Mandrake:From the main menu, choose Multimedia.Video.Kaffeine. SuSE:From the main menu, choose Multimedia.Video Player. Xandros:Launch.Applications.Multimedia.Video Player. Figure 18-7: The LinspireDVD Player in Linspire 4.5.357Chapter 18: Multimedia Wow!
The GIMP is an incredibly complex program, with entire books written for thepeople who really want to use it heavily. Great starter links for working withThe GIMP are GIMP Tutorials Pointer Page:http://empyrean.lib.ndsu.nodak. edu/~nem/gimp/tuts RRU GIMP Tutorial:www.rru.com/~meo/gimp/Tutorial The official GIMP.org site s tutorials page:www.gimp.org/tutorials/ The GIMP Savvy Web site (with a full book available for readingonline):http://gimp-savvy.com/ Watchin MoviesThese days, you can watch many kinds of movies on your computer. Whetherit s a Flash animation, a DVD, or a movie trailer, you ve got the tools that youneed right at your fingertips (or just a click away). You may have eveninstalled some already while trying to access other multimedia features. Hereare some of the tools of the trade. Watching a DVD in Linux is a bit of a legal quagmire if you live in the UnitedStates. The Digital Milennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other issues make it tricky for any open source program to navigate the licensing maze when itcomes to movies that are encoded or protected in various fashions. However, not all DVDs have such countermeasures enabled: There are DVDs thatAmericans can watch under Linux with no trouble. (Note that I say watch, and not copyor pirate.) For more on the DMCA and the problems it causes, see anti-dmca.org. To watch a DVD in Linux, first check Chapter 11 to see what your distributionwill do if you just pop a DVD into your drive. Of course, you can also start aprogram by hand, though you may have to download it first: Fedora:Doesn t ship with any DVD players by default. Use Chapter 12 toadd repositories so you can install Kaffeine, Xine, or Mplayer. Knoppix:From the main menu, choose Multimedia.Video.xine medialayer. Linspire:Purchase a legal DVD player from the Click And Run Warehouseby going to the main menu and choosing Programs. Multimedia & Design.CNR More.DVD Player (see Figure 18-7). Or install Mplayerfrom the same place. 356Part IV:Getting Things Done
Creating and Modifying GraphicsThe GIMPis a graphics program that s considered in many ways equivalent toAdobe Photoshop. Many don t consider The GIMP the friendliest program onthe planet, but at the very least, it has enough features to keep you busy exper- imenting for weeks! To open The GIMP: The GIMP may not already be installed. In Linspire and Xandros in particular, you might need to use what you learned in Chapter 12 to add this softwarebefore you can use it. Fedora:Choose Applications.Graphics.GIMP Image Editor. Knoppix:From the main menu, choose Graphics.GIMP Image Editor. Linspire:From the main menu, choose Programs.Multimedia & Design. CNR More.GIMP, which is installed under Multimedia & Design. Mandrake:From the main menu, choose Multimedia.Graphics.TheGIMP v2. SuSE:From the main menu, choose Graphics.Image Editing. Xandros:Choose Launch.Applications.Graphics.GIMP Image Editor. When you start The GIMP for the first time, you have to walk through its user setup routine. Fortunately, you can just click Continue each time, unlessyou re a graphics guru who has a particular reason to want to do things in adifferent way. After you ve clicked past all these dialog boxes, a collection ofone or more dialog boxes pops up containing the GIMP main dialog box (seeFigure 18-6) plus additional tool dialog boxes. I recommend closing all but themain one for now, just to keep your screen and brain uncluttered. Figure 18-6: The GIMP smain dialogbox inMandrake10.1. 355Chapter 18: Multimedia Wow!
