Operating systems are based on a modular system that enable you to add or remove codecs that you require to open and save audio and video files, both for playback and those you've created. If you install any modern video or DVD editor, or a AV player, you'll find that a number of the most popular codecs are installed on your system. However, if you've downloaded an old video encoded in the 90s, you'll probably find that it was produced with an old Intel codec that has long since been discontinued. These were designed for producing video for playback from CD, so the quality was poor compared to modern codecs.

CodecInstaller 2.6.3 is a tool that you can use to check through your existing codecs and then it will inform you of codecs that are required, when you attempt to open or playback audio or video. It might not always be able to let you know where you can get the codecs, but a hunt around the Internet will more than likely find the codec you require.

Many of us use existing music store tools such as Napster and iTunes to manage our music. Windows Media Player 11 also enables us to manage our audio players and tracks, although it's hard to imagine that it's the first choice for most users. There are plenty of free and shareware alternatives available, that will enable you to rip, store, manage and burn your audio tracks. People like the thought of using an independent music manager.

MediaMonkey 3 alpha is an early preview of the forthcoming major release. It's a fantastic music manager that is now completely Vista compatible and ships with a brand new user interface. The latest version also ships with an iTunes-style browser, improvements to the burning engine and more.

If you’re an existing iTunes user, a new minor update is now available. This new version, as anticipated, now supports the Apple iPhone. There is a new menu for the iPhone which will offer a help manual and support, but these features are not yet available online as yet. 7.3.1. will also enable you to sync photos, TV, music and more with your iPhone.

The iPod syncing is also smarter. If there’s not enough space to sync your iPod, iTunes will now tell you how much space is required for the new information and tell you how much space is remaining on your iPod.

Download Apple iTunes 7.3.1.

One of the most frustrating parts of Apple QuickTime or RealPlayer was that you had to purchase the full or professional version of the media player, in order to unlock some important features. For instance, you couldn't watch your movies full screen, if you have the basic and free version of QuickTime. That required a £30 upgrade. It is rumoured that the next version of the Mac OS X operating system, Leopard, will ship with a version of QuickTime that will not require an upgrade, to watch movies full-screen. However, there's no need to wait for Leopard..

Apple QuickTime 7.2 is a fairly major upgrade to the media player as this version not only ships with updates to the supplied H.264 video codec, but now enables you to watch your movies full screen. This means you can download a HD trailer and watch that full screen without needing QuickTime Pro.

There are plenty of media players on the market, from the Windows Media Player through to RealPlayer, that's been around for ages and supports both its own format as well as many additional media formats, for playing back audio and video content. It's generally a cross-platform media player, although this beta of the latest version is a Windows-only preview.

RealPlayer 11 beta is a preview of the forthcoming major update to the media player. This version will enable you to download video content for playback on your PC, along with other updated features, such as an improved user interface. There is little other information on the RealPlayer website. Some of the features are also only available in the Plus edition, which costs £19.99, probably as the codecs you require to burn video to DVD cannot be given away with the free version.

One of the most frustrating elements of the ongoing Media Player v RealPlayer v QuickTime battle is that they all attempt to override each others media format. If you have an MPG video file on your computer, install RealPlayer and it will attempt to open it, whereas you might prefer QuickTime. Worse still, each media player only supports a limited number of video codecs, so what might play on one operating system and in one particular media player, may not play on another.

VLC Media Player 0.8.6c is a cross-platform multi-format video player that will enable you to play the same track on a Windows, Mac or Linux computer. You only need to install the one media player and you'll find tht it can handle most video formats that you throw at it (apart from Microsoft coded WMV which requires special authorisation that only Windows Media Player can support).

There are three major media players available, but each of these players is primarily geared up to playing their own media files. For instance, QuickTime likes the .mpg format, whilst Windows Media Player will play the .wmv formatted video files. These players will often play formats from their rivals, but they'll try and make sure that they are the default media player for your audio and video.

VLC Media Player 0.8.6b is a general purpose audio and video player that is not brand nor format biased, so will work across a number of formats and multiple operating systems. It will play MPG files, DivX, MP3, OGG, stream files, play DVDs and much more. It's simple too, so no over the top user-interface, no commercials and no automatic 'homepage' when you start the player.

Large LCD monitors are becoming affordable. As many of us use our PCs in our bedroom, there's no reason why you couldn't invest in a 23¨ LCD monitor for your work, then use your PC to play recorded TV, DVDs and your audio CDs, after you've finished your work. You don't need a separate DVD player, your computer has a large hard drive which can be used to record TV programmes and with a 23¨ inch monitor, it should be wide enough to show HD content, in full.

GB-PVR 0.99.12 is a media centere tool that's been around for a while. It's a free application that will enable you to schedule and record TV programmes to your computer, play and manage your DVDs and much more. Of course, you'll need a TV capture card (or USB device) to grab the TV in the first place.

