X Only), MP3, or Vorbis.
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DVD ShrinkDVD Shrink is used for fitting a DVD-Video disc on a single DVDR disc. With it you are able to both re-author and re-encode the a movie. It also allows you to select the compression level for each video track separately to obtain the desired disc size (which is usually below 4.38GB). The software is capable of producing either an ISO image of the ripped DVD, or a VIDEO_TS folder for further processing, viewing or burning.
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DVDFab HD DecrypterDVDFab HD Decrypter is a simple but effective derivative of DVDFab DVD Copy and DVDFab Blu-ray Copy. The software can remove all the files from Blu-ray and DVD discs and copy them to your hard drive. Has very fast copying speed.
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Video information
GSpotAn invaluable program for analysing a video file before you edit it. Helps you establish the right settings for video editing projects.
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VideoPadThis is the best free, easy-to-use video editor on the market apart from Windows Movie Maker. Designed to be intuitive to use, VideoPad is a fully featured video editing program. It lets you drag and drop video clips for easy video editing, apply effects and transitions, adjust video speed and more. It's fast, too.
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AvideMuxAvidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities.
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AudacityAudacity is far and away the leading open source software for recording and editing sounds. We use it here at APC for editing the sound in our videos.
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Monkeys AudioMonkey's Audio is a fast and easy way to compress digital music. Unlike traditional methods such as MP3, OGG or WMA, which permanently discard quality to save space, Monkey's Audio only makes perfect, bit-for-bit copies of your music. That means it always sounds perfect – exactly the same as the original.
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Video Converters
Format FactoryFormat Factory is an excellent video converter that supports conversion of all popular video, audio and picture formats; repairs damaged video and audio files and reduces file sizes and supports iPhone, iPod multimedia file formats.
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My Video ConverterAn all-in-one software solution for converting digital video files from one format to another. It has fast conversions, high-quality video output and an easy-to-manage interface. Its clean, Windows-style interface makes conversions easy.
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Freemake Video ConverterConvert video free to AVI, MP4, WMV, MKV, MPEG, 3GP, DVD, MP3, iPod, iPhone, PSP, Android, rip & burn DVD, convert to Flash FLV & SWF, burn Blu-ray. Good product with a caveat: it's part of the Freemake collection, a bunch of very good programs that install crapware - including a toolbar that needs uninstalling. If you are prepared to get rid of the crapware this product is worth having.
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dBpoweramp Music ConverterThis is a 21-day trial, but one of the best specialist audio converters anywhere. It converts just about any audio files - including MP3, MP4, M4A (iTunes / iPod), Windows Media Audio (WMA), Ogg Vorbis, AAC, Monkeys Audio, FLAC, and Apple Lossless (ALAC). It also features multi CPU Encoding Support; ips digitally record audio CDs (with CD Ripper), batch converts large numbers of files, integrates well with Windows and offers DSP Effects such as Volume Normalize, or Graphic EQ [Power Pack Option].
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Any Video ConverterAny Video Converter converts video files between various formats, with fast converting speed and excellent video quality. It can clip any segments and optionally merge and sort them to make a creative movie. And more, Any Video Converter Freeware can crop frame sizes and has the ability to burn videos to DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW discs . It also adds the MP4 Faststart option to play back MP4 video in the stream way.
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Free Audio ConverterConvert audio free to MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, AAC, M4A, OGG, convert audio to MP3 player, iPod, iPhone, iPad, PSP, extract audio from video, join audio files. Good product with a caveat: it's part of the Freemake collection, a bunch of very good programs that install crapware - including a toolbar that needs uninstalling. If you are prepared to get rid of the crapware this product is worth having.
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StaxRipStaxRip is an open source video converter with a wide range of supported source and target formats.
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meGUIMeGUI is a comprehensive GUI based ISO MPEG-4 solution. It supports MPEG-4 ASP (xvid), MPEG-4 AVC (x264), AAC, MP2, MP3, Flac, Vorbis, AC3 audio and various common containers support (MP4, MKV, AVI, M2TS).
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Squared 5MPEG Streamclip is a video converter, player, and editor. It can play many movie files, not only MPEGs; it can convert MPEG files between muxed/demuxed formats for authoring; it can encode movies to many formats, including iPod; it can cut, trim and join movies. MPEG Streamclip can also download videos from YouTube and Google by entering the page URL.
Click hereBURNERS
ImgBurnOne of the classics. ImgBurn supports a wide range of image file formats and can be used to build DVD Video discs (from a VIDEO_TS folder), HD DVD Video discs (from a HVDVD_TS folder) and Blu-ray Video discs (from a BDAV / BDMV folder) with ease.
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BurnAware FreeBurnAware Free burns all types of CD, DVD and Blu-Ray discs containing data, digital photos, music and video. With BurnAware Free, you will be able to create bootable or multisession CDs and DVDs, high-quality audio CDs, make and burn disc images, copy and backup discs.
Click here PLAYERS
Media Players
GOM PlayerThe king of media players because of its native support of just about every media codec out there. If you can't play it in Windows Media Player, chances are GOM player will play it. Supported formats include DAT, MPEG, DivX, XviD, WMV, ASF, AVI, and MOV, as well as common codecs such as FLV1, AC3, OGG, MP4 and H263.
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UMPlayerA bit like GOM player, UMPlayer handles lots of codecs and can play just about everything - even incomplete or damaged media files.
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VLCVLC is the most popular alternative to Windows Media Player, and that's because it will often play files the others won't. It's a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols.
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DLNA/UPNP Servers
TVersityOne of the most popular, all-round media streamers. Play your entire media collection on TV and mobile. Supports DLNA / UPnP A/V or just a web browser and a media player.
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ServiioServiio is a free media server that allows you to stream your media files (music, video or images) to renderer devices (e.g. a TV set, Blu-ray player, games console or mobile phone) on your connected home network.
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Extreme Movie ManagerAs the name implies, eXtreme Movie Manager is probably the most extreme Movies/TV Series/Actors collection manager. It can catalogue movies stored in your Hard Disk and removable devices in seconds with all information about codecs, resolutions etc. automatically.
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