Convert & Rip DVD, DVB Captures & Blu Ray Video Into MPEG-4 With StaxRip

There are hundreds and thousands of software out there that allow DVD/Blu Ray ripping. However, most such applications I have come across had one major flaw – non user friendly interfaces. While most of these software did a great job of encoding video, they were not very usable for the average PC user. StaxRip is a video conversion utility that tries to overcome this problem – the app has an easy to use interface which even noobs can easily figure out. Of course, it does have advanced features for ‘pros’ but ripping video or converting between video formats is a pretty straightforward task with StaxRip. Speaking of converting, StaxRip lets you easily convert your DVD's, DVB captures and many more other video formats into MPEG-4 with codecs like x264, XviD and DivX.

As you can see from the screenshot above, encoding/ripping video with StaxRip is very simple and can even be done in three clicks – select source, select output profile and select destination file. When you do this, the software will fill it’s advanced settings with default values. You can of course tweak these to your liking if you are an experienced encoder. StaxRip supports a number of difference input/output video formats, some of which are listed below:

• Video Output Formats: x264, XviD, DivX
• Audio Output Formats: AAC, MP3, AC3, Vorbis
• Container Output Formats: MKV, AVI, MP4, DIVX

StaxRip is free, open source and is quite popular in the encoder community. For those who want to learn of it’s advanced features, there are plenty of guides and tutorials scattered across the internet.

Download

[Click Here] to download the latest version of StaxRip from the official download page

[Click Here] to read StaxRip tutorials in project homepage (scroll to Where do I start? section)

Miro 3.0 – Video Player With BitTorrent RSS Support

Just a quick update to notify our readers that Miro has been upgraded to version 3.0. Miro (formerly known as Democracy player) is an internet video player that supports a wide range of video file types (HD formats included), streaming media, podcasts, a built in TV guide, web based video search and many other useful features. Additionally, Miro has strong RSS support and it has the ability to handle RSS feeds from BitTorrent trackers and download the .torrent files using its own built in BitTorrent engine – if used correctly, this feature can completely automate your TV torrent downloading. Miro is completely free, open source software and is available for multiple operating systems including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Miro 3.0 is a major upgrade over existing v2.5 installations. Some of the new features include a built in video converter and support for subtitles. It appears that v3.0 is better optimized and has better resource handling that it’s predecessor – the new version consumed less RAM and seemingly operated faster than v2.5 when we tested it.

Miro 3.0 retains the popular RSS downloading support which the application has become famous for. Thanks to the built in BitTorrent engine, TV torrent fanatics can program the app to automatically download select TV episodes. This way, new episodes of your preferred shows will automatically  be downloaded to your PC as they are released. You can find several free services that provide TV BitTorrent RSS feeds from this post.

Download

As mentioned earlier this is free and open source software. It’s available for multiple platforms including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

[Click Here] to download Miro 3.0 from official download page.

Related Articles

• 3 services to find RSS feeds for new TV episode torrents

xVideoServiceThief – One Of The Best Tools To Download Videos From Streaming Sites

The internet is now full of video streaming sites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, MetaCafe and countless others. Not only have these sites become hugely popular across all demographics but they have also spawned a number of ‘downloader’ tools that allow you to save streamed videos to hard disk. xVideoServiceThief (a.k.a xVST) is one such video downloader tool which stands out from the rest. It’s a cross platform, free, no-bullsh1t downloader which supports over 75 different streaming services –it’s almost like the VLC of video downloaders. The software comes with a host of additional features such as the ability to pause/resume downloads, simultaneous downloads, video conversion, proxy server support (for sites blocked by ISP - beta), child protection, built in search function plus many other useful options.

xVST has a pretty simple user interface and is operable by even novice computer users. All you need to do in order to download a video file is to enter its URL using the ‘Add video’ button. If you are too lazy to even do that, you can simply drag and drop the video into the xVST window to begin download. Some of the key features of this software is highlighted below:

• Download from Youtube & Co. – Supports over 76 streaming sites including YouTube, DailyMotion, GameTrailers, Metacafe and more. Click to see full list.
• Convert downloaded videos - AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, WMV, MP4, 3GP, MP3.
• HTTP & RTMP support
• Schedule configuration
• Simultaneous downloads
• Pause and resume downloads
• Search videos
• Drag & Drop support
• Proxy server support
• Automatic updates
• Tray Icon feature
• Download's Log
• Session Manager

Note that among the video streaming sites supported by xVST are a bunch of pron sites. If you are worried that your kids may misuse this software, you can block off adult sites with the use of a password through the app’s options menu.

