Camtasia Studio is a complete application suite to record, edit and share your videos online, on CD or with a portable player. This highly-acclaimed program allows you to create screencasts or video tutorials, and can also be used to prepare presentations. Let’s get a run-down of all the things you can do with Camtasia Studio.

Thanks to the Camtasia Recorder, you can record and save screen captures or webcam broadcasts. We enjoyed playing around with it, adjusting the region size, highlighting cursor movement and setting elements such as time stamps and captions. Depending on what you need to record, you can also choose to hide or show the cursor and disable audio.

The production studio is the central piece of the application, from where you’ll be doing your editing. Drag and drop your recorded videos onto the timeline at the bottom of the interface. Camtasia embeds a player in the studio interface and you can constantly replay your production. From the menu on the left side you can choose from a selection of 18 different transitions, many call-outs (effectively bubbles to insert text into your video) or captions. The Zoom-n-Pan feature can be used to focus in on one part of the video in particular and teachers can use the Flash Quiz Survey feature to prepare multiple choice tests for their students. Camtasia Studio also includes an audio editor to simply record a voiceover directly to your video or tweak the audio in your production. Use Menu Maker and Theater to create full tables of contents and credits.

BBC Worldwide has announced it is to launch its own iPlayer in an attempt to rival Apple's iTunes for downloaded music and video content. It is expected to be approved in the Spring although no official date has been set for the release.

Since the BBC is a publically funded institution, the iPlayer had to prove that it will fulfil a public service. As a result, it will initially only be available to UK licence-fee payers and will allow them to re-watch programs broadcast within the past 7 days (more on the negotiations here). However, the BBC plans to take further controversial steps towards commercialisation by generating revenue from advertiser driven content and pay-per-view downloads. It's even possible that other commercial broadcasters may be invited on board which would turn the iPlayer into the biggest online broadcaster of terrestrial channels in the UK.

The new project is part of the BBC's renewed drive to embrace online video including plans to put clips of popular shows on YouTube. Its also currently in the process of working with IBM to create an online searchable database of its children's programmes.

However, there's no guarantee that such an on-demand service will work. UK broadcasters Channel 4 and Sky have both experiemented with putting content online but without spectacular results. Most people who miss a program that is broadcasted on TV record it on a VCR or hardrive anyway so it's debateable whether people will really want to watch a rerun of a soap such as Eastenders online. However, if the BBC were to put its unique archive online on a pay-per-view basis, it might find more success.

With so much downloadable audio visual material on the internet, people are getting more creative with their content. Just look at the millions of submissions to You Tube by wannabe directors and home movie aficionados. If you're not ready to take on heavy duty editing programs such as Adobe Premiere, there are a few cut and splice programs out there to help you.

One such example is Video Cutter and Splicer which can split the movie file into two parts at a certain scene and save them as two movies which could help you get your clips under YouTube's 10 minute limit. You can even save your favourite frames from movies as an image to make a nice thumbnail preview. This program allows you to cut and splice video in AVI, MPEG, WMV, ASF, QT, and MOV format but note that it can only output your masterpieces in AVI, MPEG and WMV format.

For something a little more versatile, you can try Quick Video Converter. As its name suggests, its main job is as a converter but it also cut part of a file, merge two or more files into one and even rip parts of a DVD/SVCD/VCD to video files. It also supports a huge amount of formats, including 3GP and MP4.

If you're looking for an altogether more powerful solution though, take a look at Video Workshop. Video Workshop is a digital video converter/editor for home video processing and for people who are just getting started with video editing. It also performs conversions but allows you to be much more creative including ripping audio from a film to mp3, mixing soundtracks and adding your own voice overs. A great program for those that want to assemble all their favourite clips in one place and merge them into their own film or mish-mash.

As promised last week, insideTonic now has a couple of Joost invitations to distribute among you, the readers. For those who haven't heard about it yet, Joost is one of a handful of applications which are looking to bring streaming TV to your PC/Mac. Developed by the guys behind such huge projects as Kazaa and Skype, Joost makes use of peer-to-peer networking and advanced video compression to provide multiple stations and shows in a cool, modern design. Joost is already one of the programs of the year.

