So, instead of buying a new DVD copy every time the old one has been scratched to bits; a better solution would be to convert the movie inside the fragile physical disc into a digital file, store it inside a computer hard drive or portable media player, and watch the copy as many times as you want.

Apple has succesfully made the iPod the most well known name of portable media players, thanks to the great design, intuitive interface, and the high quality of the product. This makes the iPod the perfect home for the converted DVD movies. This article will help you effortlessly put a DVD movie onto your iPod.

The missing ripper

No doubt the best free tool to extract the content of a DVD as a video file is Handbrake. This is like a one click solution for your DVD converting needs.

But there are many online discussions mentioning that converting the DVD directly using Handbrake doesn’t always give users the best result. To keep the result as good as possible, the DVD has to be ripped first to the hard drive before being converted by Handbrake.

There’s only one name that keeps popping up as the best free tool to rip DVD: MacTheRipper.

This is a free app, but you actually have to do a little web searching to get the download link. There’s a story behind these extra steps : MacTheRipper is developed in a country where ripping DVD’s (even the ones that you legally own) is forbidden by law, so the developer had to take the down the link.  To honor the developer’s goodwill, I will not include any link here either. But worry not, finding the app is not that difficult. -cough-torrent-cough- ahem. ‘Scuse me.

Rip the DVD into a VIDEO_TS folder, then open the folder as a source from Handbrake.

Choose Your Configurations

In order not to mess things up with all the complicated configurations, the first thing you need to do is to choose the resulting file you want to produce out of the (ripped) DVD.

There are some pre-configured settings that you can choose from the preset pane on the right. Choose iPod because that’s the topic today. Choose Low-rez if you only want to watch the video on your iPod, but choose Hi-rez if you are also thinking of plugging the iPod to your TV and watching the movie from the real tube.

The video configuration will always change, reflecting what setting you choose from the right pane. Unless you understand what you are doing, I suggest you don’t change anything from the configuration in the main window.

Instead, go to the Audio & Subtitles tab. I also prefer not to mess with the audio configuration, but this is the place to go if you want to add subtitles to the converted video. Just choose one subtitle from the available option.

The last step is to click the “Start” button above and make yourself some coffee while waiting for the process to finish.

If you have more than one movie to be converted, click the “Add to Queue” button after finishing the settings for one movie, then move on to the next movie. After all the movies are standing in line, you can click the “Start” button.

After the conversion process is finished, all of the converted movies will be added to iTunes and automatically synchronized to your iPod when the gadget is connected to your Mac.

Now you can safely keep those discs and enjoy the pod.

Handbrake is also available in Windows and Linux version, while MacTheRipper is Mac only.

How do you use rip your movies for iPod viewing? Do you have an easier way to do it?   If so, why not show off your expertise in the comments below?

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/

• How to Create a DVD from Any Video File (21)
• How To Easily Convert Video Files to DVD, MP4, VCD, MPEG, AVI … with VideoSpiritLite (22)
• EncodeHD- Easily Convert Media Files for Any Devices (Windows) (5)
• Download & Convert YouTube Videos for iPod with DVDVideoSoft (13)
• bitRipper : One-Click Free DVD Ripper for Windows (64)

In order to make MP3 copies of my CD’s (for iPod listening), I have always turned to the trusty freeware open-source tool CDex. It’s fast, it’s easy and there’s even a portable version for your on-the-go ripping needs.

So if you want to rip a CD to mp3, here’s how to go about it.   It’s really easy.

Installing CDex is a breeze and when you open it for the first time, this is what you will see -

Insert your CD into the CD drive of your computer and within seconds, you’ll see the music files appear :

Now as you can see, all the files are named “AudioTrack“.  You could rip them with these names and then manually (and tediously) rename them all yourself when they are in your computer. But you don’t have to because CDex can (mostly) retrieve the song titles for you and automatically rename the files.  I say mostly because there have been occasions when CDex failed to find the titles and the automatic renaming failed. But this is rare.

To get the correct song titles, you need to access something called the CDDB Database. If you look at the screenshot above, you’ll see an option in the top toolbar called “CDDB”. But before you do that, you need to go to Options–>Settings–>Remote CDDB and enter an email address. Now, I have absolutely no idea why an email address is needed so I entered a fake one and you should too. Until the makers of CDex explain why an email address is needed, they are not getting my real one. I tried using the CDDB Database without an email address and it didn’t work.

While you are in the settings, go to Filenames and there you can say where you would like the ripped music files to go in your computer.

OK, now go to CDDB in the top toolbar and in the drop down menu choose “Read Remote CDDB“. After a few seconds or so, after the app connects to the database and looks up the names, you should now see all your files renamed properly -

Now all that’s left to do is rip the files. Look on the right hand side for the various options. There are a few there as you can see but I think the first two are all you really need -

The first one rips your music to wav files and the second one down rips to mp3 files. I personally prefer mp3 files and if you do too, hit that button!

It’ll immediately start churning out your MP3 files to the hard drive destination you specified in your settings in a folder with the title of the artist’s name.

And that is it. That’s the beauty of CDex. It’s as easy as inserting the CD, accessing the CDDB Database to get the titles renamed and then hitting the mp3 button. So straight forward – and it’s free.

And how do you to rip CDs to MP3 files? My father rips his CD’s with Windows Media Player and I know a few people who use Winamp. But as I said, I have always been swayed by CDex’s ease of use. What do you think?

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/

• Extract Your Concert DVD Audio to MP3 With 4 Simple Tools (12)
• Easily Rip The Audio From Online Video With VidToMp3 (8)
• Top 3 Sites For Streaming Your Music Anywhere (16)
• The Mark Pack – The Essentials On My Computer – Part Two (24)
• The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner (244)

It seems as though there is an unending list of file formats that accomplish the same task – saving a bunch of data. What is the purpose of the existence of these seperate formats, and why do they extend the list of available formats to “Save As…“? Is there any real difference between which extension a particular file is saved as, as long as it’s appropriate for the media being saved? Why, why, why do they plague me with their endless resistance to conversion?