We all have a fairly extensive DVD, CD and digital audio collection, but most of our media isn't categorised or catalogued. We simply stack them on the shelves, generally in the order they've been purchased. If we lend a DVD to a friend, we don't always keep track of the DVDs on our shelves and those that have been borrowed.

MediaMan 2.66 is a fantastic media management tool. It enables you to scan in the barcodes from your DVDs, videos, books and CDs and then store the information in a catalogue. It works with Amazon, so the artwork and information for each product will be extracted from the Amazon website.

Managing your audio collection isn't always easy. Do you keep the same files across all your computers, including your laptop, or do you set up a nifty wireless network so you can stream your audio from one computer to others within your house?

MyTunesRSS 2.3.5 enables you to use one computer to store and manage your iTunes music collection, then access, stream and download your audio to another computer, even if that computer is situated outside your network. For instance, you could access your iTunes collection from your laptop, when you're on the road, via the Internet.

The only downside is that, due to the cross-platform nature of the software, it is based on Java 1.5, which is required. If that's all fine, download and test yourself.

With Microsoft attempting to compete with Apple with Zune from November, Windows Media Player 11 has been released to coincide with the forthcoming launch of their hardware audio player. This is the software player, an updated version of the media player that's built-in to Windows XP and will ship as part of Windows Vista, in January. Indeed, the new Windows Media Player 11 looks like a preview version of the new Vista user-interface.

What's new in the latest Windows Media Player 11? Apart from a visual re-design, it works with the Microsoft Urge service so that you'll be able to download tracks from the Internet (but not play on your iPod). Whether content downloaded via Urge and through Media Player 11 will play on Zune is another matter as that's going to use it's own proprietary system.

If you're a big fan of Windows Media Player or simply want to see the new version for yourself, download from here.

iTunes is a widely used audio player, but it wasn't always like that. Up until recently, it was the audio players such as Nullsoft's Winamp that dominated headlines. This was back in the days when you either grabbed audio from our own CDs or obtained tracks off the Internet from, well, less legitimate sources. No copy or DRM protection was required or utilised and people simply needed to play their audio.

You don't need to purchase from the iTunes Store to use iTunes. At a basic level, it can be used to store your audio tracks (from whatever source) and, with the release of iTunes 7, you can now obtain your artwork from the iTune Store, without making a purchase. This means that artwork for audio grabbed from your CDs can be stored and shown, without requiring you to scan in the original art. The latest iTunes 7.01 contains a few bug fixes found within the recent release of 7.0.

Winamp 5.3 is a minor upgrade, but is a long-term favourite of a lot of users.  There are quite a few enhancements within the latest release, improved media player syncing support and much more. If you've never used Winamp, it's worth downloading for yourself.

We see the constant adverts promoting the use of broadband to stream video and TV across the Internet. Yeah, this is fantastic if everyone agrees on a codec, but with QuickTime, Real, Windows Media Player and DivX all enabling us to encode our streaming video, we have to hope the end user a) has the player and codec to decode the streaming video and b) knows how to get the right codec.

This issue is clouded even further when you take in to account video that was encoded in the late 90s. In those days many of uses an Intel codec which has long-since been discontinued. Factor in the recent use of protection to prevent unauthorised copying of audio and video, and you'll soon realise that you may need a range of video players to play back streaming TV from the web.

One option is the fantastic K-Lite Codec Pack. This is a collection of all the video and audio codecs you should require for playing back audio and video from the Internet. The pack is constantly updated, so you'll be assured that the developers are always on the look out for new codecs to add to the collection.

It looks like Apple has pulled the plug on the many websites that plunder its extensive archive of high resolution album artwork. The popular Josh's iTunes Album Art Grabber, and many others, ran into difficulty when attempting to retrieve the gorgeously detail 600px by 600px covers, offering only the 170px by 170px versions. The larger versions are still available to those who purchase music from the iTunes store but it looks like we’ll all have to turn to the lower quality Amzon.com for our audio library needs.

Last.FM has now added iPod support for its popular personal music player. Previously, users would create a profile of their music using the audioscrobbler plugin, which would send Last.FM details of your musical preferences and dually provide recommendations of similar artists and bands. Now you can “Scrobble your iPod", choosing from a variety of third-party products for differing operating systems. Once installed, you’ll be able to sync up your recently-played iPod tracks with Last.FM, effectively removing the need to use your computer at all.

Download the original player here.

Check out the iPod player here.

Songbird is the highly anticipated open source media player, utilizing the XUL and Mozilla platform to create a cross platform, internet enabled player. This could prove to be the ideal solution for those hacked off with Apple’s resource-hungry iTunes player, and a saving grace for those who still think Windows Media player is where it’s at. Indeed, from the screenshots alone, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is just an iTunes rip-off with bells on. However, our first impressions were positive, finding a more intuitive interface and greater flexibility with tagging. As with all first beta releases, there are plenty of bugs, but expect this to rapidly go from strength to strength now that the geeks have got their dirty mitts on it.

Get it here.