Download

xVST is free software and supports multiple operating systems. It does not come bundled with any toolbars, adware or any other crap.

[Click Here] to download latest version of xVST from the official download page.

XNT

SubLight 1.70 Download – Automatic Subtitle Downloader

Recently we featured an impressive tool for automatic subtitle downloading called SubLight. Here’s an update – a new version of Sublight (v1.70) has just been released and the new build contains many improvements and enhancements such as the Windows 7 style ribbon based user interface. With this app, subtitle searching for downloaded movies and TV shows becomes very easy. It autodetects the input video file and searches several subtitle repositories for matching subs. When it finds one, you are given the option to download it to the correct dir with the click of a button.

If I wanted to search for a subtitle for a particular episode of a TV series, all I need to do is to select the video file from the app. As you can see from the screenshot above, SubLight detects the file format, auto fills the required information and performs the search. Downloading is almost instantaneous – there is zero web browser involvement and everything can be done through your Windows desktop. Speaking of Windows, it runs on XP, Vista and Windows 7 flawlessly.

Subtitle search is powered by several online sub repositories. In addition to the main source, it searches through following databases:

• divx-titlovi
• divxfinland
• subdivx
• podnapsi
• allsubs

There’s lots more to SubLight that just downloading files. This includes IMDB link generation, NFO file viewing and even publishing new subs. The ribbon UI will come in handy when discovering these features.

Download

[Click Here] to download latest version of SubLight from official download page

Note that they also have a Silverlight based online version of the app – if you don’t like installing desktop software, give this a go.

Repair AVI files with DivFix++ to play on DVD players, stream to XBOX 360 and more

Not everyone who downloads movies and TV shows from the internet  play them on the PC itself. Some people watch downloaded movies on standalone DVD players while some others stream them to XBOX 360, etc. However if the AVI file is badly encoded (which is true for some scene/p2p releases), it becomes almost impossible to play them on external media. This is where DivFix++ comes in – it’s a great utility that can repair broken AVI streams. That’s not all, DivFix++ can be used to preview movies which has no index part. In other words, you’ll be able to preview files that are still being downloaded via BitTorrent and other P2P distribution mediums, before the download is completed.

I first read about this application on popular TV torrent tracker TVTorrents.com. TVT.COM crew had this to say about the utility:

Problems with Scene groups XII and BWB encodes - we have a fix!

As many of you may already know, XII and BWB are really sucky release groups. Their rips almost *always* have issues with vids headers. This causes them to not play properly on DVD standalone players (DivX enabled of course), many computer media players, nor will they stream properly to XBox360 (play the first ~2 min of video, then screen goes dark and audio only for the rest).
There are many ways of fixing this, but the easiest I've found is DivFix++, and a new utility written by our very own rlatting.

DivFix++ is indeed a great application. It’s free, lightweight (setup is only ~900kb) and does what it claims to do pretty well. However keep in mind that the tool with work with normal AVI encodes only – 720p/1080p mkv encodes are not supported.

Download

[Click Here] to visit DivFix++ official download page. Installers available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS-X.

Win7codecs – Play MP4, XViD, MKV, OGG, DIVX, AMR and other files on Windows 7

I generally dislike most codec packs because they tend to install hundreds of decoders for a number of uncommon file types I may never play on the PC. On Windows XP and Windows Vista, I’ve been using CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) which pretty much took care of all my multimedia playback requirements with minimum bloat. Now that Windows 7 is out (I mean leaked), lots of folks would be looking for a decent codec pack to use with the OS – one that wouldn’t degrade performance by installing unnecessary crap but one that would allow playback of popular file types. Well here is something you can try – Win7codecs.

As you may have noticed, Windows 7 comes with built in support for several widely used audio and video file formats. Unlike most codec packs, Win7codecs does not blindly replace any of the existing codecs  - it gives the user the option to choose between decoders, in real time. Check the screenshot below:

Notice that it even allows PowerDVD9’s MPEG2 codec to be used in playback. However, if any 3rd party codec packs are found on your system and if Win7codecs has an updated version of the same codec, it’ll remove the older version before continuing with the new install.