The list of questions could go on, pretty much for the length of this article, but I believe I should provide some answers, since the questions are probably what led you here in the first place. So here goes nothing – a guide to the inner workings of the common, but still unusual file formats.

Technical Jargon:

File Format: a specific way to encode data that is to be saved as a file. Please note that the file format does no encoding on its own – the encoding is left up to the codecs.

Codec: a program/algorithm that encodes/decodes data to convert a file between different formats. The popular media codecs are generally for shrinking file size. Laurence did a post on codecs last year.

Lossy Codec: refers to a codec that sacrifices file quality for the sake of compression.

Lossless Codec: does not destroy any data, regardless of whether or not the data is necessary for the file’s integrity.

Metadata: information about the file that is stored within the file itself – for example, when a picture was taken and what type of camera it was taken with, or the artist of an audio track. Karl has done a post on how to remove metadata from photos.

Container: a file format that concerns itself more with how data is stored, and not necessarily coded.

Bitrate: the number of bits processed per second. To put things into perspective, mp3’s generally have a bitrate of 128 kbit/s, while CD’s generally have bitrates of around 1.4 Mbit/s.

VBR/CBR: the difference between variable bitrate and constant bit rate is just that – VBR uses a higher bitrate to encode (and thus, allocates more space to)  more complex parts of the audio file.

Audio File Formats Explained

.aiff /.wav

.aiff /.wav – These are both uncompressed, lossless formats, which means it takes about 10MB to save a minute’s worth of music. aiff was developed for Apple’s OSX, and wav for PCs, although both formats are compatible with both operating systems.

Wav is the format preferred by PC wielding audiophiles; mac users generally rip CD’s into the aiff file format. There are codecs like FLAC and WavPack that will compress .aiff and .wav files, although the resulting file will still be huge compared to the ubiquitous mp3 format. Simple Help has a great tutorial about playing .flac files in iTunes here; it is for Mac OSX users only.

.aac

.aac – Apple’s default audio format, AAC is a lossy compression scheme that was developed to replace mp3, but never achieved the prominence that mp3 has with listeners. Some argue that AAC produces the same quality audio at 96 kbits/s as a mp3 does at 128 kbit/s, but with the recent developments in mp3 codecs (particularly LAME), mp3s have performed far better in listening tests against AAC than in previous years. Nevertheless, when it comes to a sound quality to file size ratio, AAC beats MP3.

.ogg

.ogg – Vorbis, which is the name of Ogg’s audio format, is an open source lossy compression format that is favored by developers of free software for its patent-free nature. Despite its claims of being able to produce better sounding music at smaller file sizes, Vorbis is not widely used because of its slow encoding time and the lack of native support from popular music players such as iTunes and Winamp.

However, many video game makers and programmers have begun using Vorbis because it is open source, and thus does not demand licensing fees like mp3 and aac do. If you are interested in testing the sound quality of Vorbis yourself, try the aoTuV modification of Vorbis and install the XiphQT plugin for iTunes.

Conclusion :

If you’re willing to sacrifice the storage space, and have ears sensitive enough to tell the difference between a CD and a ripped track, go with .wav or .aiff. Otherwise, .aac and .mp3 encoded at bitrates above 256 kbit/s are indistinguishable from CDs for the average person.

Vorbis performs the best at low bitrates around 64 kbit/s, whereas the LAME encoder for MP3 performs better at higher bitrates. Regarding VBR and CBR, the general rule of thumb is that VBR will produce better sound quality at a lower file size than CBR can.

Ultimately, it is up to your own ear to determine which codec to use, and which format is best for you. Perhaps you’d like to perform your own listening test, to determine how picky your ear is. If so, try WinABX, which is a program that performs double blind listening tests. When you finally decide which format and bitrate is optimal for you, get yourself a codec pack, and convert your music with the multitude of audio converters that are out there.

Not to ignite a flame war, but which format/codec/bitrate do you use? Do you think AAC or Vorbis will ever gain the type of popularity that MP3 has right now? Leave your opinion in the comments, and stay tuned for Part 2: Video!

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/

• Free Alternatives to 10 Popular Commercial Mac Applications (Part2) (13)
• FormatFactory – A multifunctional Media Converter (17)
• An Introduction To Codecs, Converters and Rippers (19)
• 10 Great Apps to Convert Audio & Video Files in Linux (49)
• The Mark Pack – The Essentials On My Computer – Part Two (24)

That’s why modern people can afford to lose their computers but not the data inside. That’s also why the necessity of backing up your data is unquestionable.

Disc Burning in Mac OS X

One of today’s most popular and practical method of data back up is disc burning, and there are two popular disc formats used by the masses: CD (up to 700 MB worth of data) and DVD (up to 4.7 GB worth of data).

Mac OS X comes with its own built-in disc burning feature and users have several ways to access it. I’ll show you how to use native Mac apps to burn CDs and DVDs for free without installing anything.

1. From the iLife Suite

Mac users can burn their music, photo and movie collection directly from the respective iLife applications. There’s a “Burn Disc” button in iTunes, The “Share –> Burn” menu in iPhoto, And the burn button in iDVD.

2. From Finder

You can create a Burn Folder in Finder by choosing “File –> New Burn Folder” menu or by using “Command + Shift + B” key combination. Give name to the folder and then drag and drop the files and folders that you want to backup.

After everything is in place, open the burn folder and click the “Burn” button on the top right corner of the window.

3. From Disk Utility

Open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app) and you can see that there’s the Burn button in the main window. Please note that Disk Utility can only burn from an image file. So, the first thing to do is to choose or create an image file. (You can create an image file by clicking the “New Image” button.)

The advantage of using Disk Utility is that you can create multisession disc. Just make sure you tick the “Leave Disc appendable” box before you start burning.

4. Burn Baby, Burn!

Mac OS X built-in disc burning feature has some limitations. The main one is that users should use different apps to create different kind of discs, and the kinds of disc that can be created is limited. That’s why there are still so many users who use third party disc burning application. We mentioned some of them in the article about free alternatives to Nero CD / DVD burner.

