Search, play, download and convert audio and video with Miro

Miro is an excellent application that in times where more and more multimedia content is uploaded on the net and many portable devices are launched day after day, the utility that this application offers is incredible. With a built-in browser engine, a multi-page searcher, a TV player and a converter, Miro is one of the most complete programs.

When we run the program we find on the left panel a number of options that allow us to access the different resources Miro has. It has its own guide and an application as well as a series of pages that we can set up as we want.

On “Web Sites” section we will see the sites we can have quick access from Miro, and from where we can download. So in a practical way we can download videos from YouTube as from the main streaming online sites.

At the same time, Miro allows you to create playlists based on online content as well as audio or video files that you previously stored on your computer.

Without doubt, one of the most interesting utilities Miro offers is the converter. With this exciting tool we can make conversions based on the most popular format profiles taking as reference the device we use. This way, we don´t need to worry about format compatibility problems, as well as the ideal size for our laptop.

As we can see, Miro is a very complete program that allows us to get the best of the web easily. Whether we want to view multimedia content, download it or convert it to take it everywhere on portable devices, Miro is an application that will give us practical solutions.

DirectX

The evolution of PC gaming couldn´t have been possible without DirectX. This set of drivers contains all the necessary files to run games properly. Although some games include DirectX on their CD/DVD, others may not, so make sure you always have the latest version to play the latest games.

Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms.
DirectX contains several APIs and these are constantly updated by Microsoft as they add new features to some of the APIs.

The components of DirectX are:

- DirectDraw: for drawing 2D Graphics (raster graphics). Now deprecated, though still in use by a number of games and as a video renderer in media applications.
- Direct3D (D3D): for drawing 3D graphics
- DirectSound: for the playback and recording of waveform sounds. DirectInput: for interfacing with input devices including keyboards, mice, joysticks, or other game controllers.
- DirectPlay: for communication over a local-area or wide-area network.
- DirectMusic: for playback of soundtracks authored in DirectMusic Producer.
- DirectShow for multimedia playback and streaming media, DirectX Transform for web interactivity, and Direct3D Retained Mode for higher level 3D graphics.
- DirectSetup: for the installation of DirectX components.

DirectX updates enables PC users to run the latest games. Among its features, it supports Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader – as long as they are supported by the video card. The first a type of shader program, often executed on a graphics processing unit. It is typically used for effects such as bump mapping and color toning, which provide crisper and more realistic graphics. Vertex Shader on the other hand is a graphics processing function used to add special effects to objects in a 3D environment.

As previously stated, DirectX is updated regularly, so it´s important to check for new versions from time to time.
On the other hand, we can access DirectX control panel by typing “dxdiag” on “Run…”. To do so, click on start > Run… and type dxdiag. Once there you can perform several tests for API (i.e. sound, graphics, network, etc).

Nowadays DirectX has become a must-have for any PC gamer out there since games implement new features as Microsoft releases new API updates. The latest versions of Direct3D, namely, Direct3D 10 and Direct3D 9Ex, are only officially available for Windows Vista, but still you need to update DirectX 9 even if you´re running Vista.

Windows Media Player: the popular multimedia player from Microsoft

It is impossible to talk about multimedia players without making reference to the traditional Windows Media Player, an application that has become very popular between millions of users.

Despite the great variety of multimedia player the market offers nowadays, there are only few which can fulfill the user’s requirements. A good example of this is the player that Microsoft offers for its operating systems, Windows Media Player 11.

This software is very similar to the previous ones but offer new innovations and improvements. The classic menu of the software has been changed and now we can enable or disable it with just one click; like the task bar, which offer different new options such as: Now playing, Library, Copy from CD and Record and synchronize. In addition to this, the browser has also been improved, adding universal buttons like “previous” and “next”.

Regarding multimedia files, the software offers support for different formats and a central place to manage it, the “Library”. This has been designed to automatically group the albums by features as genre, artist, year, etc.; it also offers a new music searcher that allows finding any audio track that is in your computer by writing a key word; what´s more, it is able to create audio tracks lists, according to its maximum qualification, automatically.

This player also includes options for the images, videos and recorded TV that simplify their storage and search. In “Copying” and “Recording”, we will be able to rip and burn the tracks.

