Windows Freeware?

I´m searching for a couple of freeware programs to be installed on a notebook with XP.

1. DVD-Player software
2. A comfortable and reliable CD/DVD burning program. No expert functions needed.
3. A general multimedia player. Would be good if it comes with the most important codecs or at least has an explicitly recommended codec pack.
4. A DVB-S recording software compatible with Hauppauge Nova-S USB. (Hauppauge is the market leader, so most programs should be fine.)

Everything must include a German language option.

Any suggestions?

Media Player Classic - a very good multimedia player, and alternatively it come together with K-Lite Codec packs to handle all kind of media files. However just the player itself already could play tons media formats and including DVD.

VLC media player is great for playing any type of media. I'm not sure if it has a German language option though. XP comes with a burning program IIRC. If you can get Media Center edition instead of XP, the Hauppauge all work well with its recording capabilities.

I use CDBurnerXP for burning, it's pretty good, and it seems like there's a German translation available too.

1. VLC for all kinds of video - VLC has a Swedish translation, so it would surprise me if there is no German one.
2. CDBurnerXP
3. I'm interested in this as well. I recently reinstalled Windows and none of the music/media player programs I've tried (Winamp, Foobar, iTunes and some others) have really been satisfactory. I've tried Amarok briefly on Linux and it seemed quite OK, but there's no Windows version of that.
4. No clue.

1.+3. I use Media Player Classic HomeCinema (continuation of MPC with extended features) for videos. Language pack available. I use Winamp for music.
2. There was a thorough article about 15 burning programs in c't 10/2008. Don't remember the results though.
4. No idea.

Thanks for your suggestions, guys.

VLC doesn´t seem to have a decent German translation.

I´ve installed CD Burner XP and MediaPlayerClassicHC. Both look good.

Is it normal that MPC comes without an installer?
Where can I adjust brightness, etc? I didn´t find the usual video options.

Gorath said:

Is it normal that MPC comes without an installer?
Where can I adjust brightness, etc? I didn´t find the usual video options.

Click to expand...

1. Yes, there should be only one executable.

2. There is no brightness control for the player, that's taken care of by the decoders. View -> Options -> Internal Filters -> MPEG 1/2 Video. But -

Regardless of which player you are using, I recommend installing ffdshow. It's a direct show filter for windows that plays back about every format there is, and it can be used with any player.

For MPC: Right-click in the MPC window (or via the Play menu) -> Filters -> ffdShow Video Decoder, tick "Picture Properties" and adjust to your liking (hue, saturation, gamma correction).

There's also a ffdshow settings guide if you want to get really good video quality (at more processing cost).

On some DVDs (for example Star Wars Original Trilogy ), there's a program called "Inter Actual Player", which is a decent DVD player, too.

I've found an older DVD player which came with my old graphics card in 1999 ... By a "Ravisent Technology".

Unfortunately it seems to rely on DirectShow or/and DirectMedia, and doesn't want to properly start nowadays.

i'm not sure about the item #4 but for the rest, KMPlayer can give the rest quite a run for their money.