Here is a really useful tool that should come in handy for your conversion needs, HandBrake.

Handbrake is a utility that can convert standard DVDs into a compressed format of your choice; mp4 with AAC audio or AVC with h264 video and AAC audio. HandBrake also gives you the freedom to crop the image to get rid of the black bars to bring down the size even more and lets you choose options as to how you want it encoded. HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 converter, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.

The latest version, HandBrake0.8.5 Beta 1 has this major change:

• Encompasses everything that was in MediaFork 0.8.0b1 and much more

One of the things you will enjoy about this software is that it’s easier to use than others in its category and very intuitive.

Want to give it a try? Go to http://handbrake.m0k.org/?page_id=2

As I said it’s open source so it won’t cost you anything.

If you are using YouTube and you’ve been looking for something to help with your video streams then you need to try out SpeedBit Video Accelerator for YouTube.

SpeedBit Video Accelerator for YouTube makes your videos stream faster and play smoother, reducing buffering problems and video “hiccups”. One really cool thing you will really love about this tool is that its unique video search lets you find the latest and hottest videos around the web easily. But that’s not all the “Recently Accelerated” list gives you instant access to the last videos played, so you can have easy and quick access to your favorites.

The new version, SpeedBit Video Accelerator 2.0 Beta, which was released a couple of days ago, now supports more site. So it’s no longer just a YouTube thing.

Here are the latest changes in the new Beta Version:

• Added acceleration for dailymotion.com
• Added acceleration for metacafe.com
• Added acceleration for grouper.com
• Added acceleration for itunes.com
• Search mechanism upgraded to a new Solr based search engine

Want to check it out, it’s freeware!!!! Go to http://www.speedbit.com/video%5FAccelerator/

In need of a cool video software with video surveillance and capture tools? You need to check out Webcam Surveyor

Webcam Surveyor is complete software that combines video surveillance and video capture tools. The good thing about Webcam Surveyor is that you can use it to record all video activity. It can also work as a motion detector. As a motion detector program alerts are triggered by events e.g. an email can be sent or images uploaded to FTP site when motion is detected, making remote observation real easy.

One real cool thing about this software is that the built-in file browser allows to you to easily organize captured images and video clips.

The latest version which was just recently released has these changes:

• Added: Support for DivX® 6.5.1 Codec
• Support for ACDV 2.0.1 Codec
• Optimized- Motion Detection
• Updated- Documentation
• Fixed – Minor Bugs

Want to check it out? Visit http://www.webcamsurveyor.com/

Zattoo is a program that enables you to watch live television on your computer. Some of the channels currently available are ARD, arte, BBC Prime, BBC World, Bloomberg TV, Canale 5, CNN, EuroNews and EuroSport, to name but a few. (Also many non-English speaking channels).

The bad news is that, currently, Zattoo will only work in Switzerland, the good news is they say they plan to go worldwide with it “soon”.

This looks like it could be a good service, as they say that it’s better than the usual internet video quality. They say it’s equal to TV quality. It remains to be seen if they can keep their promise, as my country isn’t currently served. But i was able to add my email to their mailing list so i can be notified when (if!) it is.

But it seems like one to watch, no pun intended! Check it out here.

Teen Spirit (Conium) – A Good Audio-Video Player And Organizer

Here is tool that you will definitely find useful; it is called Teen Spirit (Conium).

Teen Spirit is an Audio-Video player and organizer. What I love about it is it’s very user friendly interface. Want to retrieve info on your favorite artistes from the net? This tool is for you, it can retrieve info from internet such as lyrics, album reviews, album covers, artist biographies, and artiste pictures easily.

Teen Spirit also keeps history of the files you play, and allows you to review statistics and generates a personal hitlist based on your most played songs. One thing you will appreciate in this software is the fact that it helps you discover tracks in your vast music collection with features like auto-continue or by playing the music quiz.