All we ask in return is one simple thing: give us one reason why you're the person who deserves an invite! The best two answers (as judged by our expert panel) will receive an invitation within a few days. As we receive more invitations, we'll send more out... so keep those comments coming! Please note, you'll need to provide a valid email address with your comment so that we can send you an invite if you win.

If you’re going on a long journey or are on the move a lot, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to take your favourite films with you without splashing out on a portable DVD player? Well if you’ve got an iPod, the good news is you can. However, you’ll need a decent conversion program to convert all those movies into something that will play on an iPod.

The most popular on Softonic is Free iPod Video Convertor. The program can convert DVD/VCD into AVI, MPEG, WMV, RM, RMVB, DivX, ASF, and VOB in just a few clicks. Like most of these programs, it's a simple case of dragging the file you want to convert into the conversion queue and clicking 'Convert' but remembering to remove components that you might not need. Most users rate this the best because it does the job in the quickest time with the least output errors although its certainly not perfect. Some users report there are certain files that simply won’t convert or when they have been converted, don't play properly on their iPod.

If you’re looking for something that goes beyond iPods too, then try Any Video Convertor . It can convert almost all video formats including DivX, XviD, MOV, RM, RMVB, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI to MPEG-4 movie format for iPods. However, it also converts for playback on PSP and several other portable video devices such as mobile phones. Whilst this supports more formats, the conversion time will be considerably slower for iPods although if you have many devices, it’s a better option.

Finally, a similar and equally popular alternative to Any Video Converter is AVOne Video Converter. This works in a rather different way however by utilising the timeline function common to video editing programs. The advantage of this is that you can cut and splice movies according to which scenes you want to watch. This way, you can store some of your favourite movie scenes on your iPod without putting the whole movie on there.

So there you have it. Go forth and convert!

It looks like YouTube has a real fight on its hands if it wants to pursue commercial programming. The forthcoming online video service Joost has announced it has signed a deal with media giants Viacom to provide full length TV programming. The deal with cover content from MTV, BET and Paramount Pictures film studio.

The agreement will come as a big blow to YouTube who has been hounded by Viacom to remove its material from the site. Earlier this month, Viacom requested around 100,000 clips from its networks to be removed from the site. No financial details are available but Viacom have promised to provide thousands of hours of free programming mainly aimed at younger Joost users. Examples will include Beavis and Butthead and Punk’d.

Joost (formerly known as The Venice Project) has been designed by the creators of Skype and is currently still in beta form and only available to those who sign up at its website and are invited to test it. It claims it will offer secure 'piracy-proof' content when it is finally released later this year.

Considering that Joost has not even officially been released yet, this deal indicates just how ambitious its makers are. However, it may be unwise of YouTube to enter into a commercial war with Joost. The best thing about YouTube is that it offers not programming but the best clips and snippets from TV around the world. There are already several P2P apps that offer channel streaming such as TVU Player that carry programming from the big networks but these are unlicensed and as such, somewhat unreliable. Joost runs the risk of simply offering more of the same while YouTube should stick to what it does best - letting users upload all those TV snapshots and archived footage that you can spend hours searching through.

For those of you lucky enough to be registered to beta-test the impressive Joost, you may be interested to know that there's now a MacOS (Intel) version available for download. Initial responses to this latest version suggest that despite a small number of font-rendering issues, the Mac version of Joost is just as good as the Windows version. Indeed, according to some Mac users, it's even better... just because it's running on a Mac.

Of course, the only way to be sure is to test both versions so you can be sure that insideTonic will have a complete comparison online within a couple of days. We're also planning a special giveaway of invitations to the beta project! In the meantime, you can always apply for the beta at the Joost homepage.

Thanks to the constant improvement of broadband connections, watching TV over the internet is now possible. The current trend is to use Peer to Peer (P2P) technology to stream media quickly to consumers. TVU Player allows you to watch major cable channels over the internet, by sharing your bandwidth with other users.

TVU Player usually streams around 20 different channels, from a large American sports network to the major Chinese television channel and you can watch everything from gossip to movies or sports. TVU Player is extremely simple to use, you only have to double click on the channel of your choice, wait a few minutes for it to buffer, and start watching. Refreshing every now and then lets you check whether new channels are on offer.

