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Multimedia
Miro
Is there some kind of oddball video format that your current media player can't handle? Then try Miro, which will play every video format you've ever heard of, and many you've never heard of as well.
That may be the least of its features, though. Where this player really shines is in its capability to find and play videos. You'll be able to subscribe to video RSS feeds, podcasts, and video blogs, download and save videos from YouTube, find TV shows, and play high definition, full screen videos. You can even download BitTorrent files from directly within it.
MediaCoder
If you need to convert media files between formats, shrink files with little quality loss, extract audio from video files, or manage multimedia in other ways, this is the program for you. It'll convert file formats, giving you a great deal of control over the output. So, for example, if you have a file that you'd like to convert so it can be played on a portable media player, MediaCoder will do the trick. It can also save you plenty of hard disk space by shrinking media files. There are also lots of extensions you can download that expand the programa??s capabilities, such as make it easy to transcode files for specific media players.
Audacity
Here's the program to get if you need to record or edit audio. If all you need to do is record, using the program is a breeze, but if you're going to do audio editing, you'll need to devote a bit of time to it.
You'll be able to combine tracks, cut audio out of tracks, import audio from multiple formats, create audio mixes, add all kinds of very cool special effects, edit ID3 tags, and more. You'll also be able to generate specific tones, and even create background white noise on command.
Media Player Classic
Do you feel that most media players, such as Microsoft's Windows Media Player, have become bloatware, overblown applications that need to be slimmed down to their basics--just playing media?
If so, this is the program for you. The title says it all. It looks and works much like an earlier, classic version of Windows Media Player, way back in the days when it was a simple, svelte program.
In fact, there's not even an installation program; just double-click the file and it runs. Despite its simplicity, it's a great program. It will play just about any kind of media file you can throw at it, and will even play DVDs.
HandBrake
Got a DVD that you want to turn into MPEG-4 format so that you can store it on your hard disk, or make a backup to disc? Then you'll want HandBrake. It grabs video from a variety of sources, including a DVD and a DVD image, and grabs audio from sources as well, including MPEG audio tracks. You'll then be able to output a digital file in a variety of formats, including MPEG-4, AVI, OGM for video, or AAC, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis for audio.
There are some very nice extras in here, such as being able to select individual DVD chapters, grabbing subtitles, and more. You get plenty of control over your recording, including selecting the bit rate, maximum file size for video, and bit rate and sample rate for audio.
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