Adobe Flash is an essential component to watch video on the web. It's not perfect - it can cause browser crashes and sometimes leave your computer vulnerable to attack but one particularly common problem is with updating it or knowing which version of Flash you are currently running

Here is a simple step-by-step guide to checking which version of Flash you are using and how to update it and change update settings if necessary.

Making personal movies is fun and gratifying after you’ve finished taking raw footage and editing it into a personal story.  Windows Live Movie Maker allows you to create movies from footage with a simple interface that is mostly easy to learn.

All movies need a soundtrack and when you import your files, they already have audio recorded. What happens when you just want to mute existing audio to add your own music?

Here’s the simple solution:

KMPlayer is one of the most powerful video players for Windows. The multimedia application has a huge range of settings that help you customize your entertainment experience.

One neat trick with KMPlayer is to watch multiple videos at the same time with picture-in-picture viewing. Rather than just having different player windows open, this feature embeds smaller videos over the top of a large one.

So if you don’t have time to watch four movies in one night, just watch them all at the same time using KMPlayer!

Watch the video tutorial or follow the steps below to enable picture-in-picture viewing in KMPlayer.

1. Download KMPlayer from Softonic and install it on your PC. Open the player and right click on the main window. Choose Options, then Preferences.

2. In the General Settings section of the Preferences menus, deselect Disallow Multiple Instances.

3. Load up your first video. This will become the one that appears in the background.

4. Pause the movie and right click on it. Go the Screen Controls option, choose On Top, then Never.

5. Open another video in a new window. Right click on this one and go to Screen Controls. Choose On Top, then Always.

6. Right-click on the video window and choose Skins, then Default Control (Auto Hide).

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for all of the videos you want to load.

8. Now maximize the first video to full screen and position all the other videos in front of it, resizing the windows as necessary.

9. You’re now ready to start enjoying the benefits of picture-in-picture viewing with KMPlayer!

So you've been making masterpieces on your camera phone...but when you get your hands on the video, everything's upside down! If you're using super-app VLC media player, you'll be really pleased to hear that rotating it back so you can watch it comfortably is really easy. Even better, VLC lets you rotate freely, so even if your video is at a funny angle, you're guaranteed to be able to watch it perfectly straight.

Rotating video in VLC;

1. Open your video in VLC and pause it so you can fix it without missing anything
2. In the menu, go to Effects and Filters > Geometry and enable the Rotate checkbox
3. You'll then be able to rotate your video in real time, so you'll be able to spot exactly when you've managed to turn it back to where it's supposed to be!

Bear in mind that this is a temporary solution. If you want to rotate your video and save it with the correct orientation, your best bet is to use a video editor like VirtualDub or Avidemux. If you'd like a tutorial on this, let us know in the comments!

Need to take a screenshot of a video? One of the simplest ways to do it is with UMPlayer, an excellent media player that’s a worthy alternative to the popular VLC Player.

Whether you have a movie review web site and want to take some stills of a new film, or you just want a shot of your favorite movie to set as your desktop background, UMPlayer makes it dead simple.

Install UMPlayer

First, download UMPlayer from Softonic and install it on your PC. Launch the application and load a movie by dragging the file into the main interface or choose File from the Open menu.

Capture a screenshot

Go to the point of the movie you want to capture and press pause to freeze it. Now go to the Video menu, and you’ll find two screenshot options here. Select Screenshot to take a grab of what’s currently on screen, or choose Start/stop taking screenshots and UMPlayer will keep taking shots of the screen as the movie plays. Then choose this option again (or hit Shift + D) to stop the capture process.

Change output options

To find out where your screenshots have been saved go to the Options menu and select Preferences. On the General tab of the General options (which should load as the default menu) you’ll see a section called Screenshots. Here, you can change the destination folder of the saved screenshots, and enable/disable UMPlayer’s screenshot functionality.

