Windows Media Player 12 is streaming in with a lot of improvements but as with everything in life, most of the old tips will hold good for the new too. We all have our favorite media players. For some it’s the one which plays music best, for others it’s all about the movies. Windows Media Player 11 is no slouch in both departments. But its feature set needs getting used to. So let’s poke around and discover cool Windows Media Player 11 tips and tricks and ‘upgrade’ our experience with this popular media player.

1. Go from full screen to compact with a click

Windows Media Player 11 offers three choices of looks – the default Full mode, the Compact mode and the Skin mode (with choice of skins). While listening to music, you can just click on a tiny arrow and switch to compact mode. Press Enter to revert back to the Full mode. The Skin mode can be applied from Menu – View – Skin Mode. The better option is to become quick fingered with the keyboard –

For Full Mode – CTRL + 1

For Skin Mode – CTRL + 2

2. Keyboard toggles for volume control

Three quick and easy to remember keyboard taps to control volume instead of reaching for the mouse.

Increase volume: F9
Decrease volume: F8
Mute sound: F7

3. Resolve codecs and play it all

With the hundreds of codecs in use today, Windows Media Player isn’t bundled with them all. Fortunately, freely available codec packs fill up this lacuna and let us play everything from Real Media to DivX.

To find out the codecs installed, go to Help – About Windows Media Player – click on Technical Support Information. A browser page opens up with all audio and video codecs listed.

You can play almost everything with the K-Lite codec pack. Other must have downloads include the XP Codec Pack and Vista Codec Pack. Even watching hi-definition DivX movies is not a problem with the freely downloadable codecs. If there’s still something not right then check out these previous posts:

- Downloaded an Unplayable Movie – Gspot & Klite to the Rescue!
- 3 Ways to Play Unplayable Videos on your PC
- Audio File Formats Explained in Simple Terms

4. Search – get two birds with one search

You can search your library for audio tracks using a combination of search terms. The + or AND operator lets you search a song using two values. For instance, search by song and singer – Pink Floyd AND The Final Cut.

Use the OR operator to search across two attributes – Jazz OR Blues. Songs can be searched according to length, ratings, whether it is protected or not etc. The results depend on the media information that’s available with the song.

Look at the help file (Help – Organizing your digital media collection – How do I perform advanced searches?) for more search operators.

5. Play songs according to musical eras

Do you like the golden oldies or the more current hip-hop? WMP 11 lets you play songs according to the period mentioned in the tracks. Type in the year range, like 1980..1990 for all songs in that period. This gives you a short cut to particular songs without trawling throughout the library or creating period playlists.

6. Go Bass with the SRS WOW effects

SRS WOW Effects let you increase the bass (i.e. the lowest part of a musical range) of a track for richer quality sounds. The SRS WOW Effects can be found under Menu – View – Enhancements. Turn on the effects and choose your speaker type. Slider movement sets the TruBass between high and low. The adjacent slider increases or decreases the WOW effect.

7. Smooth the flow of streamed music

Streaming content relies on buffers to smoothly playback a movie or music track. To compensate for the stop gap of internet bandwidth due to slow speeds or packet drops, WMP stores a few seconds of content before it starts the playback. As the streaming proceeds, some content continuously gets stored in the background (that’s the buffer).

The buffer size can be changed if you feel that the streaming is not smooth enough. From the Menu (or right click on title bar), choose Options – Performance tab. In the Network buffering section choose the bullet option for Buffer and enter any value between 0 to 60 to buffer that much of content before playback. Click OK. Too much buffering can slow downloads.

8. Tweak speed for podcasts and speech audio

Don’t let your interest flag with the slow drone of an audio book or podcast. Some simple settings allow you to change the pace of the voice. With the audio playing, from the Menu choose – View – Enhancements. Alternatively, right click on the WMP title and select. The Play Speed Settings shows a slider which can be dragged to the left for slow playback and to the right for faster play speeds. Or you can choose from the three presets – Slow, Normal or Fast. You have to trust your ears as not all files will sound well with change in playback speeds.

9. Shed light on dark movies

Enhancements include another setting which helps me out with making light corrections to particularly dark movie scenes. From the Enhancements sub-menu choose Video Settings. Lighten up the scene by slightly increasing the Brightness (drag the slider to the right).

10. Censor Movies by Ratings

In my wonder years, it was ‘Blue Lagoon’. Now, I am not sure what’s PG and what’s not! But you can prevent DVD movies with ‘not suitable for children’ ratings from being played through the WMP. Windows Media Player 11 allows you to block certain movies which have higher playback restrictions using a simple dropdown. Navigate to Tools – Options – DVD tab. Select the restriction from the dropdown. (Umm…but I guess your child will be smart enough to sidetrack this lockdown).

There’s a lot we can explore under the hood of Windows Media Player to further enhance our listener experience. I have purposely avoided getting into ways to tag your tracks and manage your library with playlists as they require tutorials on their own. For tagging your music collection, lot of specialized tools like MP3Tag editor are handy .

How do you feel in general about the Windows Media Player? Is it your preferred jukebox or do you have a more specific choice? Let us into a few Windows Media Player 11 tips and tricks of your own.

Image Credit: Sabrina Campagna

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After Karl’s latest article about Rapidshare123, I was stunned with the number of comments that claimed BitTorrent as the ‘now‘.

True as that might be, a statement like that closes more doors than it opens. Although torrents are indeed great, the presence of other worthy protocols can’t be ignored. Free file sharing networks such as FastTrack, Ares and Gnutella still cover millions of files and are – in my honest opinion – still the easier way to search for, and download some types of files.

KCeasy

KCeasy is an application that does its utter best not to let this form of file sharing die. It’s based on the giFT protocol, which allows it to connect to several file sharing networks such as Ares, Gnutella and OpenFT – developed by the guys behind the giFT engine.

Back in the old days – which is actually just a few years ago – KCeasy also worked out FastTrack compatibility through reverse engineering. This is the network used by Kazaa. Unfortunately, Sharman Networks weren’t all too happy about it, and threatened with court and the takedown of KCeasy.

This doesn’t much hurt KCeasy as a viable file sharing application, though. Even with the current decrease in popularity, Ares and Gnutella protocol still serve hundreds of thousands of people, and passively host a good petabyte (a full million gigabytes) of files and information.

Read on for some of the best KCeasy features.

The Web, Integrated

KCeasy has an integrated web browser, based on Internet Explorer. It probably won’t replace your current web browser, but it does allow you to go for a quick stroll on the net, or look things up.