One good and free alternative of such app is Burn. This is an all-in-one, easy to use disc-burning software for Mac that has the ability to burn different kinds of discs with only a few clicks.

To use Burn, choose the type of disc you want to create from one of the tabs on the upper part of the window. There are three main types of disc available: Data, Audio, Video, with an additional ability to Copy disc.

The next step is to drag and drop the files you want to burn into the main window. Then, give the disc a name and click “Burn”. That’s it. No more complicated processes necessary.

There’s a list of adjustable sub-types of disc next to the name field. Other settings can be changed from the Preferences menu.

To create a multisession disc, be sure to check to the “Allow more sessions” box. And if you use CD-RW or DVD-RW, there’s the option to erase the disc before burning.

Burn is by far the easiest disc burning software that I’ve come across. I also think that this one is better than most of the paid competitors.

Have you tried Burn? Do you know other alternatives to burn CDs and DVDs for free? Share your burning experiences in the comment below.

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/

• The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner (244)
• ImgBurn – Easy & Free CD and DVD Burner App (15)
• How To Rip & Convert A DVD Movie For Your iPod (Mac Only) (23)
• How to Create a DVD from Any Video File (21)
• bitRipper : One-Click Free DVD Ripper for Windows (64)

ImgBurn is a CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray burning application that is fast, lightweight, and completely free.

Editor’s note: Disc compatibility depends on your CD/DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD writer hardware.

Core Features

• Create images from files and folders – useful to backup your data
• Burn data files or images to disc – to burn downloaded software or movies
• Create image file from disc – for creating copies of discs
• Easily build DVD Video, HD DVD Video, and Blu-ray Video discs – for creating discs playable in your DVD player

You can also use ImgBurn to burn standard Audio CDs from any music files such as MP3, WAV. It supports a variety of image formats and almost all types of optical discs, so you don’t need to look any further for your disc burning needs.

Installation is fast and simple with the 1.9MB download. You can get a Portable version of ImgBurn here or easily create one yourself. ImgBurn runs on Windows and on Linux under WINE.

The welcome screen is very intuitive. You choose a mode of operation depending on your task:

• Use the Write Mode to burn images to disc. For e.g., when burning a .ISO file to disc.
• Use the Read Mode to create an image from a disc. For e.g., if you want to duplicate your friend’s disc, or create a backup copy of a disc, you would first create an image of the source disk.
• Use the Build Mode to create data discs containing backup copies of your chosen files/folders.

Burning Image (Write Mode)

In the Write mode, you select the image file that you want to burn on disk, insert a blank disc, and click Burn.



Creating Image from Disc (Read Mode)



The Read Mode displays information about the disc, and you choose the destination file for the image. Simple!

Burn Data Files (Build Mode)

If you want to backup data to discs, use the Build Mode. You can also use this to burn “VIDEO_TS” folders to create regular DVDs that play in your DVD player. You select files/folders in the left pane, and click the Calculator icon to see how much space will be utilized on the blank disc currently inserted.



The Options Tab allows you to choose the file system on the target disc and other preferences. Advanced users can also change how file date/time stamps are set, create bootable discs, and set ISO9660/Joliet/UDF restrictions.

ImgBurn offers a plethora of options for intermediate and advanced users, via neatly organized groups in the Options dialog. It also has a fairly extensive list of command-line options, for automating it via batch files.

ImgBurn is fast, simple, and best of all, completely free. You will never need to pay for another disc burning software with ImgBurn in your arsenal! Check out the other popular free burner applications.

What do you think? Does it give Nero Burning ROM or any other commercial burning application a run for their money? Let us know!

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/

• The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner (244)
• 4 Easy Ways to Burn CDs and DVDs for Free on Mac (3)
• How to Rip a CD to MP3 & Auto-Name Files Correctly (Win) (9)
• How To Rip & Mount Multiple ISO Images Easily (Windows) (12)
• How To Rip & Convert A DVD Movie For Your iPod (Mac Only) (23)

Today I’ll be showing you how to use the free DVD Flick to convert just about any video files to DVD format. DVD Flick supports a huge number of audio and video file formats. You may create DVDs from avi, vob, iso, wmv, mp4 and even Flash video (FLV) so that you may preserve that YouTube pirated movie cute cat video for generations.

For starters, we’ll need a good video file. In this example, I’ve downloaded the latest episode of Pure Pwnage, which is probably the greatest ever Internet show about pr0s who pwn n00bs @ g4m3z. If you can read that last part, you might have already seen the show. Moving on.

(photo credit: Silvio Tanaka)

Open DVD Flick and click the New Project button. You should have a blank canvas before you. Click Add title on the right side and pick your video files. You can select multiple files and create multiple titles, but we’re going to stick with one to make it simple. Now, select your title and hit the Edit title button on the right.

This is where you’ll be doing a lot of your customization. You’re going to want to name the video and make sure that it’s set at the correct aspect ratio. Under Chapters, you can specify the length of each chapter. For something feature-length this could be five or ten minutes, but for a video this short, I’ve set my chapters at two minutes. Under Audio and Video sources, you may wish to include a different angle of a shot, if available, or an alternate audio track, such as commentary.

Under the Project settings button you’ll find more options to fine-tune your DVD. If you plan on opening this project again later, you may want to give it a title. Your Target size will likely not change from 4.3GB DVD, unless you’ve bought some special-format disks. For simplicity’s sake, and from my own experience, I suggest going for a 4.3GB DVD-R or DVD-RW for maximum compatibility. Under Video, please be sure that your Target video format is appropriate for your region. For the Americas, select NTSC. For just about everywhere else, choose PAL. Finally, under Burning, check the box next to Burn project to disc.

Under Menu settings, you may select your preferred template, with options such as forcing audio track selection. You may preview the menu to make sure that it navigates the right way. Once you have everything set the way you want it, it’s time to hit the Create DVD button.

It may take some time for the process to complete, especially with larger video files. As a rule of thumb, expect the DVD to be completed in about the same time you’d spend watching the whole DVD. If you’re working with big files, this might be something you want to have running overnight when you’re sleeping.  It was quite nice of the developers to include a Tetris game to pass the time. Just hit that little Entertain me button.