We have two options left to talk about, “Synchronize” the player with portable devices, and also accessing music stores. Regarding the first one, we can say that this is one of the greatest innovations of this version that stands out due to the support and compatibility that offers so that the exploration and managing of files that are in the player or iPod can be synchronized automatically.

The main disadvantage of this software is those consumes many resources and slow down its functionality. We will see this frequently if we add many elements to the Library. Another disadvantage is presents are the codec’s since it does not have many of them and we will need to download form the Internet frequently.

In spite of this, we are without a doubt before one of the most complete tools when reproducing audio and video files.

The video´s software your PC need

The change from analog to digital had a significant influence on the video, by having a PC you can see movies before its opening, complete series seasons, home videos made by digital or mobile phones, music videos and many more. The only requirement needed to take full advantage of this possibility is having the proper software that supports the multiple options the video files has (format, compression, codec used, etc).

We will show you here different applications so you can play any video you have (VLC Media Player) solve any format compatibility problem (Combined Community Codec) avoid DVD protection (DvdFab HD Decrypter) and burn discs with your favorite videos (CdBurnerXp).

VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is a multimedia player very easy to use that also features a user-friendly interface. This software has many options to play files in multiple formats, including DVD and streaming video.

VLC Media Player includes its own codec pack being able this way of playing a wide range of video formats without depending on the Windows codec. One important feature to mention is that it is able to play the incomplete videos we are downloading from Emule, allowing us to see if we are downloading the video we want.

This software is useful to play videos and audio but has being developed to the video side adding new options like the subtitle reproduction and the capacity of playing several audio tracks on a movie.

Combined Community Codec Pack

Combined Community Codec Pack is a complete codec pack which was initially designed for the reproduction of anime videos, and now it has become one of the most popular codec packs in the world. Unlike other packs, Combined Community Codec only installs on our system the necessary codecs, taking a minimal disk space while avoiding compatibility issues with other codecs on our system.

Before installing Combined Community Codec, the installer detects possible codec issues with your system -previously installed codecs that is – avoiding further codec troubleshooting. Combined Community Codec includes among its features two complete multimedia players: Media Player Classic and Zoom Player Standard. With these players you can take full advantage of the codecs included in the package, such as: Haali Media Splitter (DirectShow filter for MKV, MP4, OGM and AVI), VSFilter (for SSA/ASS, SRT y VOBSUB subtitles), Ffdshow CCCP (for H.264/AVC, DivX and vid) and WMV9VCM (for Windows Media). Apart from having standard codecs such as Divx, Xvid and AVI, CCCP offers free audio and video players and an application for making movie subtitles.

DvdFab HD Decrypter

This useful tool allows ripping all kind of DVD movies and videos to the PC to play it, share and burn it later in other disc. Besides offering the possibility of having on our computer any DVD we want, it rips incredible fast and easy.

DvdFab HD Decrypter offers many options to rip, between them we can choose to do it to the entire disc, only on the main part of the movie, on some episodes, with a particular language and subtitle and more. It stands out by doing the rip beyond any protection the disc might have being these CSS, RC, RCE, APS, UOPs or Sony ARccOS.

CdBurnerXp

CdBurnerXp is another amazing burning tool. CdBurnerXp supports CDs and DVDs both DVD and DVDRW, as well as the possibility of creating ISO files. It also allows users to rip audio CDs.

The interface is very easy-to-use, It´s divided into several modules allowing you to drag and drop files. Another important aspect of this burner is that it consume very little system resources. You can also create boot disks and includes a bin/nrg to ISO converter.

Without a doubt, the popularity of Nero suite makes of CdBurnerXp unknown software, nevertheless, its low resource consume and stability makes it highly recommended.

Any Video Converter

Any Video Converter is really useful to convert our movies or videos to the different formats present nowadays, since it can convert video files between many formats.

This tool has many features worth mention: it allows converting a great amount of formats, between them, the popular “mpg”, “avi” and another formats for complex devices. In addition to this, it offers the preview option for the videos we are going to convert and select the segment or part of the video we want to convert in case we do not want to convert the whole video.

It´s use is very simple as it features a user-friendly interface, but despite this, we must say that this software presents some disadvantages. Compared with other software, Any Video Converter does not offer any option to modify the output video qualities, though this does not interfere with its performance.

As we could see, with these software you can make any action regarding videos. They are a good choice when dealing with videos and taking full advantage of our computer.