From the application’s start page, you can instantly perform some of the more popular searches, such as regular Google queries, IMDB movie lookups, file information with Bitzi – inluding specific dimensions, qualities and reviews – and Lets Sing It music lookups.

Media Playbacks and Previews

With the KCeasy media player, you can listen to, or watch downloaded music and videos. You can use this to check the quality of your files, even when they haven’t finished downloading yet – or, when you haven’t even started.

You can keep controlling playback, even when you’re navigating other sections of the application. The little console at the bottom does for KCeasy what FoxyTunes does for FireFox. This one can also be accessed while you’re browsing through the results of a file search.

There are other features that characterize KCeasy, like access to the oldschool IRC, but that isn’t how we should remember this application. KCeasy is simply a wonderful and easy to use file sharing application that shows us there’s still some life in this niche of the internet – that although torrents are absolutely great, they shouldn’t be considered both beginning and end of the availabilities.

So, what do you think? Let us know your thoughts, remarks or questions in the comments below.

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Recently, they released a desktop application designed specifically take advantage of viewing videos and movies on your large-screen TV. Using this application, aptly named Hulu Desktop, you can now watch all your favourite shows from Hulu without using a browser! Here, at MakeUseOf, we like to properly test applications before writing about them. After three days of testing, I examined how Hulu Desktop compares to other media solutions such as Boxee.

This standalone application offers better integration, including remote control support and a full-screen TV-friendly interface. Although it is still in beta, the application proved to be very reliable in my tests:

• The interface was responsive and fluid even on low-end laptop graphic cards. The frame rate was adequate and stable even for watching, even in close proximity to the screen.
• The stream was not interrupted even when browsing with a video playing in the background. All the thumbnails and descriptions appeared without a glitch.
• Minimizing and restoring the Hulu window did not have any adverse effects on the playback.
• Navigation is simple and intuitive, a slightly better implementation compared to Boxee. Browsing the Hulu catalog on the TV provided an adequate user experience.
• The same selection on the Hulu website is also available in the desktop application, you’re not missing anything.

Overall, I am impressed with the quality of this release – not even a single crash or bug in three days is quite a feat in my book. And believe me, I did my best to make this thing crash. I ran it every night for about 3 hours, testing all the functionality available.

Hulu Desktop is not a complete media center application yet. Unlike Boxee, you can’t use this application to view content stored on your computer, be it music, photos or videos. You’re also limited to Hulu’s catalog: no Jamendo, BBC, Netfllix, YouTube or Revision3. That doesn’t mean that Hulu is not worth having; Family Guy, Stargate, and The Simpsons are just a few of the top notch material available. The best thing you can do at the moment is install both Hulu and Boxee and switch between the two when necessary.

Linux users will have to stick just to Boxee for now because there’s no version available for the penguin lovers. Windows and Mac users can download Hulu Desktop for free from here. You can also choose to sign in to your account and view personalized recommendations and subscriptions. This service is only available in the US. If you are trying to access Hulu from another country, try reading our article on How To Watch Movies and Shows on Hulu & Sling from Abroad.

Hulu Desktop is all about the lean-back experience. It’s adapting the platform to compete directly with old distribution models such as cable. At this point, why would you want to pay $100 monthly for a service you can get for free? Granted your ISP doesn’t implement bandwidth caps, with Boxee and Hulu, you can enjoy more content than was ever available on cable TV, on demand and with less commercials, on your big screen TV in the living room.

I’d love to hear what you think about Hulu Desktop, Boxee and switching for cable TV? Are you happy with the selection and user interfaces? What needs to be changed? Have your say in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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It’s hard to determine ‘the best’ piece of software amongst the bunch, because this is a very subjective matter (see MakeUseOf Poll on the best music player), but there are several reasons why the Kantaris media player does it for me.

Kantaris

Kantaris is a free piece of software developed by Christofer Persson, the same person who created the predecessor of PSP Updates. It’s an all-in media player that’s based on code from the VideoLAN Client (VLC) and Bass Audio Library.

In very simple terms, Kantaris modifies and upgrades the celebrated VLC player with a slick new user interface. It also integrates several new functions, like support and integration of Last.fm and Apple Trailers. You can use Kantaris to play files, folders, DVDs and CDs, or you can stream video or audio from a server.

For the latter, it suffices to supply Kantaris with the URL of the file or stream in question.

Integrated Codecs

Kantaris is a media player with integrated codecs. This means you can play nearly any imaginable media file without the usual hassle of finding and downloading the correct codec packs.

Supported formats include AVI, MPEG, MGEG-AVC, WMV, MOV, MKV, Matroska, Divx, Xvid, H264, MP3, WMA, OGG files and more.

Apple Trailers

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always prefered the Apple site as a trailer source. The trailers are MOV files, but they can stream in incredible quality. Kantaris has integrated Apple Trailers in the application and it is like a dream come true.

You can browse through the different trailers in a 3D gallery, similar to Cooliris. Unfortunately, a search option is not yet included, as Kantaris simply crawls about most recent trailers. This makes it a great tool to waste some time, but far from ideal as a more specific information source.

Once you’ve selected a trailer, you can view a summary and some specifics. With a click of a button, the trailer then starts streaming to your application.

Conclusion

Kantaris brings us a blend of VLC and Windows Media Player. Still a little bit rough around the edges, it’s a slick and versatile media player. Where the application lacks some of the more advanced features of both aforementioned applications, it makes up for it by integrating Apple Trailers and Last.fm, and introducing an innovative and user-friendly interface.

Unlike VLC, which is open source, Kantaris only works on Windows 2000, XP and Vista.

What do you think, hot or not? Tell us below which is your choice of media player, and why!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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A lot of the things we saw in the movie are becoming reality; we’ve got electric cars on the roads (though not in huge numbers), we are already able to browse content or play video games with our hands and feet, and electronic paper is being perfected at this very moment.

One of the things that always intrigued me – amongst others – was how the videos were controlled in the movie. Instead of pressing play and pause, the videos were directly manipulated – rewound, played and sped up – with simple, intuitive gestures.

Again, the quick progress of technology has caught up, allowing us to tick off this feature on our Minority Report list as well

DimP- A Direct Manipulation Video Player

DimP is an application that makes this very thing possible. It’s a direct manipulation video player, but what exactly does that mean?

Well, instead of watching an elevator go up, or a car drive down a road, we can grab the objects in question, and drag them along their path. To put it very simply, we use the objects of the film as timeline sliders.