DVD Flick makes DVD authoring ridiculously easy. I’m creating a PP season one DVD as I type this, and it couldn’t have been much easier. There are other options, and we’d be happy to hear them in the comments.

As for me, I’m off to pwn some n00bs.

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/

• How To Rip & Convert A DVD Movie For Your iPod (Mac Only) (23)
• Top Online File Converters (Video, Audio, Images …) (23)
• How To Easily Convert Video Files to DVD, MP4, VCD, MPEG, AVI … with VideoSpiritLite (22)
• How To Copy & Edit YouTube Videos On Your Computer (20)
• bitRipper : One-Click Free DVD Ripper for Windows (64)

In case you’re one of the readers who don’t know what an ISO image is, it’s an archive file, a bit like ZIP or RAR, but it’s uncompressed. In order to open and read the ISO archive it needs to be mounted.

Now with ISODisk I can mount my ISO images from the network as a drive letter. I can share them out over the network with others or run them locally on a machine without having to burn the image.

I know you are saying to yourself that lots of programs can mount ISO’s to your Windows machine, and almost every other application can rip ISO’s now. How is this application different?

I am glad you asked!

ISODisk stands out in my book because it will let mount multiple iso images on the same machine. So if I have 10 images I am going to need access to, I can load ISODisk and mount all my images and share them out. Now I have full access to all of them from any networked machine!

Let’s take a look at ISODisk.

You first go to ISODisk and download the 52KB installer. After it is installed you will need to reboot to get the CD driver mojo working. After you reboot, fire up ISODisk or simply right click on a ISO image.

This is the screen you will see on startup.

And this tab allows you to easily rip a CD to an ISO.

Let’s take a look at how easy it is to mount an image. I click on the Mount ISO Image as Visual Disk and hit the folder icon and browse for my ISO. I can also right click on an ISO anywhere on my network and mount it like so:

I choose my XP SP3 made from Nlite and right clicked choosing the new context menu option – Load into new emulated drive. My file was on the F:\ drive of it’s local machine so it made me an F:\ drive with my files in it.

Within seconds I had this pop up and it was ready to install!

And if I browse on over to My Computer I have a new F:\ drive as you can see below:

Notice that it comes up as a CD-Drive. This is awesome for some programs that require you to have the disk in the drive.

Now let’s take a look at how ridiculously easy it is to rip a CD (or rip multiple CDs) to a ISO using our free little application.

We click back on over to the Create ISO Image from CD-Rom tab and choose the drive from the drop down menu. When you made your selection hit the floppy disk icon and select a location to save your ISO.

Type in the ISO’s new file name and hit Open. It will begin to rip it. And that’s it! Easy as 1-2-3!

Do you have a favorite ISO tool that you would like to share with us? Maybe some other app to multiple ISO images or rip CDs? Put us on in the comments guys and gals!

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/

• How to Backup CD/DVDs to PC and Play them From Backup (10)
• AcetoneISO – Easy ISO Manager for Linux (5)
• 10 Cool Linux Apps You Maybe Didn’t Know About (25)
• The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner (244)
• Mount Zip Files, CD/DVD Images & Encrypt Folders (10)

So, tally ho!   And on with the show!

7.  TrueCrypt

The king of computer encryption programs.   Extremely easy to set up and once you have your encrypted folder(s) set up on your computer, it is impossible for anyone to crack it open (unless you make your password blatantly obvious like P-A-S-S-W-O-R-D for example, in which case you have no business using an encryption program in the first place).

Everyone should have an encryption program on their computer for computer passwords, financial records, private correspondence and any other sensitive material that shouldn’t be readily accessible to prying eyes.

My first ever post for MakeUseOf was about TrueCrypt and you can also encrypt your USB stick with the app.   So Truecrypt is very versatile and flexible.    Sometimes it does pay to be paranoid and careful.

8.  Unlocker

Have you ever tried to delete a file only to get this error message?

I get this message a lot and it irritates the hell out of me. So this is where Unlocker comes in to save the day (and my sanity).

Whenever you can’t delete a file, just right-click on it and choose “Unlocker” (the app integrates itself into the Explorer right-click menu). Unlocker will then kill all the Windows processes that are holding that app and stopping you from deleting it. You can then go ahead and nuke the file.

If for any reason it can’t kill the dastardly processes which are holding you back, Unlocker will blast away the file for you when you next boot up the computer.

Here’s my original MUO story on Unlocker.

9.  Filebox eXtender

There are two parts to this app that are insanely useful.  The first is the ability to add shortcuts to certain Windows Explorer folders which you access on a regular basis :

This saves a lot of time if one of your most accessed folders in Windows Explorer is a sub-folder tucked away in lots of other sub-folders.   Instead of tediously click-click-clicking with a mouse to get to that folder several times a day, you can use Filebox eXtender to create a one-click shortcut to that folder instead.

But the best part of Filebox eXtender are the “push-pins” which you can use to keep an app “on top” of all other windows.   So say I want to keep Skype on top of all other Windows.   I just need to use the push-pin to “pin” Skype to the top of all the other windows, as if I was pinning it to a notice board :

Here’s the original MUO story.

10.  CDex & Audioshell

Whenever I buy a CD, I immediately rip a MP3 copy for my iPod using CDex.   CDex is most definately the best freeware CD ripping tool available.   After putting the CD into your hard drive, CDex immediately detects the disk and after hitting a button, the disk is ripped to MP3 format in the space of a couple of minutes.   Most of the time, it can even auto-name your files for you too.

When the files have not been auto-named by CD-ex, I then use the free Audioshell to edit the ID3 tags and add album art (see my original MUO story here).

11. Quick Media Converter

When it comes to file conversion, Quick Media Converter is an absolute gem and it seems there is nothing it can’t do.   I have yet to find a file it won’t convert.    It seems totally unbeatable.

