These days computers are becoming more and more of a media hub for users to watch movies or television shows on. For awhile I’ve switched between a handful of media players including VLC, KMPlayer, and GOM. All of those are excellent in their own way, and now I think I’ll also have to add SPlayer to the list. On top of supporting the wide array of media types that the others do, SPlayer is fast.

The best thing about SPlayer is hands-down the simple interface. As you can see in the screenshot above it’s nice because all of the buttons are overlaid on the video when you move your mouse, and there are no visible menus to distract you. Not only that, but there is a minimalist mode (pictured above) that gets rid of the minimize/maximize/close buttons that are typically at the top of a window so that you get a very clean viewing experiencing without needing to go to full-screen mode.

As expected SPlayer also integrates with Windows 7 nicely. One way it does that is to show the progress of whatever you’re watching in the Taskbar icon, and I’m hoping that in an upcoming release it will also some basic jumplist support (for things like recently played movies). Thanks to some out-of-the-box jumplist functionality in Windows 7, however, you can always drag a file onto the SPlayer icon to have that particular file pinned to the jumplist menu. Whenever you select that video from the list SPlayer will immediately open and start playing it.

And I can’t forget to mention the performance, which is rather incredible. Starting up SPlayer takes about a second on my machine, and to start playing a video all I have to do is drag the file somewhere in the window. In terms of memory usage SPlayer uses about 5MB when sitting idle and around 36MB when a movie is playing. That definitely falls within the range of acceptability.

Everything about this app feels snappy, clean, and well thought out. I give the developers a lot of credit for the attention to detail that ensures users will have the best experience possible. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

[ Get SPlayer ] – Windows only; Freeware

Trying to extract clips from a DVD is usually a roundabout process that involves a lot of waiting. Free utility DVD Knife makes it easy to extract clips from any part of your DVD.

Generally, in order to extract a small clip from a DVD, you’ve got to rip and convert the entire movie—or at least a specific chapter—before you can work with it. DVD Knife does away with this lengthy process with a quick, four-click solution. When you start it up, you just open the disc, navigate to and mark your start and endpoints, and click save. DVD Knife will extract the clip (without compressing or decompressing) into a small VOB file that you can then convert into whatever file type you need, giving you more time to actually concentrate on the goal at hand (or to finish up that project quickly and go do something else).

[ Download DVD Knife ]

TechTracker is a new service from CNET that scans your computer’s hard-drive for any outdated software programs and will alert you as soon as new updates are available for download.

The TechTracker app scans your installed software and then retrieves the version information provided in the executable files that come with these applications. It then compares this data with their own database of software products to see if there’s any version mismatch.

If there’s a new version available for your software, you can download it directly from the download.com website or click the “more info” link to view user ratings and other details of that software program before downloading.

CNET’s TechTracker is available for all versions of Windows and a Mac version is in the pipeline. You may either use Facebook Connect or create a free account at CNET.com to use the TechTracker service.

With TechTracker, you can also set up an email alerts for all your software programs so you’ll get an email as soon as a new version is released by the software developers without having to wait for the software scanner to inform you.

VersionTracker is another popular service that offers similar features and the very interesting part is that both these services are owned by CNET / CBS Networks.

The difference is that TechTracker is a free product and limited to software applications only while VersionTracker will scan software as well as hardware drivers though it costs money. Going forward, I think CNET will also release a pro version of the TechTracker application that will have all the features of VersionTracker and possibly some more.

Many of us own more than one computer, but unless they are connected to a network, moving files from one machine to another is laborious. We advocate synchronisation tools such as Sugarsync or Dropbox, which enable you to synchronise your favourite and most important files across multiple machines, irrespective of operating system. Snag is, if you have a slow broadband connection, or need to move across large movie files, synchronisation is going to take way too long to migrate your files.

The other option is to backup your data to a removable drive then connect that drive to another machine and restore the content. Of course, if you have a system problem in the future, you can simply restore the content back to the host computer.

FBackup is a free backup tool from the makers of Backup4All that offers you basic backup for your Windows computer. It ships with some pre-defined templates, so you can backup your email, My Pictures, My Documents and other key folders. The tool will enable you to backup to a connected drive, removable flash drive or even across your network.

You can use ZIP compression to get the most from your storage location. You can even use it to backup your most important files, even if they are open and in use by an application. All in all, it’s a simplistic tool designed to make sure you backup your files, quickly and easily with the minimum of fuss.

[ Download FBackup ]