DimP does this by calculating the motion paths of every element in the video, and by matching them up with the timeline. You can then grab any object, and drag it along its motion path.

The video itself won’t be altered, as DimP stores the motion paths of each individual video in a MOTION file. Holding on to these files will speed up later usage, but if discarded, you can easily have them recreated in a timely fashion.

There are various uses for this kind of software. Besides the fact that it’s extremely fun to drag your way across videos, research has also proven that “completion time for in-scene navigation tasks” are reduced by an average of 19 to 42 percent.

DimP will also come in handy if you need to watch a video in great detail. Security footage, for instance, or lab recordings, can be viewed in the needed pace. Have a closer look at the details of every move.

Technical Information

Sadly, DimP is only available for Windows systems – it runs smoothly on Windows XP and Vista, but is known to have some issues with the Windows 7 Beta.

Macintosh users (running OS X 10.5 Leopard or later) should check out DRAGON, a very similar, Mac-exclusive program. DimP is currently limited to AVI-, DRAGON to MOV files.

Do you see a future in this technology? What do you like or dislike about it? Perhaps you know another, even better application that does the job. Tell us all about it in the comments!

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That’s why I’m still on Windows Mobile, along with a massive portion of the rest of the world. Windows Mobile is one of the most-used mobile operating systems, but it’s been largely pushed aside as the iPhone has become more popular. The iPhone has all its great applications, but there are a number of fantastic, useful, fun and plain cool Windows Mobile apps as well.

Here are five free applications for Windows Mobile, many of which have iPhone counterparts, but that do their job at least as well as they do on that Apple-thing.

Evernote

My favorite “external brain”, Evernote helps you remember everything. With Evernote for Windows Mobile, all you’ll need on you is your cell phone. Just fire up the app, and you can create notes from pictures, text or voice. Search and browse your notes, share and edit them, and manage your head right from your Windows Mobile phone.

Unlike the iPhone (as best as I could tell), there’s also a link to upload a file, which means you’re able to send files to and from your Windows Mobile phone. It’s perfect for when you need to remember to buy something, how much something costs, something you need to do, or just about anything that comes into your head that you’d rather not fly right out.

Fring

Fring is the mobile IM client to end all mobile IM clients. It connects to most major instant messaging networks- AIM, Google, Yahoo, MSN, and the like. If you’ve got a Wi-Fi enabled phone, there’s even another killer feature- Skype. You can make VOIP calls with your cell phone, using Fring’s Skype support, and not use your minutes or plan, but simply by picking up a wireless signal.

Even without Wi-Fi, though, Fring’s a killer application for instant messaging, and can even update your Twitter status for you.

Tiny Twitter

Even though Fring can update Twitter for you, odds are Twitter users will want a bit more. That’s where Tiny Twitter comes in. It’s a Twitter cleint for Windows Mobile that also works on any Java-enabled device which covers some serious ground. Using Tiny Twitter, you can tweet without hitting your SMS bill (though you will incur some data charges without a data plan).

Tiny Twitter allows full access to your Twitter timeline, makes replying and messaging easy, and the “Inbox” view gives you a simple way to see and respond to tweets directed at you. Tiny Twitter’s the perfect Windows Mobile app for tweeting on the go, and is actually better than anything I’ve found for the iPhone.

The Core Pocket Media Player

TCPMP, as The Core Pocket Media Player is known, is the best way to watch movies and listen to music on a Windows Mobile phone. You can use it to stream media (again, watch the data charges), or to play a huge variety of formats of both video and audio. It’s a no-frills application with a small memory footprint that’s dead simple to use, and one road warriors won’t want to be without. Especially when you add the use of a memory card, TCPMP works with your phone to make it a killer media player- small screen or no small screen.

Kevtris

What fun is a phone you can’t play with? The iPhone has a ton of great games, but let’s be honest – there’s never been a game as wonderful as Tetris. The blocks, the twisting, the narrow misses that leave you tearing your hair out – it’s just glorious.

If you have a Windows Mobile phone, you needn’t ever be without Tetris again. It’s a free download called Kevtris, and is a blast to play. There are three levels of play, and several different games you can play as well – all similar to Tetris. It’s a fantastic time-waster, and a game I like better than anything the iPhone’s thrown at me.

I’ve been a Windows Mobile user for a while now, and thanks to these applications and more, I don’t plan on changing anytime soon. There are applications to do everything that I need, for free, and plus – I just love having an actual keyboard.

Are you a Windows Mobile user? What applications do you have, and which do you envy of the iPhone?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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• The Mark Pack – The Essentials On My Computer – Part One (31)

So here are the contents of the Mark Pack. Due to the nature of my job, the contents of the Mark Pack are always changing as I discover new stuff. But here’s what it contains right now. This is part one of the article, part two is tomorrow.

1. Mozilla Firefox

Obviously! (you didn’t think I was going to say Internet Exploder now did you?!) Although I have to say I have been flirting with the idea of going over to Google Chrome for a while now but I am put off by the things it lacks and especially its lack of privacy. Firefox has been rather unstable for me recently with constant crashes and this is not good in my line of work.   Thank God for its session saver feature otherwise I would keep losing all those porn sites I keep finding. Oops, did I really say that out loud? Damn, damn, damn…..

So to quote Darth Vader, “come with me to the Dark Side”. But right now, I am still doing my impersonation of Luke Skywalker on the Death Star in front of the Emperor resisting with all his might. At the moment, Firefox is still my browser of choice but it really needs to get the stability issues fixed if I am to resist Darth Google and his overtures (“the force is strong in this one”)

2. Pidgin Skype

I put these two together because I use them together as my daily online communication tools. I tried using Digsby for a while but it just didn’t click with me for some reason. So I went back to Pidgin. The only thing that annoys me about Pidgin is the very small message window that can’t be resized. It used to be much bigger but when they brought out an upgrade, they shrunk it down (no dirty jokes please!). I am hoping they will reverse that and soon. I don’t like typing in a microscopic window.

What I really love about Pidgin are all the plugins that are available for it. I’ve previously wrote about Bot Sentry which nuked all the IM spam instantly and there is also gSMS which sends you SMS’s whenever someone tries to contact you on Pidgin (although this one is apparently a bit unstable for some people).

Skype is just wonderful (despite all the spam that comes through it). I do a lot of my phoning from it, especially my international calls, saving myself a ton of money in the process. The video calls are just sweet and I surprised my grandparents on Christmas Day with a webcam call (even though they didn’t understand how it all worked!).

