Multimedia Xplorer

Multimedia Xplorer is an exciting new one-of-a-kind, all-in-one 32-bit multimedia viewer. Whereas in the past you would need a separate application in order to view each type of image, sound, movie, icon, etc. that you download from the web or receive from a friend, now all you need is Multimedia Xplorer. The client provides an easy to use click 'n' view interface with support for a wide range of image (JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP, WMF, EMF, ICO, and PCX), video (AVI, MPEG, MOV), sound (WAV, MID, RMI, AIFF, AU, SND, MP2), and cursor (CUR and animated cursors, ANI) formats. The Xplorer can additionally extract icons for you from ICO, ICL, DLL and EXE files. There's a built-in file manager for quickly locating multimedia files, and if you need a little more help than the file manager offers, you can also put the client's Multimedia Detective to use. It searches through your hard drive and folders for multimedia and image files and then displays the results for you. Accessing any file from the detective is one simple mouse click away. Multimedia Xplorer also offers a whole lot more than just viewing capabilities. A Logo Changer option allows you to change the default startup and shutdown logos for Windows 95/NT. The unique QuickPicker and Destinations features allow you to save your most often used folders for quick access. Additional features include a File Filter (for showing only files of a certain type), drag 'n' drop support from the Windows Explorer, a built-in slide show editor, manual or automatic slide show capabilities, and the ability to set any image as your desktop wallpaper. At only $20, this is one application that you'll definitely want to try out and, more than likely, continue to use on a regular basis. However, there are some features currently absent from the client that would make Multimedia Xplorer even better. First, a plug-in version would help distance the Xplorer from its closest competition, Thumbs Plus, and would also make the app an invaluable partner to your favorite web browser. Perhaps even more importantly, it would allow you to get rid of some excess applications by consolidating your collection of plug-ins. Second, an integrated screen capture client for bringing desktop images and movies into the Xplorer would be extremely useful. Finally, while the Xplorer does allow you to individually convert a file from one type to another, there are no batch conversion capabilities for automatically converting a group of files. Overall, with support for more multimedia types than Thumbs Plus and a cheaper price tag ($20 compared to $50), Multimedia Xplorer is unquestionably the best application currently available for handling nearly every single media type encountered on the web. You heard it here first -- this may well be the multimedia answer to Quick View Plus! Pros: Excellent multimedia viewer; support for images, sounds, movies, and a whole lot more Cons: Lacks web plug-in capabilities, a screen capture client, and batch conversion features For the latest information on Multimedia Xplorer, check out: www.stroud.com/95video.html#multix