Multimedia Software
Turning Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron Into a Multimedia Powerhouse
The MacBook is an well equipped to handle high resolution video and all types of audio. A few programs will help take advantage of these capabilities.
VLC and Amarok
Previously, I installed my favorite all-purpose media player VideoLan VLC using the terminal command:
$ sudo apt-get install vlc
I also added the powerful music player and library database Amarok by running:
$ sudo apt-get install amarok
In Amarok, I prefer to use the MySQL database as the backend. Here’s what it takes after MySQL is already installed:
$ sudo gedit /etc/mysql/my.cnf
In the my.cnf file, add the following line to both the [client] and [mysqld] sections:
default-character-set = utf8
Then restart MySQL to load the new configuration, then run it and create the database with appropriate priveleges (enter your own password in place of PASSWORD_CHANGE_ME):
$ sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart
$ mysql -p -u root
CREATE DATABASE amarok;
USE amarok;
GRANT ALL ON amarok.* TO amarok@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD_CHANGE_ME';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
QUIT;
Now startup Amarok with the settings wizard and follow the prompts to complete the setup:
$ amarok --wizard
Most of the Amarok setup information comes from the official Amarok documentation page.
Other Media Players
I like having a variety of media players available, just in case a video I want to play won’t start in my trusty favorite, VLC. Since I already have VLC installed, I just need to hook up my standby apps Mplayer, gxine, & xine-ui. All of the above are available through Synaptic so I just open it up under Administration in the System menu and search for mplayer, then xine.
Codecs and DVD support
To get the most out of my media players, I’ll return to the terminal to enable support for a variety of multimedia codecs and then dvd support.
$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
$ sudo apt-get install totem-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread3
$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh
I got the codec command from the Ubuntu Guide, and the dvd commands came from one of my favorite sites: LifeHacker.
GQView
Another acquisition I’ll grab through Synaptic is a simple photo browser, GQView. For my uses, the slideshow capabilities and available settings are more appropriate than the photo viewers that come with Ubuntu by default.
Last.fm
To install Last.fm internet radio, I’ll go back to the terminal to setup the repository source:
$ wget -q http://apt.last.fm/last.fm.repo.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
$ sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
add this line at the end of the sources.list file:
deb http://apt.last.fm/ debian stable
then update and install:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install lastfm
Apple Remote via LIRC
The Apple Remote is easy to setup by following the directions on the MacBook Pro Page on the Community Wiki. The sample file there works well in Amarok and Totem, but isn’t working with VLC. I mostly use the keyboard shortcuts in VLC and really just wanted to control Amarok, so maybe someday I’ll try to fix VLC, but for now I’m happy enough.