I also like the tweaks and upgrades that the Skype team have brought out recently – the improved audio and picture quality, the tighter interface (including the ability once again to separate the contact list from the chat window – which is a huge plus).

But the thing that makes Skype totally invaluable is the ability to assign a phone number to it (giving yourself a business phone number) and also being able to forward calls to a mobile phone.   So if you have to go out, you can forward all your Skype calls to your mobile phone and then take off to Starbucks for that double latte. Meanwhile, your Skype callers are none the wiser where you are.

3. Winamp

I’ve tried a LOT of audio and media players over the time. Windows Media Player, CrystalPlayer, VLC Player, you name it, I’ve tried it. But I have ALWAYS come back in the end to Winamp. It’s like an old lover that I can’t stay away from. I tell her I’m leaving her and she says “yeah right, you’ll be back you good-for-nothing S.O.B!” and she’s right. I’ll flirt with another media player but a couple of months later, I’m back at Winamp’s door, begging her to take me back.

What do I like about Winamp? Well you can minimise it to the top of the monitor as a thin bar (as you can see above). So you can surf and type and do whatever and still have your music playing. You don’t have a media player in the middle of the screen in the way of things. There are also LOTS of colours to choose from so if blue is not your thing then choose whatever colour floats your boat (although I think bright pink is going just a LITTLE too far!).

I also use Winamp as my default video player. The picture quality on Winamp is fantastic. Below is a screenshot of “Family Guy” on Winamp :

4. Launchy

We’ve covered Launchy many times before on MakeUseOf and if you haven’t got it installed yet on your computer, I strongly recommend you do so right now. It’s one of those things that you don’t realise its full worth until you actually have it installed and you start using it.

I used to be a big mouse person, using it for EVERYTHING, but Launchy has made me realise that I can get a lot more done with just using the keyboard. By bringing up the app, I can just type in the first few letters of an app and Launchy will then….well, launch it for me. No need for a mouse, no need for clicking, no need for lots of links and shortcuts on the desktop and shortcut menu.   Everything can be started and done with a few types of the keyboard.

5.  WinPatrol

I wrote about this previously on MakeUseOf and I think this is a valuable addition to any computer. WinPatrol basically monitors your computer for any covert and sneaky additions to your computer and then warns you about them.

When you install a program or upgrade a program, some of them try to hijack your system by taking over your system preferences. Big example – iTunes. Every time I upgrade that program, it tries to override Winamp and take control of all my MP3 files and video files. If I didn’t have WinPatrol, it would succeed and later I would have to tediously change all my file associations back to Winamp.

But thanks to WinPatrol, as soon as iTunes tries to do anything like this, I get a big warning sign flash up on my screen asking me if I approve of what iTunes is trying to do along with a YES and NO button.   By clicking NO, WinPatrol will immediately block iTunes from changing anything.

WinPatrol also allows me to easily control my startup menu options so my computer boots up faster.

This is a MUST-HAVE program for everyone. The pro version of the program gives you a few more features but the free version is more than enough I think.

6. FileZilla

If you have a website domain and you need to do regular file transfers from your computer to your domain (or vice versa) then FileZilla is the app to do it. No other FTP client comes near FileZilla in terms of ease of use and speed.

The FileZilla team also bring out regular new beta releases of the app so this is very much a constant work in progress.

That’s the end of Part One. Part Two of the Mark Pack will be tomorrow. In the meantime, why not tell me what is in your pack? What essential apps are on your computer? Are any of the apps on this page in your pack? If not, why not?  If not, what equivalents do you have instead and why?

Make sure and come back tomorrow to see what other apps made it into the Mark Pack!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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For me personally it’s Songbird. Over the last year I’ve been taking a real interest in watching the progress of the open source media player. I’ll admit I have not been using it as my main music management software recently ever since I bought a Zune, however I’ve still been testing and playing around with it as each new version is released.

Songbird launches today as a non-beta, version 1.0 release following 2 years of development. The significance of this launch should become apparent with time, but I think it’s safe to say this is an important milestone in the development and innovation of desktop media players and hopefully Songbird will gain the same community support Firefox did.

The Vision for Songbird

Rob mentioned the vision for Songbird briefly in his interview with us a few months back; “what happens when a desktop media player is connected to the Web is an unexplored and intriguing opportunity. Songbird re-architects the traditional desktop media player to go there. Songbird is an open, customizable desktop media player that is built to play the Web.”

Given that Songbird is open source, available across all three operating systems (Windows, Mac and Linux) and has been translated into over 60 languages this vision looks more like a reality every day.

However, visions and arguments for openness and ubiquity have rarely made much difference to what users actually use so the real test of Songbird will be what mainstream users think of the software and if they adopt it which only time can tell.

Performance

Performance and stability has been an issue for Songbird throughout much of the development – however it’s also to be expected considering it was being released as alpha software. The last few releases however have seen dramatic improvements in both areas – so much so that the experience of testing Songbird 1.0 feels almost like a new media player entirely.

Songbird has always been lightweight but for the first time however it actually feels lightweight. If you’ve come from using Media Player or iTunes especially than the experience will be a huge improvement. If you’ve been a longtime Songbird user than you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Customizability and Features

What I love most about Songbird is the ability to only include functionality that you actually need. Software development often follows a cycle in which a new development will quickly gain popularity for being lightweight and innovative. Users like it, but than demand all kinds of new features. This ‘feature creep’ eventually results in a product much like the software it was designed to replace – slower, bloated and loaded with features many users don’t need.

This is what I feel is happening to Firefox – the point of Firefox was always in creating an open, extendable platform which could be extended by developers, however now Mozilla seems to be also caught up in a features race with Microsoft and Google and what was once Firefox’s greatest strength – stability and performance – is failing behind. Since Firefox 3 I’ve got sick of the browser’s memory usage, random freezes and frequent freezes.

Songbird will hopefully avoid that and this can be seen by the difference in how features are introduced. The Songbird team develops extensions alongside the main Songbird client and these are what introduces new features to the media player. If you don’t want them you don’t install them – simple as that.

Some examples include support for various file types, media players, the popular MashTape extension, LastFm scrobbling and media views are developed by the Songbird team and made available from the addons website.

Incidentally the way the Mashtape extension aggregates data from various different sources really is fantastic, check it out in the screenshot below:

Add-Ons

Since extensions are such a huge part of Songbird you would hope this launch includes a number of addons to choose from.

