FFDSHOW is DirectShow and VFW codec for decoding/encoding many video and audio formats, including DivX and XviD movies using libavcodec, xvid and other opensourced libraries with a rich set of postprocessing filters. FFDSHOW supports virtually every audio and video format used in movies or other video content on the internet, and decodes them with excellent quality and high performance. Includes a lot of options for tweaking, but works very well out-of-the-box, being transparent for the end-user.

Author: Milan Cutka
License: Open source

VLC media player (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG, DivX, Ogg, and many more) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. However in recent years it has also become a extremely powerful server to stream live and on demand video in several formats to our network and the Internet.It started as a student project at the French École Centrale, Paris but is now a worldwide project with developers from 20 countries. (more).

VLC is built in a modular way. This means that you can choose from a range of different modules to decide how to control VLC and how to display the video output.

A unique feature of VLC is that it has all the major codecs built in, so you do not need to install additional codecs to your operating system (Windows, Linux..) in order to get playback support.

Author: VideoLAN
License: Open source

DVD recording technology has not taken any quantum leaps recently. The recording speeds are pretty close to the velocities physically possible, and overall the technology is quite mature. Nevertheless it is nice to see the vendors still releasing new and improved models. Pioneer DVR-115D continues the famous product line of Pioneer Electronics and while it doesn’t anything dramatically new or different, it has some improvements over the previous models.Pioneer has definitely been one of the better manufacturers of DVD recorders and from the out side the Pioneer DVR-115D seems very similar to the previous model that we tested (DVR-112). It has a pretty rigid feel to it, which makes it positively stand out from the cheapest recorders out there. But the interesting question is of course how does it burn?

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SoftSound Shorten Lossless Compression (.shn) plugin for Nero. Based on Etree.org Shorten v3.5.1.

Author: MauSau
License: Freeware, donations accepted

AVG Free is the most popular free solution available at no cost to home users and provides the high level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers.

• Easy to use, low system resources
• Automatic update functionality
• Real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run
• AVG’s Virus Vault for the safe handling of infected files

AVG Anti-Virus Free is only available for single computer use for home and non commercial use.

Author: AVG Technologies (former Grisoft)
License: Free for home and non-commercial use

Free virus protection for your home pc: Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic reliably protects your private computer against dangerous viruses, worms, Trojans and costly dialers.

Author: Avira GmbH
License: Free for personal use

Avast! is the multi-award winning antivirus product line from ALWIL Software, which has been ICSA Labs certified and regularly receives the Virus Bulletin 100% award, for detection of 100% of in-the-wild viruses, and SC Awards 2006 for best antivirus in both the US and European categories as well as Best anti-malware solution category in Europe. avast! is specifically engineered to need low system requirements and automatically and incrementally updates both the program and virus definitions, keeping bandwidth usage to a minimum while always being up-to-date.

Avast! 4 Home Edition is a full-featured antivirus package designed exclusively for home users and non-commercial use. Both of these conditions should be met! Our company offers the Home Edition free of charge, since, in our opinion, it is possible to avoid global virus spreading by efficient prevention; however, many users are not able to or do not want to pay for antivirus software. This page will show you the most important features of this program.

Author: ALWIL Software a.s.
License: Free for non-commercial home use

OptimFROG Lossless Audio Coder (.ofr) plugin for Nero. Based on OptimFROG v4.509

Author: MauSau
License: Freeware, donations accepted

Firmware updates for Toshiba recorders, including but not limited to the following models:

SD-R5112, SD-R6112, SD-R5002, SD-R5372, SD-R5372V, SD-R6012, SD-R6012, SD-R1312, SD-R1412, SD-R1512, SD-R2212, SD-R2312, SD-R2412, SD-R2512, SD-R1202

Author: Toshiba SDD
License: Freeware

The Philips Intelligent Agent is a tool which helps you to keep your Philips products to date. It automatically offers the correct download for your product without searching through long lists. Updates are now at your fingertips!

Which Philips products are supported?

• Philips Blu-ray drives for use with a computer, which are sold by Philips Consumer Electronics.
• Philips DVD drives for use with a computer, which are sold by Philips Consumer Electronics.
• Philips CD drives for use with a computer, which are sold by Philips Consumer Electronics.
• Philips Network Storage drives (NAS)
• The Philips Intelligent Agent itself.

Author: Philips
License: Freeware
Download: Click here