Video

Whether you're looking to change a video format to save space or because you lack a necessary codec, the freeware FormatFactory could be the last converter you'll need. It's not perfect, but it handles 12 types of video formats, six audio types, eight image formats, and DVD/ISO conversions with speed and accuracy.

The interface is simple and utilitarian, although spiked with format-icons and a big banner announcing the program's name for no reason other than to put lipstick on the pig. The left navigation menu has collapsible links to the various formats you can convert … Read more

iTunes needs little in the way of an introduction--especially for Mac users. Apple's popular media player comes equipped with the capability to play your music, rip CDs, help you buy music from the iTunes Store, and much more. Those with new iPhones (or the latest firmware update) should definitely download this latest version to gain access to Apple's iPhone App Store.

Check out this First Look video with Download.com's Jason Parker to find out a little more about iTunes, along with some features and hot-keys experienced users may not already know.

Whether you're looking to change a video format to save space or because you lack a necessary codec, the freeware FormatFactory is likely to be the last converter you'll need. It's not perfect, but it handles 12 types of video formats, six audio types, eight image formats, and DVD/ISO conversions with speed and accuracy.

The interface is simple and utilitarian, although spiked with format-icons and a big banner announcing the program's name for no reason other than to put lipstick on the pig. The left nav holds collapsible links to the various formats you can … Read more

For a piece of freeware in a category that's rife with scams and junk, FLVPlayer4Free stands out as a solid, reasonable program that does what it says, offers a bunch of options in the deal, and does it all without any annoying predatory advertising.

The program starts off with eight skins, most of which provide significantly different looks beyond just a new coat of paint. The options menu, which is only right-click accessible, provides hot-key and menu access to several useful choices. These include fixed resizing to double the original size or full-screen viewing, maintaining the aspect ration, smoothing, … Read more

The team behind the screen-recording utility Camtasia have released a simplified, experimental version of the technology, packaged into a nice downloadable application for Windows and Mac called the Jing Project.

Jing makes it very easy to grab screenshots and videos straight from your PC, and then save them or share them on the Web. The coolest part of this experiment--in theory--is Jing's integration with Screencast.com, a hosting service for videos recorded off your computer. Once you've recorded a video, you can save it to your Screencast account, and from there you can get an embed code to … Read more

LimeWire has spent a long time at the top of our Most Popular list for good reason--it's easy to use and gets the results people want. Though there is a certain amount of controversy surrounding file sharing, there are plenty of legal files that you can get through LimeWire. Once downloaded, you can even preview audio files with LimeWire's included media player.

Check out this First Look with Jason Parker from Download.com to get the lowdown on this extremely popular app for Mac.

NEW YORK--There are video crews gearing up at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store for the iPhone 3G launch in just under two hours, but the line is only about a quarter the length of last year's.

And, to boot, many of the eager Apple customers near the back of the line got here within the past half hour. Clearly, a five-day wait isn't necessary this time around. (It wasn't last year, either, as customers soon learned.) The line continues to get longer as more people show up, but it's gotten obvious that the wait for the … Read more

Formerly the feature-rich Azureus, Vuze takes Azureus' BitTorrent foundation and builds on top of it a network for video discovery and user-created video publishing tied together by social networking.

From XML torrent options to IP filters, firewall tests to UPnP plug-ins to baked-in social networking, Vuze isn't breaking new ground--the original BitTorrent client has gone this path, too--but it is doing it in an innovative and attractive way. When you install the program, you're faced with a Web 2.0-style interface from which you can get a general overview of your torrents and Vuze's latest media. Users … Read more

Formerly known as Azureus, Vuze is a mashup of the popular BitTorrent client, social networking, video publishing, and video discovery. Discover what's new with torrenting's favorite blue frog by watching this CNET TV First Look video.