There are over 70 community provided addons for everything from skins to media views to browser extensions. It’s not a huge number but it’s a significant start to what will hopefully grow into a strong community. Songbird is built upon the Mozilla codebase which it shares with Firefox so for many Firefox developers conversion of extensions should not be too difficult a process and may perhaps encourage them to do so.

To conclude – this is a great release and I would very much recommend it to anyone to use as their main media player. To be honest, I can’t think of the last time I reviewed a major product and really felt like the developers had totally nailed everything they needed to.

• Performance: fixed
• Stability: fixed
• features: provided by the community
• minor UI issues: fixed
• web integration: great.

I actually like to provide balanced reviews – point out the negatives and compromises however this time I really can’t. That alone is probably the best thing I can say about this product.

Download it now.

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• Move over iTunes – Mozilla’s Songbird is Here (42)
• The BIG Book of iTunes [Free PDF Download] (49)
• Synchronize MP3s To Non-Apple Devices with doubleTwist [Mac] (0)
• Quick Overview: Free Media Players (17)
• How to Improve Your iTunes Experience (Part 1) [Mac Only] (39)

Today, we will be looking at some of the best media players on the web for Windows. (There have been a couple of MakeUseOf polls on best audio players and video players as well.)

Ready? Let’s go.

1. VLC Media Player

VLC is one, if not the, best media player ever created. It is lightweight, portable, and can play almost any media format out there (incl. videos downloaded from sites like Youtube). VLC can even be used as a streaming media server, can play DVD’s, can be used as an audio decoder, and doesn’t require external, extra codecs to run.

VLC can also accompany customizable skins, as well as nearly every operating system that exists (Mac, Windows and Linux). I highly recommend trying it out.

2. Media Jukebox

Media Jukebox is an all-in-one media player, music collection organizer, iPod connector and music store with extreme tagging techniques. This music player can pretty much do it all. While not as small as VLC, it definitely does have a bunch of features. It can even be used to sync your phone, while finding tags for your newest imported songs, and simultaneously downloading the newest plug-in to customize your user experience. Sweet, right?

You can further maximize Media Jukebox’s abilities by adding playlists to download automatically and creating or using a custom skin. Media Jukebox deserves to be on this list for sure. For complete feature overview see Organize your Music Collection Effectively With Media JukeBox.

3. Songbird

Songbird is one of the most customizable media players ever created. Besides being created by Mozilla, and being open source, it allows users to create add-ons/plug-ins for added user experience. Built-in options include: Last.fm playback history plug-in, support for the iPod, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, metadata management, etc.

To get a feel on what can be done with Songbird extensions check out our earlier article on Songbird extensions. Songbird truly shows what media players need to become with regard to customization.

4. Winamp

Many music fanatics are familiar with Winamp as being one of the most widely used media players in the world. It has developed into one of the most feature oriented media players ever created. Features include: lots of customizable skins, built-in internet radio, support for a wide variety of audio and video formats, flash support, customizable plug-ins, support for multiple languages, ability to sync with your iPod, etc.

There is a free version, of course, but you can upgrade to the PRO version for even more features.

(Note: Winamp has been previously talked about on MakeUseOf here.)

5. KMPlayer

KMPlayer, while not as widely used, is one of the best, free, media players. While supporting numerous different formats, languages, skins, etc, it is relatively lightweight and can be used for numerous different media related material.

The application itself is extremely customizable by it’s own settings, but can be further customized to fit your own needs as well. Features include: Compressed album support, multiple file formats, numerous decoders, support for subtitles, plug-ins, etc.

Stay tuned next time for more cool Windows tips and tricks! In the meantime, why don’t you tell us in the comments which media player you have installed on your Windows system and why you prefer it over all others? What features are the deal-clincher for you?

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• Sync All of Your Media Files in One Place with doubleTwist (12)
• Organize And Manage Your Music Collection With MediaMonkey (33)
• Eight Great Songbird Extensions Worth A Test Drive (12)
• 10 Great Windows Media Player 11 Tips and Tricks (13)
• Using Your Linux Computer As A UPnP AV Server (Part 3) (5)

Lets first see what all is required to play a video file and then we will look at how to overcome the problem.

To play any video file that exists in the wildest corners of the web you only need 2 things:

• A media player (or the software).
• A codec.

We are all familiar with media player but the term that needs a little attention is "codec". In simple terms codec is nothing but an "something" that knows how to convert the video to 1s and 0s and back from 1s and 0s to the video that we all can see.

Looks pretty straightforward right? Not until you dive a little deeper into the world of codecs. There are many codecs out there that can be used to encode the video. In some sense the codec is like the key and your video file is like the lock, so you need the same key or the codec to actually view the file that was used to encode the file. This situation causes problems to most users if they don’t have the proper codec on their system. You can view the installed codecs by doing the following:

Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices Properties -> Hardware – > highlight VIDEO CODECS -> push Properties button -> select PROPERTIES tab.

You can do the same for audio codecs as well.

So, How To Play Those Unplayable Video and Movies

Here are some suggestions to ensure that your video plays fine.

(1) Install a media player that can support large number of formats. VLC is a good choice. It’s not the only good video player out there, make sure to check out MakeUseOf Poll on the Best Free Video Players.

(2) The second solution if you like to stick with the Windows Media Player is to install codec packs. These are packs that install the required codecs on your system for playing the common video formats. To figure what codecs the video needs check out MakeUseOf review of Gspot.

(3) Finally, you can use the MakeInstantPlayer, it converts your videos into self running executables that you can give to your friends or take to other computer. The executable is all that you need to watch the video. No software or codecs are required on the other system.

More on MakeInstantPlayer

MakeInstantPlayer offers other benefits as well like

- Adding a custom logo that will be displayed as the splash screen when you run the file.
- Ability to include the codecs as a part of the executable.
- Ability to make the user go to your homepage or site when the video finishes playing.

How To Make your Videos Executable on Any Computer

First, download and run the makeinstantplayer.exe . The software doesn’t add any registry entries and only extracts the files to your chosen location. Then, run the makeinstantplayer.exe from the location you provided while installing. You will see this:

Next

• Choose the path to the video file you want to make executable by clicking on the source file entry field
• Choose the output file path and name by clicking on the Output File text entry field

Some Optional Settings

- Enter a URL to direct the user to the after the playback finishes.

