There are dozens of video file formats to consider. Every program and media player seems to support different ones. Editing videos requires special software. Burning them to a DVD is easy. But don’t expect them to work in a DVD player. It’s enough to give you a headache.

These tools will make your life easier. Or at least, they’ll make your videos easier to use.

xVideoServiceThief – Everyone has a friend who digs up great YouTube videos. Wouldn’t it be nice to download your favorites? Then you could load them on portable players. Or watch them offline. This program makes it easy. All you need is the video’s URL.

DVD Flick – Burning videos to DVD is an easy way to share them. Just burn a copy and hand it to a friend. Your computer may already have burning software. But will those burned DVDs work in DVD players? Probably not. For that you need DVD authoring software. DVD Flick is the program you want.

HandBrake – This program can convert videos in almost any format. It can also rip video from personal DVDs (not encrypted commercial DVDs). This lets you use your videos however you’d like. You can load them on portable players. Use them in programs with various format restrictions. Your videos will be more flexible than ever.