Additionally, installation of Win7codecs would not re-assign any of the existing file associations (most of us find it annoying when applications do that):

It does not contain a media player and it does not associate file-types. With this package installed you will be able to use any media player, limited only by the players' capabilities, to play all movies and video clips.

Of course, Win7codecs is free of charge and is NOT bundled with any form of adware, spyware or any other crapware. In short, it’s a decent codec pack to have if you use the PC to play multimedia files (including downloaded movies and music).

Download

[Click Here] to download Win7codecs 1.25 from Softpedia (Developer page does not offer direct download)

VideoSpirit – Free, lightweight video converter (RMVB, FLV, MP4 & more)

Stumbled across a relatively new media converter application called VideoSpirit today. Played with it for a few mins and it actually looked like a decent piece of software. VideoSpirit allows conversion between popular multimedia file formats. The app comes free of charge and does not take a lot of system resources.  User interface is simple and even a complete newbie can figure out how to handle the software in a matter of minutes. In addition, there is support for a wide ranging of multimedia formats including MP4, FLV, OGG, SWF, WMV and even RMVB.

Some of the major features of the application are listed below:

• Convert Video Files among VCD / SVCD / DVD / MPEG / AVI / DivX/ASF / WMV/DAT / SWF / FLV / 3GP / RM / MP4 / MOV;
• Extract audio tracks from video files;
• Extract images from video files;
• Smart and neat interface, very easy to use.

Video editing capabilities are supported but are only available in the pro version of the software (featured in this article is the ‘lite’ edition). One issue I had with the app so far is that it refused to start on two occasions (it threw a ‘could not load conversion library’ error). If this happens to you try right clicking the application icon and choosing ‘run as administrator’.

Download

[Click Here] to download VideoSpirit from official download page

VideoCacheView – Extract video files from browser cache and save for offline viewing

Video streaming sites such as YouTube are all too common nowadays. Those who’d like to view streamed video offline might find this post useful. Usually when a video is streamed online, your web browser keeps a copy of the streamed content in the browser cache in the form of a video file. If you locate this file then you can view the video offline. However hunting for video files in browser cache can be quite a painful task. This is where VideoCacheView comes in - it automatically finds video files scattered around in your browser cache.

Developer Description

VideoCacheView doesn't require any installation process or additional DLL files. In order to start using it, simply run the executable file (VideoCacheView.exe). After running VideoCacheView, it scan the cache folders of your Internet Explorer and Mozilla browsers, as well as the temporary folder of Windows. Wait 5 - 30 seconds until the scanning process is finished, and the main window of VideoCacheView should display all the video files that are currently in cache.

You can view a full list of features and a few walkthroughs on how to view certain file types (flv files, etc) on VideoCacheView homepae.

Download

[Click Here] to download VideoCacheView installer from official server (Direct Download)

QuickTime Alternative 2.9.0 - Play .mov, .qt and .3gp files without QuickTime Player

QuickTime is one of the most used video formats in modern day. As you probably already know, the official player for QuickTime files is ‘Apple QuickTime Player’. Personally, I do not like QuickTimer Player at all – it takes a hell of a time to load, adds startup entries, rapes the registry and consumes a lot of system resources. How cool would it be if you could play QuickTime files in your favorite media player, such as in Media Player Classic? With ‘QuickTime Alternative’, this (and more) is possible. If you consider Apple’s Quicktime Player a piece of bloatware, you might find this post useful.

QuickTime Alternative is basically a free codec package that allows decoding of QuickTime formats. It even includes a browser plugin and the ability to play special QuickTime formats as well. On a side note, here is an interesting user comment I came across on FileForum about this codec pack:

God's Gift to those who require Apple codecs but refuse to pollute their machines with Apple filth.

Anyways here is a list of features and supported formats for QuickTime Alternative:

Some advantages compared to QuickTime player :

• Quick and easy install
• It's easy to make an unattended installation
• No background processes
• Use a player of your own choice
• Low on resources
• Smaller size

Features of QuickTime Alternative 2.9.0 :

• -Media Player Classic [version 6.4.9.1 rev 100]: this is a full-featured player which has internal decoding support for DVD, MPEG-2, MP3, MP2, AAC, AC3 and DTS. It also has internal support for opening Matroska and Ogg containers. Media Player Classic is also capable of playing QuickTime and RealMedia content if those codecs are installed.
• QuickTime Codecs [version 7.62.14.0]: required for playing QuickTime content.
• QuickTime DirectShow filter: allows you to play QuickTime content in all DirectShow enabled players. Without this filter QuickTime content can only be played in Media Player Classic.
• QuickTime plugin for Internet Explorer: allows you to view QuickTime content that is embedded in a webpage. It is installed together with the QuickTime codecs.
• QuickTime plugin for Opera/Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape/Google Chrome: allows you to view QuickTime content that is embedded in a webpage.
• Extra plugins for QuickTime: plugins for viewing some special formats that are sometimes used on webpages.
• CoreAVC: is an external filter for Media Player classic
• CoreAAC: is an AAC DirectShow filter decoder based on FAAD2.