- Enter the path to your custom logo if you want that to be displayed as the splash screen when the video starts (JPG, JPEG, GIF, ANI, BMP, ICO, EMF are acceptable formats). I used the following:



- You can specify to keep the video fullscreen in the resulting exe or keep in on top of other windows or make it auto quit after playback ends or choose to start it all over again when it ends (check loop). You can also include codecs in the resulting exe.

- Preview it if you like or just hit Make it! to convert the video to executable.

It logs all the activities on the screen so you can see what it is upto. I tried and successfully converted DivX format, VOB, AVI, MPEG, MP4 and even WMV. Its was reasonably fast, on my 1GB RAM computer it took about a minute and a half to convert 700MB DivX file to executable.

Once you have the executable all you need to do is send the file and run it to view the video on any computer irrespective of the fact if it has the required codecs or not.

Do you know of some other ways to get rid of the codec chores? I would like to know them. Put them in comments please!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• MUO Polls : Free Video Players. What’s your Favorite ? (61)
• Downloaded an Unplayable Movie? Gspot & Klite to the Rescue! (11)
• 10 Great Windows Media Player 11 Tips and Tricks (13)
• Watch Free TV Channels On The Go With KitePlayer (18)
• Top 5 Internet TV Players + TV freebies (26)

Boxee is basically XBMC on steroids because it has social networking features so that you can view what your friends are watching and listening to on Boxee, as well as plugins that are written in Python so you can really customize Boxee a lot. Boxee also gas a skinning engine so if you get bored of the default look of Boxee then you can always download other skins or make your own.

Get on Boxee

Because Boxee is still in alpha there is a very limited amount of invitations that they’re going to give out so the best thing to do is to get to Boxee.tv as soon as you can and enter your email address so that you can get on Boxee as soon as possible.

Once you’re emailed your invitation and go to their website you’ll be asked to enter a few details such as username, email, etc and it shouldn’t take anymore than 20 seconds to complete. After you’ve signed up you’ll be logged into your account.

The first thing that you will see when you login is a feed of your friends. Within the feed you will see the latest movies that they have watched and the latest music that they have listened too. If they rated it and liked it a thumb up will appear but if they didn’t like it then a thumb down will appear on the feed next to that movie or song. Whatever they listened to or watched will also linked to the imdb or last.fm page depending on if its a movie or music.

Under the Profile page is information about movies you’ve watched and music you’ve listened too.
The Friends page displays all your friends and also allows you to invite and add new friends.
Under the account page you can change your personal information and who you want to share your information with such as the world, your friends or nobody. Here you can also change your picture that is displayed throughout your profile.

At the bottom of the account page you have services. Here you can enter your twitter, friend feed and tumblr information and decide what information to share.
With these services you can twit, post and share.

Download and Installing Boxee

To download Boxee simply press the Download Boxee link once you’ve logged into your account then choose either the Mac OS X version or the Ubuntu Linux version. Support for Windows will most likely be added soon.
If you want to see the code behind Boxee then just simply download the source from the download page and play about with it.
If you’re on a broadband connection then Boxee should download fairly quickly as its only 30mb. The OS X version downloads as a package so you double click the package and click agree then click next then once the installation has finished Boxee will be in the Applications folder.

Using Boxee

When you first load up Boxee you will be presented with a window like the one shown above. From here enter your username and password for Boxee and you’ll be logged in.

This is what Boxee will look like the first time you login. In the top right corner is the weather and the time. Down the left side is what’s new, video, music, pictures, profile, downloads, settings and exit.

The main content that you see is the what’s new content and this is videos and music that your friends have recently listened too and watched.

When you select Video and hit enter you’ll see two more options My Videos and Internet Videos.
My Videos are movies that you have on your computer locally and Internet Videos are videos that a streamed from the internet and updated automatically via an RSS feed.
When you load up the Internet Videos for the first time the RSS feeds for sites that are there is blip.tv, CNN, Revision3, Cnet and Youtube.

For music it is the same but for the music streaming websites its jamendo, muxtape, shoutcast, bbc, last.fm and NPR. You can also listen to music that is on your computer or in your iTunes library.

Pictures allows you to look at pictures that you have on your computer or you can search for pictures on Picasa and Flickr.

Under Profile you can see the latest content that you and your friends have viewed on Boxee.

Downloads allows you to view content that you’re currently downloading.

Under the Settings tab you have options for video, music, pictures, network, appearance, system, media sources, general and the credits of the people who made Boxee.

I think that Boxee is a really good media player and that it is a lot better than Front Row.

Want An Invite?

If you want to give Boxee a try we’re giving out invites to the first 20 people who ask for them in the comments.

[rating=5]

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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• Top 5 Internet TV Players + TV freebies (26)
• Hulu Desktop: Instant TV Shows and Movies on Large Screen (9)
• 4 YouTube Tools you Probably Don’t Know About (48)
• Using Your Linux Computer As A Media Center (Part 1) (66)
• Transmission, The Lightweight BitTorrent Client (11)

I vaguely remember trying Songbird years ago and soon gave up due to it being hopelessly slow and buggy, but considering it’s still only in alpha (0.6.2) I can understand.

After reading Mark’s article I was motivated to try it out again.

I discovered huge improvements and while there are still performance issues, its acceptable and usable and has a great default theme. Music libraries of 10,000 songs are now comfortably supported and development moves every bit closer to beta.

I like keeping my music organised and easy to navigate though, so up to now I have mainly been using Windows Media Player as my software of choice and Media Monkey for occasional song tagging. I know, I know… so Media Player sucks etc, etc, but I’ve always liked it and have kept using it over the years.

The best thing about Songbird is the community contributions, just like Firefox. A small but growing number of extensions and ‘feathers’ are available for download and provide many of the media player’s best features.

With iTunes rapidly becoming the dominant online music store, software like Songbird will become increasingly important to other music stores like Amazon and eMusic as it isn’t tied to just one store.

Here are what I think are a few of the best extensions currently available.

1. Details Pane

A great details sidebar which runs alongside the main interface and provides all the metadata associated with the song. Useful for displaying lyrics and other details typically missed by most media interfaces.

2. Minimise to Tray

One thing I like about Windows Media Player is the mini toolbar player which sits on the task bar. With Songbird you can instead use this add-on to minimise to the system tray like Media Monkey does. It clears up the task bar and still gives easy access to music playing functions.

Yes, Songbird does have a mini player mode already, But I find it annoying as it just sits on top of all your windows. It would be okay if it wasn’t so large.