3.Select your preferred sound format. I highly suggest Ogg Vorbis because this format is easily handled onLinux machines without any inherent legal problems and is also bettercompressed than MP3 for equivalent sound. 4.Use the Browse button to select where you want your sound filessaved. 5.In the Output Name section, select how you want Sound Juicer toname and arrange the files in subdirectories. 6.Make any other configuration changes you want to make. 7.When finished making changes, click Close. The dialog box closes. 8.Click Extract. The Progress dialog box appears, showing you what track you re on andhow far within that track you are. 9.Choose CD.Eject. The CD tray opens. 10.Remove the CD and close the tray. 11.Close Sound Juicer. Burning CDs and DVDsA CD burner is a great way to make data backups (especially if it s a rewrite- able), save and share your digital photos, put together multimedia mementoscrapbooks, and more. Many tools are available that allow you to burn CDsunder Linux: Fedora:Choose Applications.Sound & Video.K3b if you have KDEinstalled, or add grip (see Chapter 12). Knoppix:From the main menu, choose Multimedia.K3b. Linspire:From the main menu, choose Programs.Audio & MP3. CD Burner. Mandrake:None installed by default. Using Chapter 12, look for the programs arson, xcdroast, and rhythmbox. SuSE:From the main menu, choose Multimedia.CD/DVD Burning. Xandros:Choose Launcher.Applications.Multimedia.CD Writer. 354Part IV:Getting Things Done
Knoppix:None, though you d need a second CD drive anyway! Linspire:From the main menu, choose Programs.Audio & MP3.CNRMore.G-Rip, and add this program, which is then kept in the Audio & MP3 menu. Mandrake:From the main menu, choose Multimedia.Sound.CD Ripper(KAudioCreator). SuSE:From the main menu, choose Multimedia.CD/DVD Tools. Xandros:None, though you can use the Xandros File Manager to burnCDs. (See the section Burning CDs and DVDs, later in this chapter.) To rip songs, with the Sound Juicer, from a CD that you ve already inserted: 1.For each song that you don t want to rip, uncheck the Extract checkbox, next to the song. The check mark disappears for each song that you don t want to digitize. 2.Choose Edit.Preferences. The Preferences dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 18-5. Figure 18-5: The SoundJuicerPreferencesdialog box. 353Chapter 18: Multimedia Wow!
Linspire:From the main menu, choose Programs.Audio & MP3.CNRMore.Lsongs to download this tool, and install it in the Audio & MP3menu. Mandrake:From the main menu, choose Multimedia.Sound.Amarok. SuSE:From the main menu, choose Multimedia.Audio Player. Xandros:Choose Launch.Applications.Multimedia.Media Player. Afteryou re done, to see whether you can listen to any music here, click theMusic link. The songs are in the Flash window on the left. You have theoption of clicking realfor RealPlayer, windowsfor Windows MediaPlayer, or lyricsto see the words for this song. Ripping Music Tracks from CDsThis is another topic that s impossible to cover without at least acknowledg- ing that both ethics and legal issues are involved. I m not going to get intolegalities here, but my personal ethics are that it s fine to rip (copy) music off my own CDs for my own use. If I want to pull my favorite songs off CDsthat I purchased and set them up so I can listen to them collectively in arandom playlist off of my computer s hard drive, I don t see a problem withthis. However, doing this and then taking the CD back for a refund is theft, inmy opinion. So, with that said, a number of music ripping programs are available in Linux: Fedora:Choose Applications.Sound & Video.Sound Juicer CD Ripper(see Figure 18-4). Figure 18-4: The SoundJuicer CD Ripper in Fedora. 352Part IV:Getting Things Done
HelixPlayer:A version of RealPlayer without the pieces that have to behanded with pay licenses (like MP3s). It can play Internet (streaming) radio and downloaded music. MPlayer-Plugin:A browser plug-in that you can use at times to listen toformats that other players may not support, including Windows formats. Least likely to be legal if you re in the United States. XMMS: A Winamp clone that can play Internet (streaming) radio anddownloaded music. Sometimes comes with MP3 support and sometimesdoesn t, but typically you can add MP3 support regardless through yourdistribution s extra repositories (see Chapter 12). Kaffeine:A full-featured audio/video media player for Internet (streaming) radio, downloaded files, CDs, DVDs, and so on. Again, this program is ofquestionable legality in the United States. In SuSE, if you get a complaintabout demux not being included, install the oggmtools package (seeChapter 4). Xine:A full-featured audio/video media player for Internet (streaming) radio, downloaded files, CDs, DVDs, and so on. Again, this program is ofquestionable legality in the United States. In SuSE, if you get a complaintabout demux not being included, install the oggmtools package (seeChapter 4). Listening to Downloaded MusicDownloading music from the Internet is a fun activity. A lot of people like topretend that it s both legal and ethical, when, in fact, it s often theft, depend- ing on where you grabbed the music. I leave that ethical issue between youand your belief system of choice, but because my own ethics say that it stheft, I m going to focus on showing you music that you re welcometo down- load legally and ethically! Take a look at strategies for finding such music, along with how to listen to it. One place to find such material is on a band s own Web site. Many groupstoday realize that offering free downloads of their work is a great PR move if people love the sample songs, they re more likely to go out and buy thealbum. For an example, I use one of my own favorite bands, Evanescence(www.evanescence.com). Evanescence, like many other bands, has its page done mostly withMacromedia s Flash tool. (See Chapter 12 for how to add this functionality to your distribution.) To listen to music files in general: Fedora:Choose Applications.Sound & Video.Music Player. Knoppix:From the main menu, choose Multimedia.Sound.XMMS. 351Chapter 18: Multimedia Wow!