There is also a Lite version of the codecc pack which does not come with Media Player Classic.

Download

[Click Here] to download latest version of QuickTime Alternative from Free-Codecs

Xvid codec 1.2.2 - Direct download

Yeah I know all of you might probably have it already but an updated version of the popular XViD codec was released just about a week ago. XViD 1.2.2 is a bugfix release which contains several security related fixes and is the first update to the codec after about 6 months. Also, if you are looking to download just the XViD codec separately (not an entire codec pack), use the download links towards the end of this article. XViD 1.2.2 consists of the Xvid DirectShow decoding filter and the Xvid VFW Codec. For those who don’t know what this codec does, it allows you to play movies and TV shows (or any other video file for that matter) encoded in Xvid – a popular format for stuff released on BitTorrent.

What’s new in XViD v1.2.2

xvidcore library 

• Workaround for nasm bug with Mach-O/OSX target
• Fix for missing resync marker range check (reported by IBM X-Force. Thanks go to John McDonald and Christopher Valasek)
• Improved precision for RGB<->YUV conversions
• Fix for potential RGB24 access violation
• Updated compiler options for Apple PPC target
• Fixed MSVC6 projects to work for path names with spaces

VFW frontend

• Updated mingw makefile

DShow frontend

• Bugfix for wrong handling of xvidcore XVID_ERR_MEMORY return code

Download & how to install

[Click Here] to download XViD 1.2.2 from official server – Direct download

Note: The official download link above container only the source code. If you are looking for the one click installer version, use one of the links below:

[Click Here] to download XViD 1.2.2 with installer (32-bit)

[Click Here] to download XViD 1.2.2 with installer (64-bit)

VLC UnRAR plugin – Watch movies in RAR archives without extracting them first

Yesterday we talked  about AutoUnpack – a tool that can help you immensely when it comes to extracting multi part (split) archives. If you are too lazy to even do that, check this software out. ‘VLC UnRAR’ is a plug-in for popular VLC media player. Once installed, this cool plug-in will let you watch movies inside multi part RAR archives (without extracting them first) using VLC media player. In short, it adds capabilities of a RAR player into VLC. Apart from individual movie files, VLC UnRAR supports RAR archived DVD images as well. This plug in is free and supports multiple platforms including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD.

The plugin seems to support multiple versions of VLC media player. I tried it on VLC media player 0.9.8a and it worked well during the short time I tested it. The official page however lists some known issues and troubleshooting information – in case you run into problems check this out.

Features (quoted from developer page)

• Completely FREE with full source code.
• Supports multi-volume RAR archives with full support for seeking
• Supports RAR archived DVD images!
• No external programs or special launch scripts needed
• Simple plugin that works with any VLC installation, no separate RAR player needed
• Platform-independent, binaries available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD
• No pre-extraction of files, data is read directly from inside the archive when requested

Download & Walkthrough

[Click Here] to download VLC UnRAR Plugin 2009 03 07 – Direct Download

[Click Here] to download the latest version of VLC Media player

[Click Here] for a short installation guide on how to set up the plugin

 

Thanks to our reader ‘Me’ for mentioning this tool in the previous article.

Sprink – Run YouTube videos outside your browser

Up until now YouTube videos were something you viewed using a web browser. However, with Sprink around, this is all going to change. Sprink is a standalone application based on the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) which allows you to search and play YouTube videos without the need for an web browser. The application is in beta testing phase and is currently available for Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. We have included download links to the April 2009 preview below – check it out if you are interested.