The latest version in the software market now is Teen Spirit 0.91b[it was just released yesterday] and it comes with these changes:

• Virtual Track Collections. Add YouTube links as ‘Virtual’ Files in your collection. You may also import/export these files as ‘xlc xml link collection files’
• New actiion logger
• Easy Drag Drop tagging in tree view
• Web Services. Quick Search in Google – YouTube – Wikipedia (add yours in the services.xml) for artists / albums / tracks
• New ‘Tango’ compatible icons
• Many bug fixes and visual enhancements

Want to try it out? Visit http://www.artificialspirit.com/

XnView is a fast multi-format graphics browser, viewer, and converter. It can read more than 400 file formats, such as gif, bmp, jpeg, png, targa, multipage tiff, camera RAW, jpeg 2000, mpeg, Avi, Quicktime, and many more. EXIF & IPTC metadata is also supported.

The image viewer part of it has an Explorer-like browser that allows quick and simple browsing of directory contents. The program is free for private use and has many features for image viewing, management, and processing. It supports red eye reduction, crops and transforms JPG images losslessly, generates HTML pages and contact sheets, and provides batch conversion and batch renaming. Slide shows with transitions effects, screen capturing, WIA & TWAIN support (scanner & digital cameras), image comparison, file operations, and more can all be done easily. Like the sound of it?

Check out the homepage here!

Want to watch hundreds of completely free live and prerecorded TV channels? Then you’ll need to check out Stream TV. With Stream TV, more than 700 completely free live and pre-recorded TV channels are available for fast streaming. The cool thing about this tool is that you don’t need a TV card to enjoy the channels.

How is that possible? The TV channels are streamed through your Internet connection.

Stream TV gives you an opportunity to enjoy popular TV channels from around the world: from the German 3-Sat to DW-TV and English channels such as BBC News and C-Span.

Want to check it out? Click HERE! or visit http://www.streamtofile.com/

If you’ve been having problems with capturing some kinds of streaming video and audio, you are going to love this shareware. It is called Replay AV.

Replay AV is an easy way to capture all kinds of Streaming Video and Audio, and I mean all kinds, including Radio Shows, Online TV Broadcasts, video clips, audio archives, and Podcasts. With Replay AV, you can enjoy a lot of things as you can record clips instantaneously, or schedule recordings to happen automatically later. Replay AV allows you to automatically convert to 36 different video and audio formats, including iPod Video, iPod Audio and iPod Audiobook.

You will love the fact that Replay AV comes with an integrated Replay Media Guide that lets you pick Radio Shows, Radio Stations, TV Stations and Podcasts to record very easily, with just a single click.

For more info, CLICK HERE or visit http://applian.com/replay-av/

Here is a cool software to improve and generally add fun to your chatting experience. It’s called CamTrack.

CamTrack is a unique webcam software. What’s unique about it? It enhances the way people video chat. With CamTrack you can amuse your friends with funny animations and webcam emoticon; keep your face centered automatically with automatic Face Tracking; use text overlays by writing directly on the webcam video; improve the quality of your webcam picture with noise reduction or share pictures with your friends through your webcam.

It’s really a cool way to video chat. It’s a shareware, go check out the trial version first and see if it’s worth it, I’m guessing you will really love this cool and fun software.

CLICK HERE for more info and trial download.

Or

Visit http://www.digitalpeers.com/

So you’re wondering what Pamela for Skype is? Well, its a digital personal assistant for Skype. For example when you start a call on Skype it asks if you want to record the call. It then says “this call is not being recorded”, but that message can also be heard by the person you are talking too! So be careful!

It’s relatively easy to navigate, with a simple to understand interface. The message center is great as it allows you to see at a glance how many voicemails, skype voice mails, skype recordings, custom recordings or birthday notifications you have. It’s available in 4 versions, each with its own set of unique features, one version even supports Skype video.

Some of the features it adds to Skype include:

• Call Recording
• Video Recording
• Answering Machine
• VideoMail
• Emotion Sounds
• Auto Chat Reply
• Birthday Reminders
• Skype Status Change
• Chat Recording
• Email Forwarding
• Contact Personalization
• Auto Start Applications
• Skype Blogging
• Skype Podcasting

Compare the free and paid versions and download it.