157 lines
9.6 KiB
HTML
157 lines
9.6 KiB
HTML
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<title>Linux On Your Desktop: Multimedia LG #63</title>
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<H4 ALIGN="center">
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<H1><font color="maroon">Linux On Your Desktop: Multimedia</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:mandreiana@yahoo.com">Marius Andreiana</a></H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<p>
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Many people still have the impression that Linux is about servers and typing commands in console.
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Well, that isn't all; Linux is being used on the desktop more and more. Why ? Here are some reasons.
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<p>
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Everybody likes music. The technology lets people listen to high-quality music on audio CDs. But if
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they aren't using a computer, they are missing a lot. Why change the CD because you want to listen to
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other album ? Lots of songs can be stored on the hard drive or CD-ROMs.
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</p>
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<p>
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To do that, you'll have to transform the songs from audio CD to computer files.
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My favourite tool for that is <a href="http://www.nostatic.org/grip/">grip</a>.
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Download <a href="http://bladeenc.mp3.no/">bladeenc</a>
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(<a href="ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/conectiva/5.1/cd2/conectiva/RPMS/bladeenc-0.92.0-1cl.i386.rpm">rpm</a>) too, which compresses audio data to mp3 files.
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Launch grip, set Config -> MP3 -> Encoder to bladeenc and let it rip!
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</p>
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<p>
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However, you should forget about mp3. A new, open format is available.
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mp3 is quite old and has limitations; the encoding software uses
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patented algorithms. The alternative, <a href="http://www.vorbis.com/">Ogg Vorbis</a>, is intended for unrestricted private,
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public, non-profit and commercial use and does not compromise quality for freedom.
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You can already start using the ogg encoder instead of mp3. See
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<a href="http://noframes.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue81/4416.html">this article</a> for an introduction Ogg Vorbis.
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<br>
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Download and install the following RPMs : <a href="http://www.vorbis.com/download.html">XMMS plugin, encoder and libraries</a>
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Next set oggenc as encoder in grip.
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<p>
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You took all your audio CDs collection and encoded it in computer files.
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Now you'd like to listen to it, don't you ?
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Fire up <a href="http://www.xmms.org">X Multimedia System</a> (I really did :-)
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</p>
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<p><div align="center"><img src="misc/andreiana/xmms.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="X Multimedia System fired up near the Christmas tree"></div></p>
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<p>
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I use a very nice <a href="http://xmms.org/plugins_output.html#79">XMMS plugin for crossfading</a>; when the
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current song is near the end, it fades out while the next song
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fades in. Let the music play!
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<p>
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While you listen, how about painting ?
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<a href="http://www.gimp.org">GNU Image Manipulation Program</a>, or GIMP for short, is the
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best in digital art on Linux. It can be used as a simple paint program, a expert quality photo retouching program,
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an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, a image format converter, etc.
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</p>
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<p>I'm not into digital art, but look how Michael Hammel managed to transform his cousin in an alien :</p>
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<p><div align="center"><img src="misc/andreiana/phillip.jpg" width="200" height="234" alt="at first look, seems a normal human being"></div></p>
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<p><div align="center"><img src="misc/andreiana/alien.jpg" width="395" height="473" alt="but not everything is what it seems to be..."></div></p>
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<p>
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Never trust relatives :). Visit <a href="http://www.graphics-muse.com">the Graphics Muse site</a> for lots of materials about GIMP and
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<a href="http://www.linuxartist.org/">Linux Artist</a> for more resources. For an overview of 3D graphics programs, see
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<a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue53/baptista.html">this article</a>.
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</p>
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<p>
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After singing and painting, how about making the computer speak ? Try
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<a href="http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/">festival</a>,
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a free speech synthesizer. As almost always, <a href="http://rpmfind.net/">rpmfind</a> provides links to rpms.
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<p>
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A free speech recognition engine is available from IBM : <a href="http://www-4.ibm.com/software/speech/">ViaVoice</a>;
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it can be used to voice-control xmms for example and simple desktop commands,
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but writing entire documents from speech is still something for the future.
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<p>
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Besides music, I also watch movies on my computer. <a href="http://www.lokigames.com/development/smpeg.php3">smpeg</a> is a nice
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GPL mpeg player.
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</p>
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<p><div align="center"><img src="misc/andreiana/smpeg.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="'Yes, that is MS Windows', she says"></div></p>
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<p>
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Having a movie in 320x240 resolution using up more than 1gb isn't so great though. Divx is the choice for now;
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a movie in 700x400 takes less than 700mb. Divx requires a better processor;
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300Mhz is a good start. Another problem with it is that there isn't yet a native Linux player;
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<a href="http://divx.euro.ru">avifile</a> uses Windows DLLs to be able to play.
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<p>
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Thanks to open-sourcing of Divx at <a href="http://www.projectmayo.com/opendivx/index.php">Project Mayo</a>, a Linux
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player will be available too.
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<p>
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I don't have a TV, in the last year I saw more movies on PC than TV. I do have a TV tuner with remote control which I use from time to time.
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<p><div align="center"><img src="misc/andreiana/tv.jpg" width="458" height="374" alt="Tux on TV"></div></p>
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<p>
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If you don't wanna miss a show/movie and you're busy, set it to record
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a channel at a certain time (make sure you have plenty of space) and
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watch it later. Or do some <a href="http://noframes.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue81/4382.html">Movie Making on your Linux Box</a>.
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<p>
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I'll let you now enjoy your Linux desktop. Maybe you even show it to a friend. You can happily
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use it and forget about Windows (read <a href="http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/01/11/0556232">On becoming a total Linux user</a>).
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English knowledge isn't a requirement, as you see from my screenshots. We continue
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to improve GNOME support for Romanian. Visit the <a href="http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gtp/">GNOME translation project</a>
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to see how well your language is supported.
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<p>
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If you are new to Linux, see
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<a href="../issue61/andreiana.html">my previous article</a>
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showing how to customize GNOME and stay tuned to <a href="http://noframes.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue82/4483.html">Linux as a Video Desktop</a>.
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<p>
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And finally, don't forget that Linux and applications like the ones I've talked about were done by volunteers. Feel free to join ;-)
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<H5 ALIGN=center>
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Copyright © 2001, Marius Andreiana.<BR>
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Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
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Published in Issue 63 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, Mid-February (EXTRA) 2001</H5>
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