3. Metrics Media

This is one of my favourite ones, a graphical representation of your music collection. Includes details like hard drive space, information on artists, genres and albums and the total number of tracks in the library, play length etc.

4. Album Art Manager

You can download and add album art through this extension which provides a separate interface to manage your music from. You can add more services to search and fetch art later on.

5. Media Flow

As Mark mentions in his review, Songbird has been created with a focus on competing with iTunes, and so takes many of the better iTune features and improves them or adds alternatives.

Media Flow replicates Cover Flow, and while I’ve never found it particularly useful myself, a lot of people seem to have. So if this is something you like about iTunes then here is how you can also get it in SongBird.

6. AdBlock Plus!

Yes, because Songbird is a web browser as well as Music Player I recommend you use Adblock. Music Sites are pretty bad for banner ads and popups so this will make your life a whole lot easier. One thing to note however, you cannot manually block ads as Songbird doesn’t have the Adblock context menu you may be used to in Firefox.

7. Now Playing List

I’ve actually got no idea as to why Songbird doesn’t have a Playlist bar as a default feature, not that it matters because it’s simple to use this add-on to achieve the same thing. It sits to the right of your screen and you can drag and drop songs on to create playlists or just listen to in a specific order.

8. Directory Browser

I find this one particularly useful as well. Directory browser means instead of navigating your library, you can have the actual folder in the sidebar and browse from there. I often find myself using Explorer when I’m fixing up my music, so having this kind of feature within the media player itself is great.

So if you like the look of any of these then maybe you should consider giving SongBird a try? If you already use it then I’d like to hear what your favourite extensions are. You might also wants to check out our recent poll on free music players.

(By) Laurence John was born naked, screaming and utterly helpless at some point in the last century. He currently blogs about heroic failures and the development of Windows 7.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Top 5 Free Media Players For Windows (57)
• The BIG Book of iTunes [Free PDF Download] (49)
• Synchronize MP3s To Non-Apple Devices with doubleTwist [Mac] (0)
• Songbird 1.0 Hatches! Download It Now (19)
• Quick Overview: Free Media Players (17)

What video player do you use to play movies and other video files? If you’re a regular MUO user, there is a good chance you have a nice video player on your system. Something that is capable of playing pretty much any movie. So like we did in the past, we are asking you to tell us about it. Help us find the best video player out there.

I did my best not to miss any popular free movie player for Windows, Mac or Linux. Most of the below mentioned players are capable of playing pretty much any popular video format. Though I am sure there are some good video players that are missing. Probably more from the Linux side than Windows. If you’re aware of any good one that should have been listed then please tell us about it in the comments. If you’re looking for a free video player that supports lots of video formats proceed to the download links below.

Update: VLC Player was added to the poll. A small clarification though. IT’S a GREAT Player and I DIDN’T FORGET ABOUT IT. I thought it was included in the poll until I saw the comments. This was abt 2 hours after the poll was published. My bad.

Please vote ! (you can select up to 2 options)

Video Player Download Links. All Free!

• Windows Media Player
• DivX Player (Win, Mac)
• Winamp
• BS. Player (Win)
• Media Player Classic (Win)
• GOM Player (Win)
• QuickTime (Win, Mac)
• VLC Player (Win, Mac, Linux)
• Mplayer (Linux) / Mplayer (for Windows)
• AVS DVD Player (Win)

Please share your thoughts in comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• 3 Ways to Play Unplayable Videos on your PC (12)
• Quick Overview: Free Media Players (17)
• Downloaded an Unplayable Movie? Gspot & Klite to the Rescue! (11)
• An Introduction To Codecs, Converters and Rippers (19)
• 10 Great Windows Media Player 11 Tips and Tricks (13)

Adobe Media Player is an Adobe AIR application that streams video straight to your desktop. It has quite a robust catalog, which includes major networks and popular shows shows such as CBS’s Big Brother or Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. Searching for shows is quite easy, as all the episodes are assigned tags that relate to their content. It’s pretty fun to search for something you’re interested in and then finding new shows that cater to your interests. In addition to the major networks, there are several Internet TV shows, such as Revision3’s Diggnation and Tekzilla, and also Adobe’s own original programming, Adobe TV.

Adobe TV provides original internet shows that instructs, educates, and pretty much revolves around the the world of Adobe products. Right now, Adobe TV is divided into four channels: Photographer, Designer, Video Professional, and Developer, with multiple programs available within these channels. I specifically mention Adobe TV because the shows produced on it have quite a good production value for an internet media network. Also, it’s available for viewing right inside your browser outside of Adobe Media Player.

This media player allows you to view your desired content online or offline, since it gives you the ability to track and downloaded your favourite shows. It also updates you when new episodes come out, and you can even upload your own personal videos and use Adobe Media Player as your video library. Unlike Hulu, which is accessed through a browser, Adobe Media Player is only available through its desktop application due to its episode update and download services.

It’s nice to see that internet TV is gaining momentum, and will probably be quite a popular distribution media in the near future.

By: David is a creative individual trying to find his place in this world. Visit his tech blog, Beta Cubed – B^3

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Two Directories To Find Cool Adobe AIR Applications (4)
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• Watch Free TV Channels On The Go With KitePlayer (18)

Maybe it’s the video, audio or even both. What do you do?

I have been using a tool called Gspot for a long time now to figure out what is going on with my videos. This is how it works. First download the Gspot 2.70a package. It requires no installation and works very simply.

After you launch it, you will see a screen like this:

And now as your geeky eyes are going wild checking out all the fields and options let me tell you how easy it is to use! You simply drag the file that won’t work to this window. That’s it drag and drop! You should then see some thing like this:

You see my file identified as being an Xvid video in the upper right corner and it says the codec is installed. It lists the audio codec in the bottom left as “MPEG-1 layer 3″ and also confirms that the codec is installed. You can verify other stuff like the file is complete or how many frames per second it is and lots of other data that means nothing to me. I am sure if you are authoring your own videos and you are down with the compression lingo then these options might be golden for you!

If your computer does not have Xvid or Divx installed on it the Gspot scan will come back with a little banner that says:

Codec not installed

Fret not because Gspot will propose a solution at the bottom of the screen. I used to have problems with codecs all the time way back in 2001…

It is 2008 now so of course The Admin came up with a solution! I discovered that I didn’t have to install codecs individually anymore and there was an ongoing project that has a codec pack! And it’s free! You guys know I LOVE free stuff!