VLC media player -an open-source application- from the VideoLAN project, has finally reached version and it´s called “Goldeneye”. After the success of version 0.9.9 reaching thousands of downloads within months, VLC developers wanted to create a multimedia player for Windows and Mac OSX. VLC 1.0.0 allows users to play any audio and video file. This major release introduces many new features, new formats and new codecs to the VLC multimedia framework and fixes a very high number of bugs that were present in the older versions.

VLC Media Player 1.0 finally released

What´s best about VLC is it´s live streaming feature to listen to radios or play videos, watch TV shows, football matches and more, just by connecting to the internet. You can also set up VLC to stream media from a file or from a DVD as a server, and then another client can stream that media, without having to encode the file first. Additionally, it can repair video files with corrupted headers,

Goldeneye added an easier encoding graphical user interface in the Qt version, new artwork, made the toolbars customizable and as always, it´s cross-platform and open source.

Version 1.0 features several interface improvements making it even more user-friendly than before. It adds playback features such as:

• Playback support for zipped files.
• Support for some HD streams.
• Added new HD (High-Definition) codecs, such as: Blu-Ray Linear PCM; Dolby Digital Plus; AES3; TrueHD and Real Video 3.0 and 4.0.
• Support for Frame-by-Frame
• Live recording support

VLC 1.0 Goldeneye is without a doubt one of the best current multimedia players. Millions around the world have downloaded it and it they proved for themselves that it´s the best fully-featured multimedia player.

Download VLC for Windows

Download VLC for MAC

The most complete codec packs

The current wide variety of multimedia formats has become an issue when playing audio or video files. We often download videos from the internet which use different codecs and we do not always have the proper codecs to play them. How many times did you download an audio or video file just to see you couldn´t play it? Next, we will give you a short review detailing four different codec packs: K-Lite Mega Codec Pack, Codec Pack de ELISOFT, Combined Community Codec Pack and Vista Codec Package.

K-Lite Mega Codec Pack

K-Lite Mega Codec Pack is one of the most complete codec packs up to date. It includes three codec packages: K-Lite Codec Pack Full, QuickTime Alternative and Real Alternative.
Among the included codecs, we can find the most popular ones such as Divx and Xvid required for playing any DVD, as well as other multimedia formats such as MP3, MP4, MPEG, Realmedia, QuickTime and more. But that´s not it, it also offers several applications and players such as BSPlayer, Media Player Classic and Gspot codec detector.
Installation is completely customizable, this means the user selects which codecs he wishes to install. K-Lite Mega Codec Pack has several installation alternatives: K-Lite Codec Pack Basic contains only the most essential things. Standard contains everything you need to play all the commonly used formats. This package should be enough for the average user; and Full contains even more codecs. What´s more, K-Lite Mega Codec Pack detects broken codecs and filters too, eliminating them from the system and installing new ones.

ELISOFT Codec Pack

ELISOFT Codec Pack is known for its adaptability since it´s compatible with all operative systems, featuring an easy installation and un-installation.
It contains all the standard codecs to play most audio and video formats. It also includes filters to improve image and sound quality.
ELISOFT Codec Pack features the possibility of analyzing and repairing damaged video files.
ELISOFT Codec Pack enables users to play video file with several audio tracks, as well as inserting subtitles and other useful tools.

What´s special about this Pack, is that both DirectShow filters and codecs can be enabled or disabled from the program.

Combined Community Codec Pack

CCCP is a compilation of codecs originally made for playing anime videos. CCCP is simple, light-weight, safe and reliable.
Before installing CCCP, the installer detects possible codec issues with your system -previously installed codecs that is – avoiding further codec troubleshooting.
Apart from having standard codecs such as Divx, Xvid and AVI, CCCP offers free audio and video players and an application for making movie subtitles.

Vista Codec Package

Vista Codec Package is one of the first codec packages made for Windows Vista for playing non-standard multimedia files. It doesn´t contain any player, it´s just a codec pack.
One of its important features is the possibility of playing FLV files, a flash video format used by YouTube among other flash sites.
This pack includes support for all existing audio and video formats for playing the most popular codecs such as xvid and DivX and even several less common formats. We recommend installing only one codec pack at a time. In case you fell like trying another one, uninstall the current codec pack and only then proceed to installing another. Quicktime and Realmedia formats are also supported in this release, allowing video to be streamed in most cases. Although not as comprehensive as the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack, this may be suited to users looking for a lighter option that will allow more flexibility of the codecs installed.

