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06 Feb 10
Hi Everybody,
During the last 1-2 months that I'm using Ubuntu side by side of Windows 7, to replace it with windows, I've found a few lacks in Ubuntu, but here's the most important one:
It lacks a powerful multimedia software, as for example "Jet Audio" or "The KM Player" in windows.
is there any software that much powerful for Ubuntu linux?
If so, I'd be glad to know, and to know where to download.
ThanX so much.
06 Feb 10
What features are you looking for in Multimedia? Each distro has a source/repo where a large range of multimedia apps can be downloaded. I am not familiar with either app you've mentioned, except KM Player has a similar name to kmplayer in Linux. Your looking for powerful, but your not mentioning what function you need to be powerful.
Or does your screen name give us a hint? If you are looking for a multimedia app in Linux that uses ActiveX I don't think your going to have any luck. Microsoft keeps ActiveX proprietary, and we should thank them for that, since it is the cause of many of the security flaws in Windows.
06 Feb 10
Jet Audio, I beleive is an MP3 player. There are MANY MANY MANY linux audio players available, many available in the Ubuntu package repositories. What features are you specifically looking for?
I beleive the km player is a video player. kmplayer in the package repository happens to be a video player, but it's a plugin for the KDE browser, konqueror. However, same deal with the MP3 thing. There are many alternatives. So it's a matter of what specific features you're looking for.
I find for my own use, that RythmBox isw more than enough for playing music, and audacity is plenty good for editting music. I find that mplayer is good enough for me for playing movies, and Mythbuntu is a great home media pc operating system (it's MythTV on top of Xubuntu).
I'm wondering, too if your primary problem is related to codecs and not actually the players. You may want to consider installing the extrra's package which will have some proprietary codecs and fonts and software bundled in it:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
08 Feb 10
Yes adam, just as you mentioned, my worst problem with multimedia softwares is at first, the CODECs.
Installing codecs solves some problems, but there are still many functionalities included in both COWON JetAudio and "The KM Player", which I mention below, that I think are capable of giving an unbelievable power to linux:
[ul]
[li]In JetAudio, you really feel the difference between a 128kbps mp3 file and a 320 kbps one. It's really important for transition form windows to linux.[/li]
[li]JetAudio gives you some features like X-base, Wide, and similar sound manipulation tools that really make the sound clearer. I don't see such a thing in RythmBox.[/li]
[li]The KM Player, provides similar capabilities for sound of video files. Movie Player in linux doesn't do so. it even doesn't provide enough sound volume.[/li]
[li]In KM Player you can resize screen, rotate it, change aspect ratio manually, and do many other things with video as you were doing it by hand![/li]
[li]And the other problem as i mentioned, is still lack of CODECs. I don't know if you guys have ever used windows, but when you install "The KM Player" on windows, there's absolutely no video file that you can't open.[/li]
[/ul]
As a new fan of Linux, I think we've got to find solutions to such problems. You see, most of the people, who consist Microsoft customers, do not appreciate characteristics of an operating system like "Its open source" or "It uses a package management system"(the feature I like the most in Linux!) or similar things. They say "Is it easy to bluetooth a file from my laptop to another one EASILY?" or "Can I configure a software just by following a simple wizard?" or "Does it play all of multimedia files?" and they get negative answers about some of these things in Linux.
We (or at least my self!) as programmers (I don't know if you are or not!) love linux, because of it's open source nature, and it's clear structure. By myself, I think Linux gives every programmer a perfect experience about programming and development, and that's why we like it. Because we have technical info about computer and software, and if we ever face a problem with our computers, we can fix it by ourselves, but typical people get bored of operating system if its so.
Here's not the place to talk about these things. I just wanted to ask and see if I can experience the same flexibilities of multimedia softwares in Linux, as there is, in Windows.
And oh! My name doesn't relate to "Microsoft ActiveX Controls, THAT MUCH"! ThanX for paying attention.
09 Feb 10
Have you tried to install those apps with an emulator like wine?
Have you checked to see if the developers of your preferred software have a installer for your chosen Linux distribution or asked if they plan to do port it?
It is frustrating to me having people gripe because proprietary software isn't avilable for a Linux distribution, we as the community do our best to develop what we feel fits the needs of users, but some pieces or software like the ones you are referring to may not be easily duplicated. If you like working on a Linux based systems, but still have ties to proprietary software by all means please let the developers know that you are interested in a Linux based version, your one inquiry may be the one that finally pushes them to multi-platform development.
09 Feb 10
sadly, you will probably always have those issues in terms of codecs. A lot of proprietary encoding schemes are closed source and cannot be re-implemented in another OS or application w.out paying exorbitant licensing fees. Sometimes, someone in the community will take the time to try and reverse engineer the encoding and provide an open source implementation of that encoding scheme, but that's no small feat. Worse yet, a lot of encoding schemes also have built in DRM. While it's possible to reverse engineer those encoding schemes, too, it's illegal as a result of the DMCA. As a community (both windows and Linux and mac users, too) we should instead push for companies to adhere to open standards insttead of trying to play cat and mouse with us. This less a Windows v. Linux issue and more of your rights as a user and purchaser of digital content issue.
As far as the "sound quality" issues go. I frankly find it hard to believe that there isn't alternative application or combination of applications in Linux that can acheive what you want, but frankly, I'm not a big consumer of multimedia on the PC so my out-of-the-box config is usually sufficient for me. I suspect, though, that you can acheive what you want w/ playing around w/ ALSA and some of the tools that are used to fine tune the driver. But again, that's not really my thing. Maybe someone else can give you a hand or point you in the right direction.
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