It converts audio files and video files from one format to another.   It converts files to iPod format and iPod files back to normal format.    It converts files to Flash and back again.   DVD’s from PAL to NTSC and vice versa.    Files to iPhone format and vice versa.   Files to Playstation and Xbox format even.

There is also a webcam video recorder and a Camstudio screencast recorder but I haven’t ever used those so I can’t give an opinion on how good they are.   But the file conversion tools are just far and away the best I’ve ever encountered.

So that’s the Mark Pack – 11 apps that appear on my computer ALL the time.   But as I said in my last post, due to me testing and reviewing apps all the time, I might find a new favourite app tomorrow and number 12 might enter the Mark Pack any day.    But when it does, I’ll be sure to let you know!

So what’s in your Pack?   Please do let me know!    And let me know what you think of my choices!

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/

• Easily Rip The Audio From Online Video With VidToMp3 (8)
• Top Free Media Converters for Windows (32)
• One Online Tool to Handle Five Tedious Tasks (6)
• Max – The Multitalented Audio File Converter for Mac (4)
• How to Rip a CD to MP3 & Auto-Name Files Correctly (Win) (9)

I am going to be packing ‘em up and putting them away for storage.

But that shouldn’t mean I can’t have access to any movie I own at any given time…

Right?

Well for a long while, if you wanted to rip DVD’s that meant you needed to know how to decrypt your DVD’s and then you needed a little geeky know-how to convert those “vob” files and other crap to something playable.

Times they are a’ changing because this little free application called bitRipper includes a de-crypter and a converter in one package. That means throw the DVD into your DVD drive and click START RIPPING!

It is that easy. It’s easy enough for your mom to do it. For real!

If you don’t believe me, go check it out for your self. Grab the installer direct from here or visit the author’s homepage here.

My download did not require a registration code but the author does include this on the download page:

If your download requires entering username and regcode, please use the following ones:
User name:

Registration code:

bitRipper also has advanced configuration modes available where you can get at some settings but the two best features are the included DVD decrypting and On the fly writing.

On The Fly DVD Writing does not require you to use almost 5 gigabytes to rip your dvd before burning the AVI. That’s right it converts video on-the-fly, copying data and writing it to your AVI file at the same time.

bitRipper was originally commercial software when I first came upon it but it is free now and occasionally updated. The author points out that he has added these features in the recent past:

• Ability to control the ripping process system priority
• Internal video bitrate calculator to fine-tune the compression level
• Authorization support for protected discs
• Episodical discs support (multiple DVD tracks containing multiple parts)
• Support of the most of video export formats including AVI, MPEG, DivX
• Reduced installation package, maximized stability and reliability

bitRipper is an amazing find and a regular part of my DVD ripping activities! Give it a shot.

What do you use to rip your DVD’s? Something as easy and free? Put me on it in the 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/

• How To Rip & Convert A DVD Movie For Your iPod (Mac Only) (23)
• How to Create a DVD from Any Video File (21)
• Create DVDs Out of AVI or Other Media Files (14)
• An Introduction To Codecs, Converters and Rippers (19)
• 4 Easy Ways to Burn CDs and DVDs for Free on Mac (3)

I only have a couple of music concert DVDs, but the live music from these shows are not available on CD, and nowhere else in digital format on the web either. I also have a couple of comedy shows that I wanted to rip from. So I did some significant research and testing, and came up with four simple tools that will get the job done for free. Here are the detailed instructions.

Download the following programs first:

- Smart Ripper (ripping the AC3 Audio file)*
- BeLight (Converting AC3 to MP3)
- BeSweet (In combination with BeLight, converting AC3 to MP3)
- Audacity (Seperating Chapters/Songs)

* Please note that this is the only DVD ripper that would consistently extract the AC3 file. DVD Decrypter is supposed to have this ability as well, but I could not get it to work.

A. Smart Ripper

1. After you download and extract Smart Ripper to whichever folder you would like, insert the audio DVD of your choice and run the SmartRipper.exe in the extracted Smart Ripper Folder.

2. Once open, it will run through a verification process of the DVD.

3. Once that is complete, go to the ‘Stream Processing’ Tab of the application.

4. In the ‘Streams’ section, make sure ‘Enable Stream Processing’ is checked and uncheck all of the boxes below, and then ONLY re-check the proper AC3 file(or .WAV/2 Channel file). Also make sure that ‘Demux to extra file’ is selected on the right side.

Finally, make sure you have selected your designated location to store the AC3 file.

5. You then will see the progress of the ripping.

6. Once the process is complete, you will be prompted with a ‘Rip Complete’ dialog.

B. Belight and Besweet

1. After downloading each of the Belight and Besweet applications, make sure you extract both of their zip files into the same location. (Belight depends on the Besweet.exe file)

2. Open Belight.

3. Go to File>Open, and browse to your newly created AC3 File.

4. Adjust advanced however you like, or simply keep the default, and they should be sufficient.

5. Click ‘Start Processing’.

6. Once the process is complete, you should see a identical file to the original, but the difference will be a MP3 extension.

C. Audacity

1. The final step of the process will be using the extremely popular Audacity application to separate the chapters/songs. This unfortunately will be the most tedious step of the process, but should not take that long.

2. After downloading and installing Audacity, open the application.

3. Go File>Open, and open the newly created MP3 file. The import process may take a while, due to the file size.

4. After the import is complete, the imported file will display an audio graph that has a large dip in between songs.

5. You will cut each of these sections into a new file, by highlighting, then selecting EDIT>CUT.

6. You will then select File>New, and paste each of these sections into a new file. These files will be your songs.

7. That’s it, you now have your concert DVD added to your audio collection.

As you can see this process is as simple as some of the many DVD audio extraction programs out there, but the difference is that these don’t come along with the typical $30.00 price tag either. Plus, once you have the process down, it shouldn’t take you much longer then 30 minutes, as it did for me.

Since Smart Ripper is somewhat of an old application (no updates since 2005), some of the newer methods of encryption may block its capability, so you may have to resort to a newer AC3 extraction tool. (if you can find one).