Not sure how to add subtitles to videos you play in VLC media player? It's simple once you know how! Here's a step by step guide:

1. Download a subtitle file for your movie - if your source was a DVD or Blu-ray, make sure to search for a subtitle file for that type to ensure good audio/subtitle syncing. Generally speaking, look for a subtitle with a file name that closely resembles the video file you want to play. The most common file type for subtitles is .srt (we will deal with creating subtitles another time). AllSubs.org is a good resource for subtitle files
2. Move the subtitle file into the same folder as your video file.
3. Rename the subtitle file with exactly the same name as your video file, so you have two files like this: examplevideo.avi and examplevideo.srt.
4. Play your video in VLC. You should now see subtitles appear over your movie. If you don't, double check the .srt file is correctly named, then close and restart VLC before playing again.

This process is the same on both Windows and Mac versions of VLC player.

Ever tried to watch AVI movies on your iPhone? Then you’ve probably already worked out that the Apple device sadly doesn’t support playback of AVI video.

Thankfully, there is a way around this issue and there are at least two ways to play AVI files on an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Here I’ll explain how it’s done, first by converting your video file and prepping it for your iOS device, or alternatively by using an app called Air Video to stream video files from your computer to your iPhone.

Do this…

Use a conversion tool to convert AVI movies to iPhone format. I recommend Format Factory because it’s free and it has built-in output settings for converting to particular mobile devices, including the iPhone.

It's been a long time in coming but the beta version of XBMC 11 has now been released. Version 11 "Eden" adds lots of new features and improvements to the open source home theater software for both Mac and Windows.

The most notable changes are Addon Rollbacks and vast improvements to the default skin Confluence.

There are also significant speed increases thanks to what's known as "Dirty-region rendering", a new JPEG decoder, a simpler, better library, additional protocol handling, better networking support, better handling of unencrypted BluRay content and structures, adjustable display refresh rates in OSX (to match the already available feature in Windows and Linux), AirPlay support, an upgraded weather service, and much more.

You can find details of all the new additions and changes to XBMC in the changelog.

Although not finished yet, there are also important changes in progress to XBMC Live to make it more like a full “*Buntu” version of XBMC with major changes to the boot and install process.

Voddler has the potential to be a great film service although the lack of film choice in the Spanish pilot version and general usability still need much improvement for it to be really popular.

Just under two years ago we were on the first blogs to test and review video-on-demand service Voddler plus we brought you an exclusive interview with co-founder Mathias Tönnesson. We've now had chance to see how far it's come as Voddler starts a wider European-wide roll-out in Spain. Note that Voddler is still only available in limited regions.

Voddler started out as purely a desktop client but the company soon decided to integrate it with a web based service after numerous security breaches and complaints about usability from users.

To stream films in your browser, you need to download the desktop client. There is also an offline client available for download which allows you to play films you have paid for without a net connection.

2011 has been another great year for iOS apps. Despite the fact that Apple’s mobile platform fell behind Android in overall popularity this year, innovation in iOS development is better than ever.

The Apple operating system is still where cutting edge applications are born, and this year’s launch of iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S device have fueled app developer’s imaginations even more. Here’s our pick of the best iPhone and iPad apps of 2011, based on what impressed us out of the hundreds of new apps we tested this year.

Garageband

For me, Garageband is the most accomplished iOS app of all time. It allows you to create impressive musical compositions without any technical know-how, through an interface that’s effortless to navigate. The software's Smart Instruments, including piano, bass, guitar and drums, serve to help you create music that sounds like it's been played by a pro.

First released alongside the iPad 2 in March as one of the flagship apps for the tablet, this music-making app has since found its way onto the iPhone, too.

Price: $4.99

iMovie

As with Garageband, iMovie is another piece of Mac software that makes the transition from desktop to handheld really well. The app makes smart use of the multi-touch gestures to allow you to add videos, photos, music and sound effects, and piece them together. You can choose to add footage from your camera roll, or capture video directly through iMovie. The results can then be shared via YouTube.

Price: $4.99

The BBC have finally released an official BBC iPlayer app for iPhone. Although iPhones are already able to access the iPlayer via a web browser, this is the first official app which gives iPhone users a similar experience to that found on iPads. The new app also supports streaming iPlayer video content over 3G networks to your iPhone.