As you´ve seen in this short review, there is not a huge difference among these codec packs, which in fact are most popular ones. For that reason you will have to choose the most suitable for your needs. In our opinion, the most complete and full-featured codec pack is Combined Community Codec Pack. Why? Because it´s small and compact, containing only what is needed for most videos; it intentionally disables support for many codecs it considers unnecessary. It thus can potentially avoid problems caused by inappropriate combinations of filters by providing an all-inclusive playback solution. Additionally, unlike many competing packs, CCCP is designed around decoding rather than encoding, and as such doesn’t include many video encoders that other packs do.
Still, other packages might suit yours needs better or you may find them easier to work with, give them a try.

Nowadays, the variety of multimedia file formats available requires specific codecs in order to play most multimedia files. Let´s see what this codec pack called CCCP has to offer.

One of the most practical ways to avoid the trouble of installing permanent audio and video codecs on our PC is by getting one of the so-called “packages” or codec pack. With them, we can simultaneously manage those codecs required by multimedia files while using a multimedia player.

CCCP is a complete codec pack which was initially designed for the reproduction of anime videos, and now it has become one of the most popular codec packs in the world. Unlike other packs, CCCP only installs on our system the necessary codecs, taking a minimal disk space while avoiding compatibility issues with other codecs on our system. CCCP is the most compatible codec package since it will display a warning in case we have an older version of a codec, and will attempt fix or install it.

CCCP does not only guarantee codec quantity and quality, but also features two multimedia player Media Player Classic and Zoom Player Standard – which can be optionally installed. CCCP includes among its features two complete multimedia players: Media Player Classic and Zoom Player Standard. With these players you can take full advantage of the codecs included in the package, such as: Haali Media Splitter (DirectShow filter for MKV, MP4, OGM and AVI), VSFilter (for SSA/ASS, SRT y VOBSUB subtitles), Ffdshow CCCP (for H.264/AVC, DivX and vid) and WMV9VCM (for Windows Media).

Even when multiple technical configuration options in every codec pack tends to be troublesome for inexperienced users handling multimedia files, in CCCP a we find a simple window´s system enabling optimal audio and video configuration in each PC. CCCP has an official website including a forum to exchange different opinions and find out about the latest news related to the world of codecs.

In short, for those users who want to avoid complex operations requiring codec administration, maybe Combined CCCP is the best download choice: small in size, simple, complete and safe.

So, now that you know, if you need to play multimedia play without running into unexpected issue or codec incompatibility, CCCP is without a doubt the perfect codec solution for playing audio and video files.

Download CCCP

It´s common nowadays to have issues when transferring music files from our PC to our iPod. To make thing easier, we´ll need an application such as iTunes that will enable users to transfer multimedia files easily and quickly. Therefore, we introduce you to iTunes, a multimedia player that will enable you to copy music to your iPod with just a few clicks.

IPods are the most popular portable multimedia devices due to the handful of interesting features they deliver. However, when we plug our iPod to the PC we run into some complications, we cannot copy files using Windows Explorer as we would usually do for instance.

The solution is installing an application that features the necessary support for your iPod device so you can use it properly with your PC. That application is iTunes, Apple´s most popular application, designed to transfer music, videos and photos to the device. Once we downloaded the file and installed iTunes, connect your iPod to the PC.

First, we must add songs to the “Library” in the music tab. Once music files are there we can work with them or just play them. There are two of ways of adding tracks. You can either add tracks by dragging files of folders to the music tab, or by going to File > Add File/Folder to Library.

When having lots of audio tracks in our library, the next is to create Playlists. We can do it either by clicking on File > New Playlist Folder or by clicking on the + button found on the lower left portion of the screen. Once the Playlist is created we can rename it and drag and drop the songs we want to include in such playlist.

You can also use iTunes Music Store to buy songs or albums. iTunes Music Store has more music titles and genres available than any other music service we’ve seen. The service also offers a strong feature set, including an integrated music player, in-depth information on artists and albums, music videos, audio books, movies, television shows and games.

When you have finally organized your playlist, you can either drag and drop separate songs or the entire playlist to your iPod player. The process may take some minutes depending on the number of songs you are copying to the player.