Make sure you have all the required software’s installed in order to run Sprink:

• Microsoft Windows 7 Beta (from Build 7000 - Build 7106) or Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 or above
• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Adobe Flash Player

Download

[Click Here] to download Sprink version 0.677 (April 2009 Preview) – Direct Download

Blender 2.49 – Create TV commercials, visualizations and other 3D animations

A new release candidate (RC) build of Blender has been released. Blender is a software that allows you to create 3D animations such as TV commercials, technical visualizations, character animation and even business graphics. It’s a powerful yet simple application which only takes about 50MB hard disk space & does not require behemoth of a computer to run. Although it may not have all the features of industry leading 3D animation tools such as 3DMAX or Maya, Blender can be used to create some pretty cool animations quickly and easily – not a bad feat considering it’s totally free.

One of the downsides of this software is that the user interface is not that user friendly – I found it a bit too cluttered for my liking. And note that Blender is not that easy to learn. Thankfully, there are lots of free video tutorials available on YouTube that’ll make things a lot easier. Just do a search for ‘blender tutorial’ on YouTube and you should get plenty of useful results. Once you get the hang of it, you can do some pretty amazing things with this software.

Download

The current final, stable build of Blender (as at26/4/2009) is v2.48a. A new release candidate build 2.49 (RC1) was also released yesterday. Download links to both are included below

[Click Here] to download Blender 2.48a for Windows, Linux and a wide range of other operating systems from official download page

[Click Here] to download Blender 2.49 RC1 from FileHippo– this is a test build.

Online service to download and save YouTube, Metacafe, iFilm videos - KeepVid

Most of us are accustomed to the use of 3rd party windows software such as YouTubeGet or Orbit Downloader to download videos from social video sites. What if you are at work, university or school where your account has restricted access and thus can’t install any of these desktop applications? This is where KeepVid comes in. KeepVid is a free online service that allows you to download and save videos from social video sites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, MetaCafe, iFilm, etc.

To download a video using KeepVid, all you have to do is to visit www.keepvid.com and paste the video URL into the ‘URL’ bar. When saving videos to hard disk, you get two options: Low quality .flv (Flash Video) or high quality MP4. One of the best things about Keepvid is that it does not require any additional software – you can use this service even on limited or gust accounts without administrator rights as well.

[Click Here] to visit KeepVid

Related Articles

• PlayFLV 2.0.25 – Play .FLV files (Flash Video) in Windows Media Player

PlayFLV 2.0.25 – Play .FLV files (Flash Video) in Windows Media Player

If you’ve been downloading videos from social video sites using 3rd party tools like Orbit Downloader, you’ll notice that the extension of the saved file on your hard disk is .flv. FLV or Flash Video has become quite popular with popular services such as YouTube, Google Video and Yahoo! Video beginning to use this format. Unfortunately, some versions of Windows Media Player does not support FLV playback by default. This is where PlayFLV comes in.

PlayFLV installs the required codec in FFDShow that supports FLV playback. It also associates .flv file format with Windows Media Player so that double clicking a FLV file opens it with WMP by default.

Features of PlayFLV 2 :

• Plugin that enables Windows Media Player to playback FLV files
• Features all default functions, such as zooming, skipping and full screen view
• Creates file association: Double-click FLV files to play them in Windows Media Player
• Free and open source

Download

[Click Here] to download PlayFLV 2.0.25 from official server (Direct Download)

MediaCoder – Extract audio from video files, repair damaged videos, batch convert media files and more

Mediacoder is one of the best audio and video transcoders available for the Windows platform. The software is free, has tons of features and is regularly updated. Mediacoder has many uses – it can convert between several dozen media file formats, repair damaged or partially downloaded video files, extract audio from video files, compress media files and perform many other audio and video related tasks.

There are several different editions of MediaCoder such as the Full Edition, Audio Edition, Device editions, etc. Full edition is the standard software with regular features, audio edition is focused more on audio transcoding while special device editions are targeted at portable devices such as iPod, PSP, MP3/MP4 players and the likes. All of these can be freely downloaded  - no cracks or serials required.

Windows XP, 2000 and 2003 are fully supported. Some minor features do not function properly on Windows Vista. Mediacoder can be run on both Linux and Mac OS X if used with WINE software.

