Multimedia
The KDE Windows Project goes on and as earlier explained this project is to let you run KDE applications on Windows. The development team has recently made available Windows Binaries of Amarok 2.
If you ever needed an alternative to the many music players out there like iTunes, Winamp or Windows Media Player and then try Amarok 2.
Porting Amarok to your windows platform has never been so easy with the available binaries. So what does it take to get started?
Simply move to the KDE Windows page where you’ll find the necessary downloads and a self explanatory manual. There are a pretty number of files to download, nonetheless there is nothing to be scared about, because even the dependencies would be downloaded and installed for you.
The developers also added these guclassing notes;
- It’ll be a large download, since all the associated KDE libs will be installed. Once KDE on Windows is more stable (hopefully for the 4.1 KDE release) you’ll only have to download the core libraries once, but at the moment the packages change semi-regularly.
When asked for compiler selection, either MSVC or mingw work fine for Amarok. Unless you’re a developer, there’s really no reason to care which compiler you select at this point, other than the fact the MSVC packages are somewhat smaller (the mingw ones have debugging information embedded in the binaries).
- Amarok should be able to play the same file formats you’re used to being able to use on Linux, provided you have the appropriate Direct Show filter. As a guide, if WMP can play the file, Amarok should be able to. For file format support, installing ffdshow can help.
- This is a tech preview, we know there are problems, don’t file bugs. Any bugs filed will be closed anyway, so you’re just wasting someone’s time.
- As it’s in a pre-alpha state, don’t use it on any files you don’t mind being corrupted/deleted/otherwise mangled. Although I don’t think there are any such problems with it, it pays to be careful since it hasn’t been extensively tested yet.
- If the installer doesn’t work for you, the installer guys do want to know about that: please post on the KDE windows mailing list and someone will try to figure out the problem.
- The binaries packages will be updated as development on Amarok 2 progresses. It’s not entirely in my hands though, since I’m not the one making the packages. I’ll try to make a blog post to let people know whenever there’s a new package with some major addition in it, so watch this space.
Amarok should work Windows like it does on Linux, but if you are on Linux and have never tried it, then know has pre-compiled binaries for all the major Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora and more.
Posted in Linux Tips and Tricks, Multimedia | 1 Comment »
After Personas, here comes another amazing feature for Mozilla Firefox. It is not an Add-on but a Live Chat support service.
It is still a beta and the support staff are volunteers not employees that operate only for a few hours a day. The time schedule is at the support page, there you’ll also find the door way to “your live char session “
Posted in Firefox, Multimedia | Comments Off on Live Chat Support from Mozilla
Mythbuntu, the Windows Media Centre alternative is an Ubuntu based Linux distribution that is dedicated to media. You can watch video and record live TV (with the help of a TV tuner), listen to music, or browse pictures. It is simply an all-in-one PC and entertainment centre.
Mythbuntu is practically the core of Ubuntu without all the extra applications included in Ubuntu. It ships with the XFCE4 lightweight desktop, that can be easily replaced at any time with one of the Buntus desktop (Ubuntu,Kubuntu or Xubuntu) using the Mythbuntu Control Centre.
Mythbuntu is recognized as a community supported project by Canonical, it’s development cycle closely follows that of Ubuntu, thus, it is released every six months shortly after Ubuntu releases. The recent release, Mythbuntu 7.10, is now downloadable as an .ISO that burns into a LiveCD. The LiveCD works as a MythTV front-end.
Posted in Linux Distros, Multimedia, Ubuntu | 2 Comments »
Xvidcap; The most classic screen recorder for Linux, Ubuntu. Xvidcap records both video and audio. It uses the ffmeg tool for video recording while the audio is taken from the system’s interface(need a working microphone).
Xvidcap is very easy to use. It records everything that occurs in that little red box. By clicking on lock button the red box can be unlocked, resized and repositioned anywhere you want.
To change the default settings right-click the movie-counter and choose Preferences. There you can change many default settings including the output format, say from MPEG4 to Flash.
Xvidcap gets your job done even though you could find a few bugs and still needs some improvements. Contact the developer if you have good solutions to propose.
Xvidcap is available for download in Debian and Source code. It is released under the GNU General Public License
Another worth mentioning screen recording tool is the vnc2swf for ShockWave Flash (swf) format. The VNC server transfers the graphic content of an X-Windows session through a TCP/IP connection. vnc2swf is usually used in remote maintenance. Since vnc2swf is also capable of recording screen images that it compiles into the flash format, it can also be used for creating screen video.
vnc2swf has one advantage; it is platform independent. You can record a video on any platform that has the VNC Server. The tools does not necessarily need to be active on the computer whose screen recorded.
vnc2swf is available for download in a Python and C versions(disadvantage) and it is released under the GNU General Public License.
Updated 04/12/2012
Other Linux Alternatives
Kazam Screencaster
Install Kazam in Ubuntu:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kazam-team/unstable-series
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kazam
Wink
Input formats: Capture screenshots from your PC, or use images in BMP/JPG/PNG/TIFF/GIF formats.
Output formats: Macromedia Flash, Standalone EXE, PDF, PostScript, HTML or any of the above image formats. Use Flash/html for the web, EXE for distributing to PC users and PDF for printable manuals
DemoRecoder – A screen recorder for Linux. Output format: Flash, AVI, MPEG 1, 2, 4; License: Commercial
Posted in Linux Packages, Linux Tips and Tricks, Multimedia, Ubuntu, Video | 9 Comments »
Linux media lovers have always desired a distribution like JAD – Jacklab Audio Distribution. Now it is out. JAD 1.0 contains a full production environment for media production, primarily music but not only, video and imaging also.
JAD is based on the stable openSUSE 10.2 which uses a real time kernel suitable for multimedia applications and software. More»
Posted in Multimedia | 1 Comment »