TVU Player is a bit unstable, so you shouldn’t be surprised if it fails to initialize or if the channel you are watching tends to lag. If very few people are connected to the same channel you might get poor streaming quality, but if you are watching a popular program there should be a good number of peers sharing the load and the transmission will flow. Always remember to check the number of peers before watching a channel.

Slysoft recently released a Beta (version 6.1.2.0) of its AnyDVD application, which will remove copy protection and regional codes (what they call "on the fly remastering") for HD-DVD and AACS. In our full review of Anydvd we already touted its discretion and simplicity, and enjoyed how you can "watch the DVD at the same time" as it is being ripped by the program. No doubt this Beta will attract the interest of avid DVD users, however they'll have to make sure they're machines are up to the task. On the Slysoft forum there's a thread on what hardware is recommended to play back your ripped HD DVDs.

Even though the announcement was widely relayed over the Internet it hasn't spawned much controversy. Toshiba has kept quiet over the release of the AnyDVD Beta, which will rip its very own HD DVDs. It is widely expected that once AnyDVD comes out of Beta it will also be able to rip Blu Ray DVDs too. We'll see then if the news sparks more controversy in the DVD world.

Given that Softonic (and, for that matter, iT) is based in Barcelona, it should come as no surprise that we attended the 3GSM World Congress which came to a close today.

It's got to be said that much as the conference is always good fun, 3GSM 2007 lacked some of the big technology leaps that it's played host to in past years. Last year was certainly the year of mobile TV and that particular trend seems to remain popular - it was still the dominant new technology on display. Some new handsets, particularly the LG KE850 Prada handset and the spanking new Nokia E90 Communicator were on display but there wasn't quite the same level of excitement surrounding this year's event.

In the mobile software arena, we were lucky enough to have a look at Access's new Linux Platform (ALP) which promises to be either a welcome alternative to Windows Mobile or a last ditch attempt to save Palm again. Among many major players showcasing their software, we were most impressed by Nero's Mobile entertainment suite and the improvements which have been made to Adobe's Flash Mobile platform. Windows Mobile 6 looks quite snazzy but we don't feel that it includes many important new features. We'd recommend installing SPB's Mobile Shell on your Windows Mobile 5 device before shelling out on a whole new Pocket PC.

One thing which did seem to have some pulses racing was the increase in adult content for mobile devices. Local newspapers over the last few days have been full of stories about this and there did seem to be more booths dealing in 'that sort of thing' than last year. Not that we were counting.

As usual, the most important thing about 3GSM 2007 will be the deals and developments that it has brought about. We'll just have to wait until 3GSM 2008 to find out about some of them!

Before Joost burst onto the headlines, Democracy was around as an Internet TV platform, showing us what the future of broadcasting might look like. The program allows users to watch and post videos on free internet TV channels. Working at the crossroads between an RSS aggregator and a Bittorrent client, Democracy lets you list all your favorite channels and download episodes in a few clicks.

Yesterday saw the release of Democracy 0.9.5, bringing with it a good number of improvements and fixes. In a probable move to compete with Zudeo or even YouTube, each video now has a share tab which you can use to send clips by email, post to Video Bomb, Digg, del.icio.us or Reddit. Videos that you have downloaded are now organized by channel to make them easier to find.

Downloading episodes on Democracy was already really smooth but the team behind the TV app has added some improvements to the Bittorrent client. Although I always downloaded episodes in one go, I suppose the introduction of pause/resume will come in extremely handy if you have a queue of videos waiting. Democracy finally shows seeding on your torrents, giving you more insight to manage your downloads. Streamlining the download process, Democracy will also retry whenever your connection breaks down. An extensive list of all the changes is on the Democracy blog and the new Windows and Mac versions are now available for download on Softonic.

Anybody who’s watched AVI movies has had to use a codec, yet few people really understand what they are or how they work. To make things clear, codecs encode (and decode) your media file so that your media player can read it. AfreeCodecVT will avoid all the hassle by helping you choose the right codec according to the media file you have and will provide all sorts of information on all the codecs that exist out there.