Typical Applications

• Improving compression / reducing size for audio/video files
• Converting for audio/video playback devices (digital audio player, MP4 player, mobile phone, PDA, PSP, VCD/DVD player etc.)
• Extracting audio tracks from video files
• Ripping audio/video discs
• Reparing corrupted or partial downloaded video files

Supported Fomats

• MP3, Vorbis, AAC, AAC+, AAC+v2, MusePack, Speex, AMR, WMA, RealAudio, mp3PRO
• FLAC, WavPack, Monkey's Audio, OptimFrog, AAC Lossless, TTA, WAV/PCM, Waveform
• H.264, XviD, DivX, MPEG 1/2/4, Theora, Flash Video, Dirac, 3ivx, RealVideo, Windows Media Video
• AVI, MPEG/VOB, Matroska, MP4, PMP, RealMedia, ASF, Quicktime, OGM
• CD, DVD, VCD, SVCD, CUESheet*, HTTP*, FTP, RTSP, UDP

Download

[Click Here] to download the latest version of MediaCoder Full Edition

[Click Here] to download the latest version of MediaCoder Audio Edition

[Click Here] to download the latest versions of MediaCoder Device Editions

[Click Here] to download extra codec packs for MediaCoder

[Click Here] to download optimization packs for MediaCoder

DivX Pro 7.0.0 Final – Create, convert and play H.264 (MKV) video

Latest version of DivX free and Divx Pro suites, DivX 7, is now available for download. DivX 7 is a major upgrade over existing v6.X.X builds. This version includes full support for H.264 video & AAC audio (.MKV format) and is compatible with DivX video created by older versions of the codec. The main difference between DivX free and DivX pro suites is that DivX Pro has the ability to create HD video.

The DivX Pro suite includes the DivX player, DivX web player (play HD video on web browser), DivX converter (convert avi, WMV, MOv, etc to .mkv and .Divx formats) and the DivX Pro codec.

Developer Description

DivX® Pro 7 for Windows is our premium software offering, providing everything you need for a true HD experience. Utilizing our latest and greatest video technology based on H.264, the new standard for HD digital video, DivX Pro 7 lets you create HD video and play MKV videos with high-quality AAC audio. You can also play your DivX files (.divx, .avi) on millions of DivX Certified® devices today. Look for DivX Plus™ HD Certified devices later this year that will support playback of all DivX and DivX Plus files, as well as .mkv (H.264/AAC) videos from the Internet.

Note: DivX Pro 7 works only in Windows XP and Windows Vista 32-bit versions. 64-bit versions are not officially supported.

Read comments for more information.

Convert XViD, DiVX, WMV and other video files to DVD using VSO ConvertXtoDVD 3.3.4.107

If you want your downloaded TV episodes and movies in XViD, DiVX, WMV, AVI and other formats converted and burned into a DVD disk, ConvertXtoDVD is probably the easiest way to do it. With this software, you can pretty much create a DVD complete with menus, subtitles and other feature in a few mouse clicks. Version 3.3.4.107 is the latest build of ConvertXtoDVD.

If your DVD player does not support XViD, DiVX, WMV, etc file playback, you can use this program to convert your videos and burn them to DVDR disks. These disks will then be playable on your DVD player. The best part is that you don’t need to install any additional codecs to support the conversion – everything is built in. ConvertXtoDVD’s homepage has still not been updated with the new build 3.3.4.107 but we can confirm that this version is real. I however was not able to find a changelog for this version yet.

Developer Description

ConvertXtoDVD is a software to convert and burn your videos to DVD. With ConvertXtoDVD and in a few clicks you can backup your movies to DVD playable on any home DVD player. ConvertXtoDVD supports most popular format such Xvid, MOV, VOB, Mpeg, Mpeg4, MP4, AVI, WMV, DV and stream formats. It converts your files into a compliant DVD Video set of files and burns it on a DVD media. The aspect ratio can be automatically selected or forced to a specific format. The program works for NTSC and PAL video formats and creates chapters automatically. Multiple audio tracks are supported. Version 2 uses a completely rewritten interface with subtitles support and a lot of new settings.

Features

• Video formats supported: avi, divx, xvid, mov, mkv, flv , mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg-, nsv, dvr-ms, tivo, ts, ifo, vob, asf, wmv, realmedia, rm, rmvb, ogm, existing files from digital camcorders, TV/Sat, capture cards, etc. No external codecs needed like avi codec download
• Create DVD menus with different templates available, possibility to add background video, image or audio, have chapter and audio/subtitle menus
• Conversion advisor wizard, control of the conversion speed vs. quality
• Fast and quality encoder, typically less than 1 hour for converting 1 movie, and supports Multi-Core processors!
• Included burning engine with burn speed control choice of SAO or packet writing methods, supports all DVD formats
• Custom and or automatic chapter creation with markers and preview window
• Advanced file merging possibilities
• Audio formats supported internal and external: AC3, DTS, PCM, OGG, MP3, WMA and more... Select audio output format.
• Subtitles files supported internal and external: SRT, .SUB/IDX, .SSA, opensubtitles, dvbsub with color and font selection, and supports tags like italic, bold, turn on/off with DVD player remote control
• Video output for video standard (NTSC, PAL), TV Screen (Widescreen 16:9, Fullscreen 4:3) and DVD Resolution (Full D1, Broadcast D1, Half D1, SIF), or choose automatic for all choices listed above. Also convert video from NTSC to PAL or PAL to NTSC
• Video post processing settings like video resize-pad/cropping and de-interlacing options