I not only did this article to get the instructions out on how to do this, but to see if there were any other suggestions for conversion. If you know of any standalone, freeware applications that can do this, please speak loudly.

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/

• How to Rip a CD to MP3 & Auto-Name Files Correctly (Win) (9)
• An Introduction To Codecs, Converters and Rippers (19)
• The Mark Pack – The Essentials On My Computer – Part Two (24)
• The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner (244)
• Normalize MP3 Volume Levels with MP3Gain (10)

You can easily install any of these apps using the ‘Add/Remove Applications’ from the upper panel.

1. Midori

Midori is a web browser that uses the well-known WebKit rendering engine, providing quite a speed bump from Firefox and standards complying page rendering. Midori is currently packaged into Xubuntu and features include tabs, bookmarks and customizable search engine box. The browser is extensible via Javascript.

2. gDesklets

gDesklets is a platform for widgets, tiny applets sitting on your desktop in a symbiotic relationship of eye candy and usefulness. You can populate your desktop with status meters, icon bars, weather sensors and news tickers.

I managed to configure gDesklets to emulate the OS X Dashboard feature in addition to the standard placement on the desktop.

3. AcidRip

AcidRip is a GTK application for ripping and encoding DVD’s. It neatly wraps MPlayer and MEncoder, which I think is pretty handy, seeing as MPlayer is by far the best bit of video playing kit around for Linux.

As well as creating a simple Graphical Interface for those nervous of the MEncoders command line interface, it also automates the entire process.

4. Cheese Webcam Booth

Cheese is a Photobooth-inspired GNOME application for taking pictures and videos from a webcam. It also includes fancy graphical effects based on the gstreamer-backend.

5. Gmount-iso

Gmount-iso is a small tool written using PyGTK and Glade. It allows you to easily mount your CD images.

6. KGRUBEditor

A tool to view and edit the menu.lst file of the GRUB boot manager. It offers many features and it is the perfect solution for those who want to change the way GRUB works, without messing with the menu.lst file.

7. Flickr Uploader

Postr is a small app that lets you upload photographs to Flickr, with tight integration into the GNOME desktop.

8. DOS Emulator

DOSEMU stands for DOS Emulation, and allows you to run DOS and many DOS programs, including many DPMI applications such as DOOM and Windows 3.1, under Linux.

Features include:

• word size and addressing modes of the iAPX86 processor family’s “real mode,” while still running within the full protected mode environment
• simulate a hardware environment over which DOS programs are accustomed to having control.
• provides DOS services through native Linux services; dosemu can provide a virtual hard disk drive which is actually a Linux directory hierarchy.

9. E-book reader

FBReader is an e-book reader with a lot of great features:

• supports several open e-book formats: fb2, html, chm, plucker, palmdoc, ztxt, tcr (psion text), rtf, oeb, openreader, non-DRM’ed mobipocket, plain text, epub
• reads directly from tar, zip, gzip, bzip2 archives (you can have several books in one archive)
• supports a structured view of your e-book collection
• automatically determines encodings
• automatically generates a table of contents
• keeps the last open book and the last read positions for all open books between runs
• automatic hyphenation (patterns for several languages are included)

10. HomeBank

HomeBank is a fast, simple and easy to use program to manage your bank accounts. It differs from gnucash for the better look and feel, and for the faster start-up speed. It has a lot of features such as easy analysis with graphical charts (statistics, budget, overdrawn, car cost), multi-accounts support, budget management, reminders, import from OFX/QFX-CSV files, visual status of operations. It is based on GTK2.

Let’s hear some other interesting, less-known Linux apps in the 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/

• How To Rip & Mount Multiple ISO Images Easily (Windows) (12)
• Useful Widgets for the Opera Browser (11)
• The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner (244)
• Testing Google Chrome Alpha: Test #1 – Linux (22)
• Share Your Firefox Data Across Operating Systems & Computers (21)

Jing, as an alternative to iShowU ($20)

Jing is a screen-casting program which has come a long way since it first started. Their current version is pretty impressive because it integrates sharing to Screencast.com, Flickr and uploads to any FTP; you’ll automatically get a download link which you can share with your friends (something like Skitch). It does everything iShowU does and it even records from the microphone. The one thing it doesn’t allow me to do is adjust the video output quality. But hey, it’s pretty decent for a free app.

Burn, as an alternative to Roxio’s Toast Titanium ($79.99)

Burn extends Mac’s native burning abilities by adding various options such as creating the regular Data as well as Video and Music disks. It can burn from cue and bin images. It’s not as fully equipped as Toast Titanium with Blu-Ray Disc burning but it does the good ol’ fashion burning job very well.

Cyberduck, as an alternative to Transmit ($29.95)

Both programs are pretty much the same, supporting Quicklook, WebDAV, Secure FTP, Amazon S3, synchronization and Growl notifications. So what’s the difference? Um, the price?

macam, as an alternative to IOExperts Webcam Drivers ($20)

My first Mac was a Mini and like all new Switchers, I was excited about Photo Booth and got myself a USB webcam. Little did I know that Mac has limited drivers for webcams. After extensive research, I was ready to fork out 20 bucks for IOExperts Webcam Drivers just to make my webcam work. Luckily, I managed to find macam in time. macam is basically driver for USB webcams on Mac OS X. The name doesn’t instill a lot of confidence but trust me, it works. And it saved me $20.

Handbrake and MacTheRipper* and VisualHub, as alternatives to Roxio’s Popcorn 3 ($49.99)

Handbrake is a DVD to MPEG4 convertor. Everything is handled with a single-click. It’s a very simple, free program for those without high expectations. For others who require more control, there is MacTheRipper which performs a complete backup of your DVD. With the resulting Video_TS folder, you could use VisualHub to convert it to H.264 which provides high-quality encoding. And since VisualHub is no longer in development, I suspect you could just use it for free.

*MacTheRipper 3.0 is available only to those who donated. Check their forum for more details. You can also find the 3.0 version if you do a Google search.

