Multimedia

Golden Records Micro Mart 1177 (29 September-5 October 2011) - Golden Records software could prove useful for music fans with extensive vinyl or cassette collections as it allows users to convert these into digital music files on their computer. But will the quality be affected in the process?

Crazy Talk Animator Pro Micro Mart 1144 (10-16 February 2011) - Crazy Talk Animator Pro is a natural progression form the original Crazy Talk 6 product, which was designed to animate a photograph or drawing, while synchronising the facial expressions with your own voice recordings. Animator Pro9 can handle full body photos and provides far greater control of your characters. ...

FreeStudio 5.0 Micro Mart 1142 (27 January-2 February 2011) - I was slightly suspicious of FreeStudio as I installed it, mainly because there are so many 'free' video convertor programs on the Internet, and many of them do not do a very good job. Additionally, the program did want to integrate itself into seemingly every area of my computer, particularly my browser. ...

Xara 3D Maker 7 GadgetSpeak 6/2011 - Although Xara has now become part of the MAGIX family, they continue to create graphics tools such as the 3D Maker for creating striking titles that will grab your attention.

RealNetworks RealPlayer SP - PC Pocket-lint.co.uk 8/2009 - For quite a few years, RealPlayer hasn't done so well in media perception, largely to do with software bloat, unnecessary add-ons and irritations, and the slim, friendly usability of other more competent audio players. RealPlayer SP tries to address some of this.

Storyist 2 MacWorld 8/2009 - Earlier 2009 Storyist 1.5 was reviewed on MacWorld as a solid creative writing app. The arrival of Storyist 2, a major upgrade adds significant new features that aid rather than detract from writing.

Dream Capture 3.0 MacFormat 8/2009 - Dream Capture, from Dream Apps, claims the ability to capture video from any external source up to 1080p. Competing with iMovie, a free program on Macs, Dream Apps is not limited to DV devices for live capturing, and it recognises any video device that you connect to your computer.

Love Art: National Gallery, London for iPhone MacWorld 7/2009 - London's National Gallery comes to the iPhone and iPod touch, bringing 250 of their most-loved paintings with audio and video accompaniment. Love Art: National Gallery, London picks the highlights of a visit to this vast gallery, attractive to both those planning a visit and for those too far away.

Clipstart MacWorld 7/2009 - Clipstart is to video on your Mac what iTunes and iPhoto are to music and pictures. As with both of those apps, importing can either move your files to a central library folder, or leave them in place. Automatically sorting by year, Clipstart can search file metadata and tags for further arrangement.

Adobe Premiere Pro, Ecore & OnLocation CS4 PC Pro 1/2009 - The granddaddy of video editing packages is back with with CS4 delivering out-of-the-box support for high definition AVCHD video for the first time, improved batch encoding and a redesigned interface for certain parts of the program.

National Rail Enquiries MacUser 4/2009 - Instead of getting around National Rail's website on your iPhone, National Rail Enquiries provides a native app for planning your trip. Using iPhone location services, it's simple to plot your journey from wherever you happen to be to where you want to go.

QuadCamera MacFormat 5/2009 - Lomo and other lo-fi cameras spawned a culture who adore the less-than perfect images. QuadCamera brings some of this to the iPhone and its disappointing camera making the most of the device's limitations.

Brightkite for iPhone MacWorld 4/2009 - An increasingly common use of mobile communication and social networking is apps that let you know where your friends are. Brightkite for iPhone shows where they are and what they're doing and even lets you meet new users.

ABContacts for iPhone MacWorld 4/2009 - A not simple app to become familiar with, redbits ABContacts for iPhone and iPod touch is a fully-featured contact manager that concentrates on power, speed, rather than attractive design to make dealing with your contacts a better experience.

Organizer for iPhone MacWorld 4/2009 - Pen and paper is still often the most efficient and quick method of making sense of tasks and appointments. Organiser for iPhone from Aesthology manages to bring the structure from day planners over while adding useful features from the digital age.

iFitness for iPhone MacWorld 4/2009 - Both a training programme and a reference, iFitness for iPhone provides over 150 gym exercises searchable by muscle, muscle group or alphabetically. Text and graphic description fill out this useful app from Medical Products.

Apple iLife '09 MacFormat 4/2009 - Seemingly not the big update one comes to expect with a new version release, iWeb languishing and iDVD identical to the previous year. With new features in iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, where is Apple planning on taking the standout consumer media production suite?

OsXP Folders 0.1 MacFormat 4/2009 - Bring Windows folder image previews to your Mac... if the ugly display doesn't disappoint you.

TED MacFormat 4/2009 - Better for your brain than playing Tetrus, the annual TED conference now has video streaming from the talks direct to your iPhone.

PwdGen 1.2 MacFormat 4/2009 - Take the guessing out of inventing new and secure passwords.

London Tube MacFormat 4/2009 - Planning on getting around London on the Tube? Want to know where the stations are? A map is a good idea.

ViewSign MacUser 3/2009 - Colour management has long been and remains something incomprehensible that we still need to understand. Bodoni Systems' ViewSign is designed to make part of the whole process as user-friendly as possible.

Print & Share for iPhone MacWorld 3/2009 - One thing the iPhone and iPod touch currently can't do is print. EuroSmartz Print & Share does this across a range of files, from email, attachments, contacts and more. And then there's sharing across Macs and platforms, even remotely.

LightBike for iPhone MacWorld 3/2009 - One of the memorable and influential sci-fi films of the 80s, Tron comes to the iPhone with LightBike, so you can race the light cycles against the computer or multiplayer like you wanted to 20 years ago, or whenever you last saw the film.

Next Read for iPhone MacWorld 3/2009 - A list manager for all the books you seek to covet, Square Wheel Software's Next Read for iPhone or iPod touch lets you find titles from online booksellers for later purchase.