A simple one-stop interface makes afreeCodecVT a reliable and easy to use gateway for the codec hungry crowd. AfreeCodecVT is first and foremost a huge database with every imaginable resource on codecs and the ways they’re used. The codec wizard will answer your doubts and the codec search will link you to the regularly updated codec library from the afreeCodecVT website. There’s a good chance the one you need is among the ones most downloaded by other users.

Portable video is fast becoming the most popular secondary use for Pocket PCs, so making sure you have the right media player is now a priority for many PPC device owners. The Core Pocket Media Player is an open-source video and audio player compatible with all the most popular codecs and multimedia file types.

TCPMP is easy to use, very stable and loaded with a variety of features. The program’s main screen is reminiscent of similar programs on your desktop computer, with options to change aspect ratio, zoom and volume as well as more advanced controls such as video speed (10% - 200%), video driver, audio preamp and more.

One issue with playing video files on a Pocket PC, irrespective of which program you use to play them, is that there will be some lag or jumps from time to time. While some of the top end Pocket PCs now have processors and system memory that should be able to cope with playing quality video, the fact remains that the majority of devices, while technically capable of playing video, are not really designed for that purpose. Compare the playback quality on your Pocket PC with a purpose-built portable media player and you’ll see the difference. TCPMP’s settings are therefore an essential feature of the program, allowing you to play around with different levels of quality and performance to help you guarantee the best possible multimedia experience.

In all, The Core Pocket Media Player is a free, open source multimedia player which I’d recommend to anyone who wants to watch video on their Pocket PC. That said, if portable video is your heart’s desire, it would definitely be worth investing in a device built specifically for video playback which will provide much better overall quality.

The BBC Trust today approved the BBC's on-demand project, with a final consultation to be held May 2, 2007. The service will allow users to view or download popular programs like Doctor Who, 7 days after their original broadcast. The BBC then plans on releasing its iPlayer application, which will let users play a program 30 days after it has been downloaded or 7 days after it has been watched. The original plan was to let users keep downloaded programs 13 weeks on their hard drives but had to be brought down to 30 days because of Ofcom's (the UK communications industry regulator) worry that the iPlayer would have a "negative effect" on competitors. But users will still be able to use the "series stacking" feature to keep watched series more than 7 days.

In a sense, the BBC breaks off from the traditional model seen in the majority of broadcast companies. According to WebTVWire, the reason is that the British network is only interested in ratings and doesn't have to worry about advertising. Other stations are tied to a model where advertising space can be sold at extremely lucrative prices. Joost, the new P2P TV project, should prove traditional channels wrong by embedding advertising into their on-demand service.

It's interesting to see how the BBC justifies cutting down storage time for episodes. Chris Woolard, head of finance, economics and strategy at the Trust says that "if (users) don't look at (content) within 48 hours, they don't look at it at all". Kind of an easy way of justifying putting more control on content. While the on-demand service is an exciting way of broadcasting episodes it's clear that management is making sure they keep a tight grip on it.

The world of video has changed almost completely over the last decade. No longer are we chained to the antiquated video player and its poor playback, tape-chewing ways. The DVD revolution has not only transformed the quality of movies but has made it possible to watch films conveniently from the comfort of your PC.The price of hardware DVD players is falling all the time and software behemoths such as Microsoft and Apple are finally waking up to the potential of the digital media industry and emptying their bulging wallets into producing their own solutions.

Add this to the fact that fixed memory capacity and bandwidth sizes are expanding by the second and you start to wonder how relative minnows like CyberLink, developer of the vastly popular PowerDVD, expect to stay in the game. We caught up with the company’s founder and industry guru, Dr Jau Huang to find out how.

When was the first version of PowerDVD launched and who was involved in its creation?

PowerDVD was first launched in 1998. It was the triumph of a small team of eight engineers - including myself - who had a passion to create the best DVD decoder in the world. Of course, in some way we have to thank our first lot of users - mainly tech-savvy early adopters who had actually heard of MPEG-2! Without their enthusiasm for the product, PowerDVD would never have got off the ground.