VideoLAN Client is an essential download for anyone that watches video or plays music on their PC. It’s a powerful tool that is now less intimidating to use, thanks to its steady refinement over several years, resulting in a less ‘techy’ preferences setup, for example.

Ashampoo ClipFinder HD is the best online video-viewing tool you can buy — and it's free.

Embedded Flash, native H.264 video, 5.1 channel surround sound and real-time audio mixing and effects will provide a lot of oomph to your projects. Shockwave penetration and RTMP-based streaming keeps Director valid in the Web market, but in the gaming arena there are now strong contenders to this old warhorse.

Since iTunes' own mini player is kind of blah and isn't really standalone from the iTunes software itself (it goes away every time you try to do something in iTunes), having a dedicated player that can access iTunes music is pretty neat.

There are a number of nice video editors on the market, but few if any surpass Cyberlink PowerDirector 7 on any level. It's an especially good bargain as part of the DVD Suite.

Although this is a dot release, Avid Media Composer 3.5 still includes an impressive range of new features, particularly for tapeless workflow. The new effects abilities and tweaks are also quite extensive, if not a sea change. Existing Media Composer users will want this update — but the pricing for new users still makes Final Cut Studio considerably better value.

Microsoft Songsmith is designed for those who love composing songs but don't have the knack of playing musical instruments. It's a bit limited for creating professional-quality tunes but, as far as we understand, this app wasn't meant for experts. Songsmith is far more suitable for amateur singers or for family entertainment. It has all the needed tools to quickly create music for your song, easily and without serious musical skills (although a bit of singing skill helps). For something that's still being developed by Microsoft Research, and is a completely new concept, it worked flawlessly and without much difficulty.

If you’re a traditional animator who still hasn’t gone digital, or you simply want to take 2D animation further, Animate is definitely worth a serious look.

We love the Roxio Easy VHS to DVD kit. It’s great value for money, allowing you to archive your VHS and tape cassette collections using one piece of kit. It’s simple and easy to use, with great end results possible.

The Lite version of VisiTrax is fully functional, but limited to 100 CDs, LPs, etc. or 1000 tracks. The Standard version, which does away with the limit, is available for US$30.

All in all, Nokia's Comes With Music offer of 12 months' free music is certainly enticing, but do remember that there is a catch — all music is DRM-protected, so you can only play the music on your Nokia phone and one nominated PC. That being said, if you aren't fussed about these restrictions then Comes With Music will certainly impress.

If MP3Producer were being given away, we'd probably give it a marginal nod, but with free programs such as BonkEnc, Windows Media Player, and others around we just can't see forking over $40 for any ripping program, let alone one with a cumbersome interface.

WinAVI Video Converter works as advertised, although to get rid of the free demo version's watermarks you'll need to shell out for the full version. Our only caveat is that if you work with video often, you might be happier in the long run with something more full-featured (if more expensive). Cyberlink's PowerDirector, for instance, supports more formats (including FLV and h.264), and offers video editing to boot.

CDRoller is a no-brainer. Download it, see if it works, if it doesn't (many discs simply can't be recovered) then don't pay a penny.