Audio & Video Applications
Just about anyone who falls somewhere between a casual computer user to a computer “enthusiast” probably uses, perhaps extensively, digital media. While I do not have the numbers to back up my statement, considering the popularity of iPods, combined with the fact that you are reading this article I am going to be so bold as to make the assumption that this applies to you. With that being said, enabling your Ubuntu installation to play and even rip MP3′s and DVD’s is probably high on your priority list. In this section I am going to show you how to install additional multimedia codecs as well as introduce you to some of the multimedia players Ubuntu has to offer.
Notice: MP3 and DVD formats are not open source or free, they are copyrighted. That being said, it is illegal in the United States to install these codecs (codecs stands for coder/decoder) without compensating the copyright owner. Windows can read these formats because with your purchase of the operating system a license to use the respective codecs is included. Since Ubuntu is free, it does not include a license to use these codecs so, again, you must compensate the respective owners if you choose to install the codecs on your Ubuntu installation.
The workhorse behind Ubuntu’s multimedia playback, by default is GStreamer which is a “multimedia framework”. This is essentially, what makes audio and video playback possible. Out of the box, Ubuntu supports the Ogg Vorbis music format, an open source equivalent to MP3, but your music probably is not in Ogg format and you will, most likely, want MP3 playback. Now that you know the legalities, let’s move on to installing codecs. Look no farther than Automatix. When you first launched it, you may have noticed Automatix issues a notice similar to the one above. If you have a license from the copyright owners, all you need to do is select the box next to the option for the “AUD-DVD codecs”, click Ok, and let Automatix do the work for you. Now that Ubuntu is ready to go, let’s take a look at some players.
Totem Movie Player
You can think of Totem as a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to multimedia playback. It plays virtually all audio and video files you have a codec for. Offering the ability to create simple play lists of audio and video files and play DVD’s in windowed or full screen mode, Totem works very well for what it is intended to do. For a lot of users Totem will be the only player they really need, especially for video playback.
Totem Movie Player is located here: Applications > Sound & Video
| Totem Movie Player | ||
Rhythmbox Music Player
For those of you with extensive digital music collections, a simple player is just not enough. Rhythmbox is a complete music library solution. When first launched, Rhythmbox initiates a wizard which walks you through the process of locating your music files and then automatically scans and builds your collection into a local database. Once your music is imported, you can see it is sorted by artist and album (these categories can be changed in the preferences) and clicking on an entry in one of the sort boxes causes all your applicable music to be displayed in the list at the bottom. Winamp users will be familiar with this as the Rhythmbox library works exactly the same. For those of you who like to listen to Shoutcast Radio, Rhythmbox supports this as well. Enter a New Internet Radio Station from the Music menu and your stations will be saved and accessible for future use using the Radio button on the left. Finally, as any good music library program should, Rhythmbox supports CD digitizing as well.
Rhythmbox Music Player is located here: Applications > Sound & Video
| Rhythmbox Music Player | ||
Sound Juicer CD Ripper
Picking up where the Rhythmbox CD ripping stopped is Sound Juicer. The interface to this program could not be any easier, as you just pop in the CD you want to rip and Sound Juicer connects to the Internet to download the track information, click Extract and that’s it. Of course prior to using Sound Juicer for the first time you will want to set your preferred output format and encoding bitrate. You can do this in the preferences. As stated above Ubuntu only ships with support for Ogg Vorbis, however if you have installed the MP3 codec, instructions are available in the Sound Juicer help file on how to set up MP3 encoding.
Sound Juicer CD Ripper is located here: Applications > Sound & Video
Sound Juicer can also be launched from Rhythmbox via Music > Import Audio CD
| Sound Juicer CD Ripper | |
amaroK
For those looking for an alternative to Rhythmbox, amaroK is another excellent music library program. The major difference between the two is how you navigate your library. amaroK goes more for a tree approach where you drill down to the music you want. In addition to the features of Rhythmbox, amaroK also offers a search bar so you can quickly find songs in large play lists, automatically monitors file folders for new music files, a clever auto-rating system, as well as iPod and other MP3 player support.
Install it from Synaptic, the package name is “amarok” and then it is here: Applications > Sound & Video
| amaroK | ||
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