of the box. The best way to see what you re set up to support right now is tosimply try and listen. After you re sure that your sound is set up properly, you can try many Web sites with your default browser: SHOUTcastfor finding links to thousands of online stations, atwww.shoutcast.com/ Radio-Locatorfor finding regular radio stations offering online versions, at www.radio-locator.com/ The first place to try is SHOUTcast. When you find a station that you want tolisten to: 1.Click the Tune In! button. If you already have your software set up, you can listen automatically. However, you probably don t if you haven t listened to online radiobefore. If you ve never listened to this program s format before, you willbe asked what program to open the content with. 2.If a program is suggested, click OK to proceed. Otherwise, you willneed to navigate through your filesystem to manually choose the program. If you have never used this program before, it probably has a setup rou- tine it will want you to go through before you continue. 3.If required, walk through the program s setup routine. Even after all of this you might be told that the file format isn t supported. Fortunately, you are told here what format this is (for example, mpeg). 4.If your software doesn t support the file s format, install a programthat does. For mpegand VFS, go to Chapter 12 and find how to add RealPlayer. ForASX and ASF, which are Windows Media Player formats, use Chapter 12to install mplayer-plugin or Kaffine, or see Chapter 19 for products thatlet you run Windows software under Linux. Software you re likely to encounter as you experiment with Internet radioincludes Amarok: A full-featured audio player that s got some really cool featureslike the ability to load images of your album covers. Rhythmbox:This is just called the Music Player in Fedora. See how toadd MP3 support to this program in the section Listening to down- loadedmusic. It can play CDs, Internet (streaming) radio, and downloaded music. RealPlayer:The all-too-familiar program from other operating systems. It can play Internet (streaming) radio and downloaded music. 350Part IV:Getting Things Done
Xandros:Choose Launch.Applications.Multimedia.CD Player. In mostcases, if the CD in question is registered in the CD DataBase (CDDB), thetitle and the song names load so that you can see what you re listeningto. (CD DataBase is one of the services that tells your media playerswhat the name of your CD is and what songs are on it; you can find outmore at www.gracenote.com/.) If CDDB doesn t recognize your CD, you can add it to the database by: Fedora:In the row above the bottom, click the Track Editor button toopen the CDDB Track Editor (see Figure 18-3), type the pertinent infor- mation, and then click Save. You can click the right-facing arrows toexpand this dialog box to enter even more information. Knoppix, Mandrake, and SuSE: Click the CDDB button, type the perti- nent information, and then click Upload. Linspire and Xandros:In the row one above the bottom, click the freedbDialog icon, type the pertinent information, and then click Upload. Other menus are available in these players as well. Take a moment to exploreand set up their default behavior so that it matches what you like. Listening to Internet RadioListening to Internet radio stations in Linux is not always the simplest thingin the world, depending on your distribution. Because of various laws, patents, and licensing problems, some formats like MP3 are not always supported outFigure 18-3: The CDPlayer sCDDB Track Editordialog box in Fedora. 349Chapter 18: Multimedia Wow!