Free Multimedia Tools and Services

Software:

Do you know of any good free ones?

Format	File	Description
AVI	.avi	AVI (Audio Video Interleave) format was developed by Microsoft. Supported by all Windows computers, and most web browsers.
WMV	.wmv	WMV (Windows Media Video) format was developed by Microsoft. Windows Media is a common format on the Internet, but cannot be played on non-Windows computer without (free) component installed.
MPEG	.mpg .mpeg	The MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) format is popular on the Internet. It is cross-platform, and supported by most popular web browsers.
QuickTime	.mov	The QuickTime format is developed by Apple. QuickTime is a common on the Internet, but QuickTime movies cannot be played on Windows computer without (free) component installed.
Flash	.swf .flv	The Flash (Shockwave) format was developed by Macromedia. The Shockwave format requires an extra component to play. But this component comes preinstalled with web browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Mpeg-4	.mp4	Mpeg-4 is the new format for the internet. YouTube recommends using MP4. YouTube accepts multiple formats, and then converts them all to .flv or .mp4 for distribution.

Format	File	Description
MIDI	.mid .midi	MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface is for electronic music devices. Contains musical notes that can be played by electronics. MIDI files are extremely small size.
Wave	.wav	The Wave format is the same format used in Music CDs. Uncompressed and large files. Supported by most popular web browsers (except Google Chrome).
WMA	.wma	The WMA format (Windows Media Audio), compares in quality to MP3, and is compatible with most players, except the iPod. WMA files can be streamed.
MP3	.mp3 .mpga	MP3 files are actually the sound part of MPEG files. MP3 is one of the most popular sound formats for music with good compression (small files) and high quality.