Windows only: Free application Quick Media Converter converts virtually any audio or video file from one format to another. Like previously mentioned WinFF (and several other media conversion tools), Quick Media Converter is really just a graphical front end for the powerful command line tool, FFmpeg. But where FFmpeg takes some command line chops to use, Quick Media Converter couldn't be more simple. Just drag and drop a file you want to convert into the app, pick an output format, and let QMC and FFmpeg take care of the rest. It supports everything from DivX and Xvid to Xbox and iPhone output, with icons that make it dead simple to pick the right type. Quick Media Converter is freeware, Windows only.

Mac OS X only: Free application Karelia iMedia Browser provides a single interface to access the photos, music, and videos on your Mac. If you've ever browsed for media in iLife applications like iMovie, you already know what to expect from iMedia—it's the same basic interface of the media browser that those apps already provide. The difference is that iMedia breaks that browser free from any single application, which means you can search your media top to bottom through the same slick interface in conjunction with any app. Karelia iMedia Browser is freeware, Mac OS X only.

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Weblog Daily Tech Update details how to use the Quick Links feature available in the recently released Gmail Labs to create quick access links to the media attachments in your Gmail account. The Quick Links tool makes it dead simple to turn any advanced search into a quick sidebar link, and the post details a few advanced searches to create Quick Links specifically for video and audio. I've also added my own YouTube videos Quick Link for any email containing a YouTube link (I simply used http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=* as my search). If you've taken advantage of the Gmail Labs Quick Links feature, let's hear how you're using it in the comments. For even more advanced Gmail media wrangling, check out previously mentioned Xoopit.

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Windows only: Cataloging utility Coollector tracks your movie collection, including flicks you've seen but don't own and DVDs you've loaned to others. Unlike other programs of its ilk, Coollector comes preloaded with an enormous database of movies, directors, actors, and actresses. Entering movies from your collection is a breeze with an easy-to-use search function. Coollector goes beyond simple cataloging by tracking movies you've seen but aren't on your own shelf, which fills in the database of your cinematic tastes. Coollector also includes a tracking system for DVDs you have loaned out. For a visual treat, you can integrate previously mentioned PicLens into Coollector to get a slick Cover Flow interface to your searches and collection browsing. Coollector is a free download for Windows only.

We're used to TV stations cramming the credits with ads for upcoming programs, but Ten is now taking it a step further: for new local programs, it's telling producers not to include any end-of-show credits at all. The Australian's Media section reports that the change is designed to ensure people don't switch over between shows, or, as a spokesperson ludicrously put it, "maximise accelerated audience flow". (One way to prevent channel change would be showing better-quality productions and not using Kyle Sandilands, but I digress.)
Given you can grab most show credits on IMDb, this isn't much of an informational concern (though it would be nice if the Australian coverage was more comprehensive). But I can't help thinking that Ten's missing the bigger picture. In an era where people increasingly download shows to watch later, just how relevant is transitioning the audience to the next show anyway?
Ten cuts credits to lure viewers

Banshee 1.0, the open source media manager we spotted in beta last month, is available for download as a final release for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions.

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Linux only: Organise your music, videos, podcasts, and other media through a slick-looking portal with Banshee, a free download for Linux systems. Looking more than a little like Lifehacker favourite Amarok, Banshee's 1.0 beta 2 release adds a lot of great features, including integrated audio and video podcast support with play-as-it-downloads capability, a video organiser and player that uses the same backend as GNOME's built-in Totem media player, extensive Last.fm tools, and an overall interface overhaul. Banshee 1.0 beta 2 is a free download for Linux systems only; installation guides are provided for Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE distributions.

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You don't have to mod your classic Xbox to run the best free media centre application around anymore: Dedicated developers have ported the Xbox Media Centre (XBMC) software to the Mac, and its killer features will convince you to abandon Front Row forever. The latest XBMC on OS X beta dropped last week, and it's as stable and useful as ever. Dubbed the "throw out your Xbox" release, XBMC for Mac 0.5 beta 1 adds the key feature that finally puts your media centre Mac under the TV where it belongs: remote control support. Let's take a look at how you can (and why you want to) replace Front Row with XBMC on your Mac.

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Linux only: Tellico, a free, open source collection manager available in many Linux repositories, isn't the only database-style organisation tool on the block—especially with the recent explosion of web apps. What makes Tellico totally recommendable is its portability and completeness . Sure, there are presets for a wealth of collections—books, DVDs, wine, coins, and the like—but you can put in and take out the labels you really care about. And unlike most programs of its kind, Tellico stores its collection files in XML format instead of SQL databases, making it easy to export your data and visualise it, amongst other perks. Tellico is a free KDE-based download for Linux systems only, available in many distros and as a source download.

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With its hacker-friendly aesthetic and open source mentality, you'd think a Linux desktop would be the best place to assert your digital rights—you know, make backup copies of your DVDs, convert them for iPods, that kind of thing.

And you'd be half right. There are plenty of programs that let you take control of your video discs, but they're only useful if you can make it through a maze of configuration menus, command line options, choices about bit rates and codecs, and the occasional confusing message about a missing library.

