Any Suggestions For Multimedia Applications?

[Gumballl]

I would like to begin distancing myself from depending on Windows for managing my MP3 collection and making archival copies of my 1st-gen DVDs.

I currently have installed on my FC5 system Totem Movie Player, Rhythmbox, RealPlayer 10, and Xine.

I use Rhythmbox for playback of MP3s, but I would like something that is easier to use, perhaps similar to iTunes. The other apps that I have can be used for the playback of DVDs, however I would like something that I can use to compress and possibly re-author DVD content. Some may think that this is illegal, but it is not. Making an archive copy of a legally purchased DVD is ok.

BTW, under Windows I used iTunes, DVDShrink, and Nero.

[Richard-BKK]

I use DVDrip (http://www.exit1.org/dvdrip) for extracting data of DVD, use Gnomebaker or Nero to burn them and most of the time use Mplayer to play them.

I use Fedora Core 6, but I think that all programs are also available for Core 5. Nero for Linux is not a free program, but I remember that a year ago you could exchange your Nero MS Windows serial for a Nero Linux serial (I not know if they still do that).

[jackk]

For MP3 you can use the good old XMMS or Beep Media Player.

Both are discontinued but still available. BMP might be easier to setup (less options) and can use XMMS or Winamp skins:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beep_Media_Player

[Gumballl]

For MP3 you can use the good old XMMS or Beep Media Player.

Both are discontinued but still available. BMP might be easier to setup (less options) and can use XMMS or Winamp skins:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beep_Media_Player

Richard-BKK and Jackk -

Thank you for your replies. I used to use XMMS (because of its similarity to WinAmp) but occasionally it had a "hiccup" where the audio would go silent even though the MP3 continued playing. I think this occurred because XMMS was unable to share the sound card with other (Gnome) apps that used the sound card to issue alerts to the user. With Rhythmbox I do not have such a problem.

For now I think will look into DVDrip and just continue using Rhythmbox. Too bad there isn't a knock-off of iTunes that runs under Linux.

[autonomous_unit]

I've always used "gtkpod" to load songs on my iPod, but I don't think there are any alternatives to the iTunes online store, if you are into that (I've never used it, but I get the feeling some people live and die by it).

Edit: I should add, people using Fedora are well served to learn about the Livna repository of additional packages to enable multimedia and other functions not included in the entirely-free Fedora builds. Also, doing a "yum info available | less" command some time you are bored can be instructive... just skim through and read some of the package descriptions for all the stuff you might not know is there. It's a very long list...

[Richard-BKK]

http://www.mirror.in.th/dag/dries/fedora/f...fc5.rf.i386.rpm

It is maybe also a good idea to add the Mirror.in.th repo info to you Fedora setup

[Gumballl]

I use DVDrip (http://www.exit1.org/dvdrip) for extracting data of DVD, use Gnomebaker or Nero to burn them and most of the time use Mplayer to play them.

I use Fedora Core 6, but I think that all programs are also available for Core 5. Nero for Linux is not a free program, but I remember that a year ago you could exchange your Nero MS Windows serial for a Nero Linux serial (I not know if they still do that).

I've installed DVD-Rip (and all of its dependencies) using 'yum'.

Now I want to rip a DVD. Will DVD-Rip allow me to compress the video as it rips it? If so, how? Under the Transcode tab, I changed the Video Bitrate Calculation target media to "One x 4580 MB" and the Target size shows the same size. Yet after ripping a dual-layer disk, I got VOB files totaling near 7+ GB.

Any suggestions on how to get a dual-layer disk down to 4.7 GB or less?

[dave_boo]

I would like to begin distancing myself from depending on Windows for managing my MP3 collection and making archival copies of my 1st-gen DVDs.

I currently have installed on my FC5 system Totem Movie Player, Rhythmbox, RealPlayer 10, and Xine.

I use Rhythmbox for playback of MP3s, but I would like something that is easier to use, perhaps similar to iTunes. The other apps that I have can be used for the playback of DVDs, however I would like something that I can use to compress and possibly re-author DVD content. Some may think that this is illegal, but it is not. Making an archive copy of a legally purchased DVD is ok.

BTW, under Windows I used iTunes, DVDShrink, and Nero.

I'm currently running SuSE, but don't hate me too much....only one that would install on this infernal laptop!

But to answer your questions: for MP3 playback, I think you'd be really impressed with Amarok. It does an excellent job of pulling inforamtion off the web and displaying for your media.

I'm going to second dvd::rip. I don't know why your system isn't enforcing target size. Perhaps you have it set to merely rip the encoding off and not to recompress it? Bet I can tell you is to follow these instructions.

[Gumballl]

dave_boo -

Thank you for your suggestion concerning Amarok. I've installed it and it works quite well. Do you know if it will support uploading of MP3s to an iPod?

As for my attempts to deal with DVDrip, they failed, and thus I gave up on it; in fact I've removed it from my system. In its place I have installed K9copy, which has a simpler interface. The only problem that I have with it is that it does not let me re-author a DVD; I have to tell it to copy the entire disk when making a backup. I think there is a problem between K9copy and the API to dvdauthor. Hopefully a newer release will sort that issue out.

[dave_boo]

dave_boo -

Thank you for your suggestion concerning Amarok. I've installed it and it works quite well. Do you know if it will support uploading of MP3s to an iPod?

As for my attempts to deal with DVDrip, they failed, and thus I gave up on it; in fact I've removed it from my system. In its place I have installed K9copy, which has a simpler interface. The only problem that I have with it is that it does not let me re-author a DVD; I have to tell it to copy the entire disk when making a backup. I think there is a problem between K9copy and the API to dvdauthor. Hopefully a newer release will sort that issue out.

In answer to your ipod question, amarok supports it. You have to have gtkpod installed, however.

[Richard-BKK]

Soon, with in days you are with Fedora Core 5, so behind progress. At the end of this month Fedora/Red Hat will introduce the newest release Fedora 7.

I had some looks it the kitchen, and it looks good....It is maybe the biggest update ever. With this release the official Apple Ipod support is getting really close...