Read comments for more information.

Await: Cinematik Invitation Code giveaway No.2. Check the Homepage to giveaways section for updates.

Fraps 2.9.6 Build 7637 – Capture video, take screenshots and perform benchmarks

Fraps is a hugely popular application among gamers. It’s a software that allows users to capture game play footage and create videos, take screen captures and do performance benchmarks. We posted about this software and described it in detail about two weeks ago. This post however features the latest available version of Fraps (v2.9.6 build 7637) which includes a number of bugfixes over the previous build. One thing that we forgot to mention in our previous article is that when you have Fraps recording in the background, the game may lose a few FPS (usually not noticeable) due to the added resource consumption.

Developer Description

Fraps is a universal Windows application that can be used with games using DirectX or OpenGL graphic technology. In its current form Fraps performs many tasks and can best be described as:

• Benchmarking Software - Show how many Frames Per Second (FPS) you are getting in a corner of your screen. Perform custom benchmarks and measure the frame rate between any two points. Save the statistics out to disk and use them for your own reviews and applications.
• Screen Capture Software - Take a screenshot with the press of a key! There's no need to paste into a paint program every time you want a new shot. Your screen captures are automatically named and timestamped.
• Realtime Video Capture Software - Have you ever wanted to record video while playing your favourite game? Come join the Machinima revolution! Throw away the VCR, forget about using a DV cam, game recording has never been this easy! Fraps can capture audio and video up to 2560x1600 with custom frame rates from 10 to 100 frames per second!

Changes in this new version 2.9.6

• Fixed games such as Stalker not being detected in 2.9.5
• Fixed video capture corruption in FSX on multi monitor setups
• Fixed codec crashes in large projects
• Fixed Fraps not starting with Windows when running on battery power
• Fixed Fraps closing when switching to battery power
• Fixed OpenGL video capture not recording correct viewport in some applications
• Fixed sound sync when recording started while rendering paused

Nero 9.2.5.0 Final

Here is a little heads up for fans of Ahead software’s Nero multimedia suite. Nero 9.2.5.0 has been released (btw this version is not even listed yet on the official download page). Judging by the version number this looks like somewhat of a major upgrade over previous 9.0.9.4 builds - I cannot confirm that as am  yet to come across an official changelog. Anyways upgrading to the latest build is recommended as it will no doubt contain at least a few security and reliability updates over the older version.

By ‘upgrading to the latest build’ I did not mean upgrading from Nero 6.6 or 7 to Nero 9 but rather to a newer build if you are already using Nero 9. Some people still seem to like Nero 6.6 and Nero 7 better than v8 and v9 because of the suite getting more and more ‘bloated’ with every new major release. It’s actually up to you to decide which version of Nero best matches your needs.

Developer Description

Nero 9 is the next generation of the world’s most trusted integrated digital media and home entertainment software suite. It features new cutting-edge functionality that makes enjoying digital media content simple. This easy-to-use yet powerful multimedia suite, gives you the freedom to create, rip, copy, burn, edit, share, and upload online. Whatever you want – music, video, photo, and data – enjoy and share with family and friends anytime, anywhere. With easy-to-use Nero StartSmart command center, your digital life has never been more flexible, feasible, and fun.

Nero 9 Highlights:

• Fast and easy rip, burn, Autobackup, and copy functions
• Backup files to CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs*
• Create professional-looking DVD movies with integrated 3D menus
• Copy, burn, share, upload, and create music mixes like a DJ
• Convert music, photos, and DVDs to play on your iPod® and other mobile devices
• Quick photo and video upload to My Nero, YouTube™, and MySpace
• Watch, record, pause, and customize your live TV experience
• Play AVCHD and other HD formats

Look here for a full feature list.

Read comments for more information.