The new app includes additional improvements such as more free content and AirPlay for both subscribers and non subscribers. Note that the new app also works with  iPod Touch and the AirPlay feature that allows you to stream content to your TV requires iOS 5.

There are more ways to browse and watch YouTube videos than you might expect!

YouTube is working hard to offer people fun new ways to enjoy its huge selection of videos. The site now includes a range of different features designed to help you discover great videos, and watch and interact with them in new and interesting ways.

Check out YouTube’s TestTube section, which the site describes as its “ideas incubator”. Here’s where the site tries out all its weird and wonderful new features, and there are some real gems in here. Here are my favorite YouTube secrets that you just have to try!

Cosmic Panda

Also billed as the ‘Channels and Watch Experiment’, Cosmic Panda is a completely redesigned version of YouTube. It aims to make it easier to find, watch and highlight new or interesting content.

You can now use Skype to video chat via Facebook thanks to the announcement of Skype 5.7 beta for Windows and Skype 5.4 beta for Mac.

You don't have to log into Facebook to use the new feature however. Simply allow Facebook to connect to Skype, select a contact in Facebook who is online and you can initiate video calls instantly.

The new feature comes just a few months after Skype introduced Facebook chat integrating the two services even close since Skype was bought by Microsoft.

There have been no changes to the Mac interface however which will disappoint those already unhappy with the latest one. If you're one of them and are thinking of switching to Facetime, don't forget to check-out our Skype v Facetime analysis.

If you want to convert audio or video files for different devices without any fuss, these two apps make the process as painless as I can imagine:

Media Converter

A personal favorite, Media Converter is just an empty window into which you drag the files you want to convert. There's a list of conversion profiles to choose from, naming most of the devices you're likely to be converting for, so there's no need for any technical knowledge. I especially like that the deeper settings are available in the app and even more device profiles can be easily downloaded to it from the developer's website. Media Converter is undemanding and beaitifully easy to use.

Smart Converter

Really popular on the Mac App Store, Smart Converter is possibly even easier to use than Media Converter. It's single paned drag and drop interface has a row of popular device buttons, and you just have to click on the one you want to get a video converted for it. It really is conversion for absolute beginners! The drawback when compared to Media Converter is that there isn't anything more complex in the background, so if you do want to customize the settings.. we you can't so try not to!

These are the best free simple video converters I've used on Macs: have you found anything better?

If you're disappointed by the Netflix recent decision to increase DVD rental prices and spin-off the DVD rental service into Quikster then don't get angry - go elsewhere. There are several other services out there that provide films on demand. Here's a selection of some of the best:

Hulu Desktop

Hulu Desktop allows you to watch television shows, video clips, and movies from the comfort of your desktop, without ever having to open a web browser. Even absolute video streaming beginners should have no difficulties browsing and watching the television shows and movies of their choice using Hulu Desktop. The movie choice doesn't compare with Netflix but if you upgrade to Hulu Plus you'll get a decent selection.

Voddler

What Spotify has done for music fans, Voddler promises to do for film lovers. Unfortunately, it's still only available in selected countries in Europe but a US launch is planned. Voddler has a huge catalog of movies which are free to watch although a subscription is required to watch more recent releases.

YouTube Rentals

YouTube has never exploited it's potential as a film medium until recently but US users can subscribe to a rental service which allows you to watch films for 2 or 3 dollars. You can also watch films for free via YouTube Movies although the selection is quite small and there are no major releases in there.

iTunes via Apple TV

If you own a Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod then Apple TV has the latest instant HD movies. The only drawback is that you must pay $99 for the Apple TV box. Once you've got it, you can rent film via iTunes. However, part of Apple TVs movie rental service was affiliated with Netflix and the service is in flux right with no clear indicators of which direction its going.

Blockbuster

Blockbuster offers a similar pricing structure to Netflix with online rental deals ranging from around $4 up to as much as $20. It also offers Blu-Ray and game rentals and it has the advantage of having rental kiosks still available in the high street.