Switch, as an alternative to EasyWMA ($10)

The thing about Windows Media Audio is it’s a proprietary codec unlike MP3. Hence, converting songs to and from WMA on a Mac isn’t free. For Switchers, this presents as a problem because when using Windows, iTunes recognizes WMA files and plays them without a hiccup. After transferring the iTunes library over to Mac, the songs can’t be played unless they’re converted. If you read my previous article about Migrating iTunes over to Mac, I basically teach you how to avoid this problem. If it’s too late for you and all you want is a WMA to MP3 convertor, there are EasyWMA and Switch. One is free, the other isn’t.

iGTD, as an alternative to Things ($49)

The fast-paced lifestyle most of us lead nowadays has driven notepads and To-Do lists to a whole new level. Getting Things Done (GTD) is now a zen-like teaching. iGTD is apparently the guru of all GTD applications. I’ve covered Things before when I first started writing for MakeUseOf. I would still recommend it but it isn’t free, however there is a free preview available now. So, you might want to get your hands on that while you still can.

My colleague Daniel listed five other GTD applications. Check it out.

WhatSize 10.3.91, as an alternative to WhatSize 4.3.1 ($12.99)

Yes, I realize that they’re both the same application but truthfully, I haven’t found a program which does what WhatSize can do. I’ve tried GrandPerspective but it doesn’t quite tickle my fancy. WhatSize is still easier to use and more pleasant on the eyes. I got pretty upset when it went from freeware to shareware without even a hint of an announcement. So, I did some searching and managed to find the older but more importantly, free version. DiskInventoryX is also worth a try, as an alternative to the alternative.

Dictionary Plugins, as an alternative to TranslateIt! (17€ for a 1-year license)

TranslateIt is a very popular multilingual translator for Mac. Mac’s Dictionary application comes with every Mac OS X. It’s pretty expandable too, because you can add more dictionaries to it if you can find them. Rather than paying close to $25 for a dictionary, you can just spend a little bit of time to download a free dictionary database (which I may have already found for you) and add it to your Mac’s Dictionary.

fruux, as an alternative to Spanning Sync ($65)

Spanning Sync is a very well-known commercial app which allows synchronization of Google Calendar with iCal and Google Contacts with Address Book. It can also sync calendars and contacts between several Macs. Fruux is a very fresh and free preference pane which will also allow you to sync your iCal, Address Book, Bookmarks and Task between Macs. It lacks the Google Calendar and Contact syncing, though. It’s possible to set that up yourself, with a bit of manual labour. I ain’t spendin’ $65 for that.

That concludes the second part of my Free Alternatives to 10 (now 20) Commercial Mac Applications. I hope you enjoyed it and managed to save the money you would’ve spent if you hadn’t read this post.

Are there any other applications you paid for? Share with us in the comments, maybe we’re able to find a free alternative for it!

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/

• Audio File Formats Explained in Simple Terms (31)
• Three Alternative Mac OS X Browsers Worth A Try (6)
• The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner (244)
• Shiira – Another Alternative Mac OS X Browser (5)
• Macnifying OS X: Manage Foreign Languages On Your Mac (7)

FormatFactory is one such tool that can assist you in most of your media conversion needs.

FormatFactory is a multifunctional media converter that supports:

Video Conversion:
From all formats to MP4/3GP/MPG/AVI/WMV/FLV/SWF.

Audio Conversion:
From all formats to MP3/WMA/MMF/AMR/OGG/M4A/WAV.

Image Conversion:
From all to JPG/BMP/PNG/TIF/ICO/PCX/TGA.

Using FormatFactory you can not only convert between all the various formats but you can also perform certain other functions like reducing multimedia file sizes. This can be done by shortening the video/audio (by changing the duration) or by changing the quality with which you want to encode/convert.

You can also attempt to repair damaged audio and video files that just won’t play in your players.

FormatFactory has a special section for converting media files specially for your portable players. FormatFactory allows you to convert your media files to formats supported by your iPod, iPhone, Zune, PSP, BlackBerry and 3GP for supported devices

Last but not least you can use it to rip CD/DVDs to video files or convert them to ISO images.

Usage:

• 1. Download and complete the simple installation.
• 2. Choose the category and file format you want to convert to from the side bar.
• 3. Add in the desired files. Optionally you can change the output settings (click on output settings).

• 4. Once you have them all queued up hit the start button.

• You can also play with the options to tweak the overall settings and output folder for all your conversions.

Let us know what you think of FormatFactory in the comments. Do you have another preferred program for your media file conversion needs?

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/

• An Introduction To Codecs, Converters and Rippers (19)
• 10 Great Apps to Convert Audio & Video Files in Linux (49)
• Digital Video Formats and Video Conversion Explained (8)
• Audio File Formats Explained in Simple Terms (31)
• xVideoServiceThief – Ultimate Download Manager for Online Videos (25)

On an unrelated note we’d like to share some tools for the purpose of ripping, converting, downloading and backing up videos.

Since we’re starting from scratch the first thing I suggest you download is a Windows codec pack. Codecs are necessary to play various different ‘digital streams’ (thank you Wikipedia for making me sound smarter) and files. Varun has alsom briefly covered it in his article about Playing Unplayable Videos on your PC.

When you start dealing with video you’ll soon discover there is an awful lot of them. With these packs however you should have no trouble playing any video or audio files you encounter or download:

Free Codec Packs

XP Codec Pack

XP Codec Pack is one of the most completed codec packs which helps you to play all major audio and video formats.

Vista Codec Pack

The installer will automatically remove most other popular codec releases from your computer before installing this concise yet comprehensive package. You won’t need to make any adjustments or tweaks to enjoy your media content immediately. Windows Media Player and Vista’s Media Center will instantly recognize all your files as playable.

Vista Codec Package does not contain a media player software and it will not associate filetypes.

Free DVD Ripping Program

Without a doubt the easiest and best DVD ripping software you’ll find for free is DVD Shrink. It’s been officially abandonware now since 2005 thanks to some copyright infringement accusations and DMCA takedown notices.

Actually that may not be completely true. I think the developers still hang around on the DVD shrink forums, but as far as further development goes they have released nothing more.