Even though iTunes may not seem very user-friendly at the beginning, you will realize that adding music to our iPod can be done in a matter of seconds.

Following these simple steps, you´ll be able to load music into your iPod in no time. Its interface may seem a bit confusing at the beginning, but it´s very easy to master and it´s the essential complement for your iPod player.

Dowload iTunes

Apple managed to revolutionize the multimedia world by releasing iTunes, a whole new multimedia concept for iPods that combines audio and video playback as well as Radio, TV and podcast broadcasting while purchasing music online. In this report, we’ll analyze this popular player’s potentials.

iTunes

The revolution we are talking about is not unconnected to iPod’s appearance in the market. This Apple mobile device massiveness ended up in the positioning of iTunes as its ideal and essential complement. Nowadays, most iPod users organize their music with iTunes.

The program´s interface differs from other players since it was made for using the iTunes Store, the online shop for purchasing applications, music and videos.

This is –among others- the reason why iTunes is a program that doesn´t require a great deal of computing knowledge, since most of its features are introduced by using a Wizard.

Moreover, files managed by iTunes are automatically sorted in playlists and libraries (depending on file types), inside which the user can easily add, sort and eliminate multimedia files. One thing to bear in mind though, is that iTunes may duplicate files, therefore we have to pay attention to the indications shown during this process.

As previously mentioned, iTunes features a complete audio, video, radio, TV and podcast player, as well as compatibility with most popular formats such as .mov, .avi, .swf, .mp3, .aac, .wma, and more.

Also, it has an equalizer with a wide range of music presets and 10 audio channels to configure manually. Moreover, it includes a large amount of radio and podcast signals for you to listen to radio online, and the possibility of adding streaming TV channels.

iTunes Store has a tab of its own where users can create an account so they can immediately start purchasing and downloading applications, programs and videos from its varied and colorful catalog.

Without any doubt, the greatest issue is the amount of system memory it consumes due to its visual complexity since it´s an interface developed for MacOSX and adapted to Microsoft Windows. We can notice this when launching the program, performing a search or even while playing files.

To sum up, iTunes is a player that emphasizes its original way to manage multimedia files, as well as purchasing online while playing videos or music, listening to radio stations or synchronizing your iPod.

Playback codec issues are a common problem nowadays and the solution is a single codec package. K-lite Codec Pack allows you to play every audio and video file you download from the internet.

K-Lite Mega Codec Pack

The internet is huge and as such, we can download a great deal of multimedia content. However, when downloading audio and video files we face one problem: we can´t open them because we lack the proper codecs to play them. For this reason, we need a codec pack that ensures the reproduction of all the multimedia files we download.

K-lite Codec Pack is the perfect codec solution since it enables you to all the possible codecs we may need for playing the most popular codecs such as xvid and DivX and even several less common formats. All components have been carefully selected for specific purposes. What´s more, the installation is fully customizable, meaning that you are able to install just those components that you really want.

K-lite Codec Pack has several installation alternatives: K-lite Codec Pack Basic contains only the most essential things. It contains everything you need to be able to play the most popular and widespread formats. It is small enough to fit on a single floppy. Also great for including on your movie CDs; Standard contains everything you need to play all the commonly used formats. This package should be enough for the average user; and Full contains even more codecs. It also has encoding support for the various formats. This package is for power users and people who do their own encodings.

Also, it is extremely easy to make a fully customized unattended installation with the integrated wizard. The K-lite Codec Pack has a couple of major advantages compared to other codec packs: It is always up-to-date with the latest versions of the codecs; It is very user-friendly and the installation is fully customizable, meaning that you can install only those components that you really want and It is a very complete package, containing everything you need to play your movies.

For the average user, configuring a codec can be frustrating and this it´s actually considered for expert users only. Still, playing files is as easy as usual requiring no additional intervention on behalf of the user.

Among other –relative- cons, K-Lite Codec Pack may have compatibility issues with other codecs or codec packs, so during the installation we are asked to uninstall other codecs before proceeding with K-lite Codec Pack installation

To sum up, K-lite Codec Pack is an excellent collection of codecs suitable for novices and experts users alike, solving most compatibility issues encountered with some video files and enables users to play any multimedia file we download from the internet.

Download K-lite Codec PackPlayback codec issues are a common problem nowadays and the solution is a single codec package. K-lite Codec Pack allows you to play every audio and video file you download from the internet.