I downloaded the K-Lite codec pack. This is a huge complete pack with all the codecs you will ever need to author and play everything (until the new ones come out!).

There is also a standard set (plays mostly everything) and a basic set (plays the most popular formats) for more minimalistic installs. They can be found at Free Codecs.

Do you have a favorite codec pack or another way you make certain your videos play? Both of these tools are free and widely available on the web. Yet I do not know the author or true home page for either of them… do you?

Happy Downloading!

By: Karl L. Gechlik, A superhero of the IT industry. He runs a global WAN, cracks the whip at his consulting company and gets the whip cracked at him by his beautiful wife and daughter! To follow more of his geeky goodness check out www.askTheAdmin.com

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• 3 Ways to Play Unplayable Videos on your PC (12)
• MUO Polls : Free Video Players. What’s your Favorite ? (61)
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• Windows Registry Tweaks (Part 2) (8)

Here’s a brief selection of the media players I have encountered over the past few years.

1. Windows Media Player

It’s not often that I recommend a Microsoft product but out of all the media players that I have tried over the years, I always end up coming back to Windows Media Player. It always works and is easy to use. It’s been a while since Microsoft released any updates to Version 11 but so far no complaints from me. Media Player is often pre-installed with new computers but if you don’t have it on your PC for any reason, you can easily download again from the above link.

2. Zoom Player

I used Zoom Player for quite a while before finally going back to Windows Media Player. Zoom Player played all the video files I gave it but I gave up on it in the end because it always disabled the “keep Zoom Player on top” option. So everytime I started Zoom, I would have to choose the “on top” option again from the menu. It got slightly annoying after a while. But this is still an excellent media player nonetheless.

3. VLC Media Player

What’s interesting about VLC is that it is open-source and you can also have a portable version for your USB stick. It’s also one of the few popular players that lets you play downloaded Youtube videos.

4. Miro Player

It used to be called Democracy Player. Now it’s Miro. This is also open-source and you can also download YouTube videos (apparently. I never tried). You can read more about it at previously posted Top 5 Internet TV Players.

5. DIVX Player

I have never used DIVX player, although I know a few people that swear by it (and laugh at me being impressed with Windows Media Player). You need the DIVX codec to play most video files and I have subsequently developed a dislike for DIVX because when you download the much needed codec, the DIVX player also gets installed onto your computer. I don’t know about you but software that barges its way onto your PC uninvited earns my eternal dislike.

6. Winamp

For a player that mainly markets itself as a music player, it also plays video files remarkably well with amazing picture quality and sound. This is also my favourite music player as it has a really great skin which allows you to keep the player in a narrow bar at the top of your computer screen. Winamp is constantly updated with new versions.

7. iTunes

How could we possibly end this post without mentioning Mr Steve Jobs and his iTunes application? iTunes is a close second favourite to Winamp when it comes to playing my music and since iTunes also plays regular MP3’s and CD’s, I figured it was worth a mention. I prefer Winamp because it comes across as lightweight and smooth while iTunes comes across as rather clunky. But iTunes has a nice burning facility if you want to backup your CD’s. However, if you’re only using it because of an iPod than have a look at our list of free iPod managers.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Top 5 Internet TV Players + TV freebies (26)
• Songbird 1.0 Hatches! Download It Now (19)
• MUO Polls : Free Video Players. What’s your Favorite ? (61)
• Manage your iPod with SharePod (15)
• Eight Great Songbird Extensions Worth A Test Drive (12)

(1) Internet TV Players

Joost (www.joost.com)

Over 100 high-definition TV shows (Comedy central, Punk’d, Super Cars, Nat geo, etc.) and channels from various categories (Cartoons, Film, Comedy, Music, Documentary, Entertainment, Sports, and Liefstyle). More Joost screenshots here.

Zattoo (www.zattoo.com)

Zattoo provides excellent picture quality and viewing experience. Service is mainly focused on European channels and offers almost 50 live TV channels (some channels are limited to particular geographical locations.)

Babelgum (www.babelgum.com)

Babelgum provides a nice easy-to use TV player but unfortunately doesn’t have much channels to choose from. I used it for some time initially but switched to Joost right after I got my invite, and haven’t checked it since. When it comes to Internet TV the amount of available programs service has to offer is definitely the most important factor.

Miro (www.getmiro.com)

Miro (formerly Democray Player) is very different from the tools mentioned above. It’s all-in-one player that lets you navigate though and subscribe to over 1500 web shows, vlogs or podacsts. Additionally, Miro can be used as: BitTorent client, Video downloader (Youtube, Google Video, DailyMotion, etc.), and video player (Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, XVid, AVI, etc.). Check out video screencast here.

VeohTV (www.veoh.com/veohTV/)

VeohTV lets you watch and record Internet video from thousands of video sources, incl. Yotube, GoogleVideo and Myspace. You can also enjoy certain full-length episodes from traditional TV channels i.e. ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, etc. Search for channels, browse channels by category, record favorite episodes, add desired channels to favorites, and more. Check out full channel list here.

2) Popular TV ShowS, Movies, Cartoons… Directories

While most of the above mentioned applications excel in quality and interface, they lack what users love most, that is abundance of popular and mainstream TV content. These include popular TV shows (24, House, Heroes, …), blockbuster movies, cartoons (The Simspons, Futurama, …), Anime and so on. I guess the reason behind it is quite obvious, you can’t really distribute such content legally unless you have rights for it. But nevertheless there is a good chunk of hugely popular websites that provide mainstream TV content fro FREE.

Starting from the best:

• TV-Links (no longer online) – Movies, TV Shows, cartoons, documentaries, anime, and music videos
• Alluc – TV shows, cartoons, anime, movies, music, and sport videos
• Sidereel – Movies, TV shows + wiki style editing
• TV-Video – TV shows
• AllOfTV – Anime, cartoons, music videos, and TV shows.
• VideoHybrid – Movies and TV shows.
• Peekvid – TV Shows, movies, cartoons, and Sports

You can get a quick overview of these services in previously published ‘7 Excellent Places to watch TV Shows for FREE’.

(3) TV Channel Directories

There are dozens of websites that aggregate, categorize and rate TV channels. In most cases, users can stream traditional TV channels (CNN, BBC, ABC, ESPN and lots more) without leaving the website. I have written and compared web TV channel directories before so I’ll just list them here.

• Viewmy.tv (not in original list and currently my favorite)
• ChooseAndWatch
• Llive-Online-TV
• ChannelChooser
• Streamick
• Freetube
• WWiTV

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