Sunday, May 20, 2007
Multimedia in Xubuntu Has Never Been So Easy
If you are new to Xubuntu or recently upgraded your system and lost multimedia support you may find this short reading interesting.
Ubuntu and derivatives do not include support for many popular multimedia formats due to "legislation regarding intellectual property, security and other issues" in some countries. Now Medibuntu has made the procedure described in my "Multimedia in Xubuntu Made Easy" post a little easier. They provide a w32codecs packages containing most relevant codecs nowadays for Feisty, Edgy, Dapper and even Breezy (if you use Ubuntu Breezy is recommended to upgrade, Ubuntu has added a lot of cool features since then). You can download the packages here, just select the distribution you are using and go to the non-free directory. If you choose the free subdirectory you will find libdvdcss, a library needed for viewing encrypted DVDs.
You still may need to install libxine-extracodecs package that is in the official repository (make sure you have enabled Universe and Multiverse repos).
After installing the needed packages you should play easily, among other things:
That's all! Enjoy your media
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Ubuntu and derivatives do not include support for many popular multimedia formats due to "legislation regarding intellectual property, security and other issues" in some countries. Now Medibuntu has made the procedure described in my "Multimedia in Xubuntu Made Easy" post a little easier. They provide a w32codecs packages containing most relevant codecs nowadays for Feisty, Edgy, Dapper and even Breezy (if you use Ubuntu Breezy is recommended to upgrade, Ubuntu has added a lot of cool features since then). You can download the packages here, just select the distribution you are using and go to the non-free directory. If you choose the free subdirectory you will find libdvdcss, a library needed for viewing encrypted DVDs.
You still may need to install libxine-extracodecs package that is in the official repository (make sure you have enabled Universe and Multiverse repos).
After installing the needed packages you should play easily, among other things:
- Popular audio file formats like mp3, mp4, aac, wma, etc.
- Popular video file formats: Quick Time (.mov), mpeg, wmv, divx, etc.
- Real formats, both audio and video
- Internet audio and video streaming
- DVDs, including encrypted ones
Troubleshooting
- If you have problems playing restricted formats, edit your xine config file to reflect what is presented in this older post (go to "Installing the codecs" section).
- If you can play restricted formats from some media player like gxine but can't get sound from another application, read "Getting Sound from Firefox/Thunderbird and Other Programs".
Note to users
- There are some scripts that automate this process, such as Automatix. However those scripts has a package selection more suitable for Ubuntu than for Xubuntu.
- Ubuntu Feisty and derivatives comes with the ubuntu-restricted-extras in the repository but, once again, this package tries to install a bunch of other packages such as flash plug in, Microsoft fonts and java. Since Xubuntu is supposed to be a lightweight distro I guess you wouldn't like to run java applications. You can always install individuals packages, of course.
- As stated in Mediabuntu website: "It is your legal responsibility to make sure that the software you are installing can be legally used in your country and for your intended purpose".
- There are many free, open, unrestricted multimedia formats. Try those free formats if you are producing multimedia content. Looking for a portable media player? Consider to buy one that support open formats or that can be hacked to support them.
That's all! Enjoy your media
Add to: del.cio.us | digg | blinklist | netvouz | Other
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