Distant Shore for iPhone MacWorld 3/2009 - In a similar way that Second Life is a dressed up IM chat network, so too is The Blimp Pilots' Distant Shore a like Twitter in a RPG setting. Walk along the beach, listen to the waves and read messages in bottles... reply if you like.

Blocked for iPhone MacWorld 3/2009 - Taking full advantage of screen gestures in the iPhone and iPod touch, TipTop Workshop's Blocked, a sliding puzzle game with delightfully simple premise is perfect to play.

Awards: Oscar Edition 1.2 for iPhone MacWorld 3/2009 - Film trivia buffs, especially those who follow the history of the Oscars will find much to entertain in the comprehensive database of Probably Interactive's Awards: Oscars Edition for iPhone and iPod touch.

Strata 3D CX 5.5 MacWorld 7/2008 - A must-have for all fanatic Adobe designers or has the extended period since its last release going to do it more harm than good?

OnOne Genuine Fractals 6 What Digital Camera 3/2009 - The sixth edition of this indispensable PhotoShop plugin for professional image enlargement.

DeskCover 2.0 MacFormat 3/2009 - Re-find your Desktop icons simply and easily when they vanish into a pale background.

DVDRemaster Pro 4.4.1 MacUser 19/2008 - Anyone with kids knows that no format is safe to leave in their hands. The days of favourite videos being watched so much that the tape wore out are thankfully long gone but even DVDs, when left in the grubby mits of sprogs, aren't immune to damage. DVDRemaster Pro will let you copy your films to cheap recordable blank DVDs so your costly originals can live to fight another day while the copy is manhandled into and out of your player as many times as it takes for it to give up the ghost and refuse to be read through the caked on layers of jam and Nutella.

Wurdle MacFormat 3/2009 - Increase your vocabulary. Perhaps. But endless fun with words is to be had.

ScopeBox 2.0 MacUser 18/2008 - If the only thing missing from your digital video capturing and editing workflow is a proper software-based calibration and monitoring tool then ScopeBox may be the standalone product you have been looking for.

iStudio 3 format conversion software Computer act!ve 11/2008 - While iTunes may be the logical place to go when looking for video content to transfer to your iPod or iPhone, licence restrictions means that for many UK and European users, the selection of videos available from Apple's online store is rather restricted. Thankfully, iStudio 3 is here to make the process of converting your own content to the correct format an easy a process as you can get.

Serif Movieplus X3 video editor Personal Computer World 10/2008 - Responding to criticisms that its movie editing package was a little too hard for beginners to sink their teeth into, Serif MoviePlus X3 promises to be easy to use without losing any of the power or versatility of previous version.

Reallusion iClone 3 design software Computer act!ve 10/2008 - With computers getting more and more powerful, users are beginning to find new uses for their systems. Reallusion iClone 3 offers owners yet another possibility that only a few short years ago would have been inconceivable on a home computer system; real-time 3D modelling and animation.

DX Studio 3 3D authoring software Personal Computer World 10/2008 - Commercial 3D modelling applications can often cost far much more than the average consumer can afford. So, can DX Studio 3, with its attractively low price tag hope to compete?

Norrkross Movie 1.2 MacUser 19/2008 - If the latest version of iMovie has underwhelmed you, Norrkross Movie may yet stop you from jumping aboard the good ship Adobe and crossing over to Premiere Elements.

Adobe Production Premium CS3 MacUser 17/2007 - Production Premium is pitched as a post-production solution for video professionals. As such, it includes several CS3 applications that we've already reviewed - Photoshop Extended, Illustrator and Flash, along with supporting applications. Then there is After Effects - which has never gone away - and the introduction of Premiere pro, Encore, OnLocation, and SoundBooth too. In Premiere's absence, Final Cut pro firmly took up residence as the Mac's affordable, professional video-editing application, and the question on everybody's lips is whether this suite poses a real threat to Apple.

CyberLink PowerDVD 8.0 PC Advisor 7/2008 - With Windows Vista, PC users finally got native DVD playing support, however, to take advantage of any hardware acceleration or multi-channel soundtracks, third-party, specialist DVD player software is still the best way to go, and is there anything more well-known for this than PowerDVD?

Magix Music Maker 14 Producer Edition music software Computer act!ve 7/2008 - Allowing users to create musical masterpieces Magix Music Maker 14 is an affordable piece of software that could help unlock the artist within.

Magix Rescue Your Videotapes PC Advisor 7/2008 - The reign of the VHS VCR eventually came crashing down to a juddering halt around five years ago, however, there are still many out there with treasured memories and rare recordings still held in this aged format. With Rescue Your Videotapes from Magix, these can now be transferred quickly and easily to more up-to-date digital formats.

MyTube Internet Recorder PC Advisor 7/2008 - Internet video sharing sites are great for finding both obscure and popular videos as well as tonnes of user-generated videos, the likes of which we would have previously have had to have sated our thirsts on by waiting for the next Saturday's transmission of You've been Framed. The problem with these sites however, is that often, videos will be pulled, soundtracks suppressed or you simply forget the name of the video you once happened upon and can no longer find it. MyTube internet Recorder can solve this for you.

TapeDeck MacUser 12/2008 - GarageBand is supplied preinstalled pretty much on any new Mac and does a petty good job as a sound recorder. However it is a rather large application and for quickly capturing a radio stream or a few voice notes it can sometimes take too long to load and get set up. TapeDeck is a small and streamlines recorder with a retro cassette tape design, and with its low, shareware price tag could be just what some people have been looking for.

Recommended by our readers More information about Multimedia can also be found at oft.gov.uk. Send us more suggestions for helpful sites.

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