 VLC Player |
Plays pretty much any audio or video file you care to throw at it. Includes a CSS descrambler for playing DVDs. |
Although it’s VERY good, it’s not perfect - some things still play better in Windows Media Player. |
 MPC - HC |
"Media Player Classic - Home Cinema" is intended to feel like Windows Media Player 6.4 (from Windows 2000), but includes modern features and codecs. |
While less format-compatible than VLC, sometimes it runs better on slow platforms. It also works with some formats that VLC doesn't. |
 Audacity |
A full-feature wave form editor and sound production facility. Also good for simply recording from any audio input. |
Unless you’re a professional sound engineer, this should cover all your sound editing needs. Due to licensing issues some codecs may need to be downloaded separately. |
 CDex |
A simple, well designed “CD Extractor” for ripping CDs to MP3 and various other portable formats. |
Although nobody buys CD's anymore, this can turn an old CD collection into a great bunch of MP3's. Includes “paranoia” modes to minimize data errors from old/worn/scratched CDs. |
 ImgBurn |
Reads/Writes CDs, DVDs, BluRays, and ISO/UDF image files. Can rip encrypted commercial DVDs if “DVD43” driver is loaded (for legal use only, of course) |
While a very capable tool, usage is not always obvious: e.g. to make an audio CD you select “Tools - Create CUE file” from the main menu. The last version was released in 2013 - so OS compatibility may become an issue. |
 HandBrake |
This video transcoder coverts from typical optical input formats to a range of file-based audio/video formats. Similar to ImgBurn, it relies on the "libdvdcss" library (included with VLC) to deal with DVD copy protection. |
While it can handle BluRay disks and images, you would need a simple tool like Free Blu-ray Decrypter or full featured commercial app like AnyDVD HD to circumvent copy protection (again, for legal use only). |
 DVD Flick |
Very simple DVD authoring tool that transcodes a wide variety of multimedia files to DVD VOBs. |
Actually uses an internal copy of ImgBurn to write the DVD image to a disc. Does not appear to support Blu-Ray authoring yet. |