I've tried out a good number of DVD ripping and conversion programs, and I've made peace with one method, and one program, that gets the job done more often than not. It's not exactly one-click, but once your system is set up, you can drop in DVDs and back them up or convert them with relative ease.Note on system differences: I set up my ripping/burning system on a Lenovo Thinkpad T61 running a brand-new installation of Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). As with so many things Linux, packages and commands may vary based on your system. But for the most part, the tools I use in this walkthrough work across distributions and on both major desktop environments, GNOME and KDE.

Make your system media-friendly

The key ingredient to ripping in Linux is enabling your system to read encrypted DVDs—the kind you buy and rent. Since Linux lacks (to my knowledge) a licensed DVD player, we'll be using the libdvdcss2 package to get access. You might find the libdvdcss2 package in your distro's repositories, but you'll definitely find it at the VideoLAN web site, and Ubuntu users can install it from the Medibuntu site.

If you're going to be shrinking your DVDs down to portable media formats like DivX or MPEG-4, you need the corresponding codecs installed. For Ubuntu users, that means heading to Applications->Add/Remove, typing in gstreamer and installing all the packages that come up, along with installing the w32codecs package from the Medibuntu source above. In other distros, try searching your installation programs for terms like "codec," "divx," "restricted," and other relevant phrases.

The program I'll be using to shrink dual-layer DVDs down to burn-able size is K9Copy, available in many repositories. It's straight-forward, it doesn't ask 47 questions about your bitrate preferences, and it works mostly on its own. Although it's KDE based, it runs in GNOME environments without too many required libraries.

Finally, here are the programs I recommend for playing and burning video files and ISOs. Use what you know best, but I've had the best success with these selections:

• VLC Media Player: Just like on Windows and Mac, the Linux version of this all-in-one wonder plays nearly anything resembling video or audio. You could use it to play back entire DVD backup folders, as Adam prefers, or even play the DVD image itself.
• DeVeDe and ManDVD: For creating burnable DVD images from video files. DeVeDe can handle fancier conversions, but ManDVD lets you create some pretty slick-looking front-end menus.
• K3b or GnomeBaker: These burning programs for KDE and GNOME seem to just work, and often catch errors before burning rather than create coasters, in my experience.

Getting started

Load a DVD into your drive, launch K9copy and select the blue folder icon in the top left corner. The title contents of your disc will be displayed, but don't touch any of that yet. Hit the "Settings" menu and select "Configure K9Copy."

Select the "DVD" category on the left of the menu that pops up, then change the "Output directory" to a convenient location. This is where the "AUDIO_TS" and "VIDEO_TS" folders that make up a DVD will go before an ISO is made. I had trouble getting the folders to go into a Windows-formatted storage partition on my Ubuntu system, and while I think KDE-based users might have more success, plan on having at least 9 GB free on your actual Ext3 (or Linux-formatted) drive or partition. You can change the "DVD size" setting here if you have trouble burning to disc, but the default 4400 MB is what most single-layer DVD-Rs can hold.

Now select the MPEG-4 category, unless you don't plan on compressing DVDs down to video files. I've found success choosing the XviD codec, selecting the "2 pass" option and changing the codec under the "Audio" tab to AC3, but video geeks will know what to do here. You can also easily opt for better quality rips and larger files by adjusting the "File size" option in the "Video" tab or splitting the rips onto two or more CD-Rs. Note that these are just the default settings; you can rip to another format, like the iPod-friendly MPEG-4 using the "MPEG4 Encoding Options" tab at the main window's bottom edge.

Hit "OK," and now it's time to choose what we want to retain from the DVD. If you want to copy everything—including menus, featurettes and all the language and subtitle tracks—select the "DVD Playback Options" menu from the right-hand edge and check the "Keep original menus" button at the bottom. Otherwise, you can go title by title through the DVD, deciding which audio, video and subtitle tracks to drop for better picture quality. If you're unsure what to pick, hit the camera button at the top left to preview the video and change the subtitle and audio options to see what's best.

Let 'er rip

Now make sure the "ISO image" output device is selected, and then click either the MPEG4 or Copy buttons (or choose from the Actions menu) to start ripping. I found my ripping times to be about even with DVD Shrink in Windows, but certainly faster than if I ran DVD Shrink in WINE or other Windows emulators. After it finishes, you're most of the way there—you can burn the ISOs to DVD-Rs, watch the backups in your media player, or use the video files wherever you can play 'em. K9Copy has an option to burn directly to DVDs, but I haven't read too many great things about it.

As I said earlier, this is what worked for me, and I've read similar success stories in Linux forums and amongst our own commenters. Die-hard GNOME users who never install KDE-applications might check out a similar program, DVD95, but I found the interface a bit too confusing for a first-timer.

Have a better system for ripping DVDs on your Linux box? Know an uber-command-line trick that does the job every time? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Kevin Purdy is a guest editor at Lifehacker who's thrilled that he's now able to back up the entire Michael Mann canon.