It says something for the quality of the original application that two and a half years after the final release it is still one of, if not THE, best DVD rippers.

You can get DVD Shrink from various mirror-sites, here is one link to Softpedia.

DVD Shrink removes copy-protection and regional codes, although on some newer DVDs I have been unable to rip them, perhaps due to new copy protection measures.

DVD is not a DVD re-authoring program, you’ll have to use other software for that. It does however work in conjunction with Nero burning suite if you use that. If you don’t have plans to reburn DVD’s to other DVD’s then I would suggest not splitting the audio and video files. You’ll find the option when you ‘backup’ a disk.

Any Video Converter

Perhaps an explanation isn’t really necessary for Any Video Converter, however I will recommend it.

Any Video Converter takes some of the frustration out of converting media. It’s not infallible but in my experience it’s worked pretty much every time I’ve needed to do something. It also gets a big plus for having an attractive usable interface which is functional and easy to learn.

You can convert video for essentially any popular media player (iPod, PSP, mobile phone) and also for sharing online with services like YouTube. You can see it gets a nice big button in the screenshot below:

uTorrent

uTorrent is now clearly the most popular torrent client. According to TorrentFreak Azurus was the most popular bittorrent software until 2007 when uTorrent took over.

uTorrent got to be the most popular client for being simple, very light on system resources and stable. For most people, me included, this is enough. I can’t think of any feature I require aside from simply downloading the file.

What codecs, converters and rippers do you prefer? These ones or others? Let us know in the 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/

• Digital Video Formats and Video Conversion Explained (8)
• FormatFactory – A multifunctional Media Converter (17)
• Create DVDs Out of AVI or Other Media Files (14)
• 2-Step DVD-to-PC or iPod Video Conversion using Free Tools (115)
• Top Free Media Converters for Windows (32)

So the ripping method could not involve any downloaded or installed applications and had to be done online – and of course for free. The end result had to be a MP3 that could be played on a Windows Mobile phone.

Off the top of my head I couldn’t think of anything but in this day and age I knew there had to be something out there that did what my loyal reader wanted to do.

On my first Google search I found Vid2MP3 (wich apparently was profiled on MakeUseOf Directory as well. See VidToMP3 – Online Video to MP3 Audio Converter). It says that it will do EXACTLY what I want to do… Automagically.

Wow, maybe everything has already been created? Nah…

Let’s check out this free service. First I went to YouTube and found a JayZ video here.

Its URL is what we need to plug into Vid2Mp3. You can find this in your address bar. For this video it was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekomM8aobQo

Next we open up the Vid2Mp3 website and plug in that same url like so:

After typing in or cutting/pasting your URL in the box above you hit that Download button and then you wait. This video took us a little less than 3 minutes to convert. When it is finished converting you will see something that looks like this:

You hit that ‘Download MP3′ button and you will be greeted by a screen that allows you to listen to it via a embedded player, share it or download it. Very handy for being on a restricted machine.

So if you want to listen to It’s a hard knock life click this link [Play]
[Play]
and you will be taken to a web page that looks just like the screen shot above. Enjoy.

Do you have another way of doing what I just did? Care to share it with us? That is what the comments are for, kiddies!

(By) Karl L. Gechlik is a superhero of the IT industry who wears many hats and changes in telephone booths. Karl mostly uses his powers for good and the occasional hysterical prank. Get your geek on & follow his geeky antics at the NEW askTheAdmin.com today.

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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Why not try some freeware CD DVD Burning Apps applications that can serve as an alternative to Nero Burning ROM for your Windows PC?

1. CDBurnerXP

This is by far the most popular free alternative to the expensive Nero Software. Works on Vista as well, and here’s a features-highlight from CDBurnerXP:

• Multi Language Interface
• Support for Blu Ray/HD DVD
• BIN > ISO converter included

Download CDBurnerXP

2. InfraRecorder

This is the software that I currently use on my computer as a Nero alternative, and I must tell, it’s damn simple and straightforward. Has all that you might expect in a CD DVD Burning software like Nero. Some highlights from this Nero alternative include:

• Support for Multi-Session
• Very Light on Resources
• Support for not just ISO, but also BIN and CUE images
• Burning on Dual Layer DVDs is supported

Download InfraRecorder

3. DeepBurner (Free Edition)

Another good alternative. Available both as a regular and portable app. So if you want something you can carry around on your USB Flash Drive then check this one out.

• Supports both internal and external CD/DVD writers.
• Burn any data, copy any disc.
• Create multiple disk copies.
• Make ISO CDs.
• Print CD labels.

Download DeepBurner

4. Ultimate CD/DVD Burner

This simple solution can serve all your basic CD burning needs. Similar to above Deepburner, there is a portable version. The only thing I don’t like about this one is interface, it reminds of Windows 95.

• CD Photo Albums creation
• Easy Backup CD creation
• Disk copying
• ISO Creation and Burning

Download Ultimate CD/DVD Burner

5. Burn At Once

Burn At Once is another good CD/DVD Burning Application. It can copy discs on the fly and has the following unique features:

• Tagging of media by importing data from FreeDB
• Multi Language Support
• Drag and Drop Interface

However, it looks like support for this application is stagnant at the moment.

Download Burn At Once

6. Burn Aware Free Edition

This relatively new software is creating waves, and it’s intuitive interface is attracting users. It’s very light on resources, and supports every other format that you can imagine (including Blu Ray). Burning is fast because this software burns data directly on to the medium, instead of waiting for ‘hard disk staging’

Download BurnAware

7. ImgBurn

Another software that’s worth mentioning here is ImgBurn. It’s a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that can be installed both on Windows and Linux PCs. It’s probably the most extensive out of all. If you’re looking for something advanced and with lots of features ImgBurn seems like a good candidate.

Download ImgBurn

Do let us know about your experiences with these software in the comments. Have I missed out any? Shoot out your voices, come and discuss!

(By) Shankar Ganesh, a 16 year old Student and Freelance Writer from India. Killer Tech Tips is his blog.

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/

• ImgBurn – Easy & Free CD and DVD Burner App (15)
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