C H A P T E R  17

Movies and Multimedia

Watching movies and TV shows on computers is becoming increasingly popular. Most PCs now ship with hardware capable of playing back DVDs. Web sites such as YouTube and Vimeo provide thousands of clips for viewing via your web browser, and Netflix On Demand and Hulu deliver high-quality films and TV shows directly to your PC.

Ubuntu provides support for visual entertainment. As with audio playback (discussed in the previous chapter), you’ll need to install some additional codecs to access certain types of files. And just as with audio playback codecs, multimedia applications suggest which movie playback codecs to download and install when you attempt to play unsupported multimedia files. This chapter explains how easy it is to set up Ubuntu for watching videos, DVDs, and TV on your computer, as well as playing web site Flash animations and videos.

Installing Playback Software

Like the other multimedia software provided with Ubuntu, its video playback application, the Totem movie player, is basic but effective and does the job well. However, because of patenting issues, Totem doesn’t support all video formats out of the box, although for some of them it’s not hard to add support by installing the right codecs. In Table 17-1 you find an overview of some of the most common video formats and their current status in Totem.

Video and audio playback within the Firefox web browser are handled via the Totem browser plug-in (In Firefox, see Tools Add Ons Plugins for a list of currently installed plug-ins. These plug-ins work in exactly the same way as the Windows Media Player and QuickTime browser plug-ins work under Windows. This is set up automatically during initial installation of Ubuntu and is also compatible with the GStreamer codec plug-ins after they are installed. However, when you try to retrieve streaming content, many web sites attempt to probe your setup to ensure that you have the required media player software, and they may balk when they can’t find Windows Media Player or QuickTime. This makes playback difficult, although more and more sites are switching to video playback via Flash Player. Additionally, some web sites use Java applets to present content. You can install support for both Flash and Java through Firefox.

Next we cover how to install codecs for movie file formats, as well as how to install the Linux version of RealPlayer and support for Flash and Java.

Installing Codecs

The codecs for video playback are created by the open source community and are therefore entirely free of copyright issues, but it is claimed that some utilize patented technology. As you might expect, this makes for another legally gray area. It’s unlikely that the patent holders sanction the distribution of the codecs in countries that allow software to be patented. As with audio playback codecs, you will need to decide whether the caveats shown by Ubuntu during the installation of the codecs apply to you.

As stated earlier, codec installation for new file formats is automated (so long as you’re online), just as with audio codecs. In fact, if you followed the instructions to install the MP3 codecs in the previous chapter, including the GStreamer ffmpeg video plug-in codec, then your system may already have support for the movie formats. In that case, the video file you’ve chosen to view will just start playing—you won’t be prompted to download anything extra.

Here is the procedure for adding codecs to play a multimedia file:

1. From Nautilus, double-click a movie file.
2. The Totem movie player application will start and prompt you to search for a suitable codec. (As noted, the movie will just start playing if you already have the necessary codec.) Click the Search button.
3. Ubuntu will search for the applicable codec. After it has finished searching, the Install Multimedia Codecs dialog box will appear, prompting you to select from the list of codecs.
4. You can read through the descriptions to know which codec to choose, if more than one is offered. As with audio playback codecs, it’s usually a good idea to select all the codecs offered, to get the broadest range of support. Ubuntu will handle any functionality overlap in the background, so don’t worry about installing two or more sets of codecs that seemingly do the same job. Check the options you want and click the Install button.
5. Ubuntu will ask you to confirm the installation of restricted software. Read through the conditions and warnings. If you want to continue, click Confirm. Otherwise, click the Cancel button to choose not to install the codec (meaning that your system will not be able to play the files).
6. Back in the Install Multimedia Codecs dialog box, click the Install button again.
7. Supply your password in the authorization dialog box and click OK to proceed with the installation.
8. Ubuntu will download and install the packages. After you have been notified that the packages have been installed successfully, click the Close button. At this point, your multimedia file will play in Totem.

Installing RealPlayer 11

RealPlayer 11 is a media playback application designed for Linux, Windows, and Macintosh OS X, written by Real Networks. It gives you access to a range of media. Although the software has been available for Linux and Ubuntu for some years, its installation still occasionally causes confusion. There are a couple of ways to install the software, but we’re going to use a native .deb package file that automates much of the process:

1. Open a browser and go to www.real.com/linux. From the main page click Download DEB installer and accept the default suggestion to open the file with the Ubuntu Software Center.

   Note the RealPlayer application you are downloading in this procedure is available in a 32-bit version only. If you have installed the 64-bit version of Ubuntu, you cannot use RealPlayer (at the time of this writing).

2. After the 8MB package has downloaded, it automatically launches the Ubuntu Software Center. Click Install to start the installation process and then read through and acknowledge the end-user license.
3. The software will now begin to install. During the process it will download other pieces of software to sort out dependencies, which can take some time.
4. After the software has finished installing, it will create icons under the Applications Multimedia menu and will also set up the helpers for Firefox. The first time you run the software, it will start a Setup Assistant. After accepting the License Agreement, it will do a network speed test (see Figure 17-1). After the test, you’ll see its results. From the results window, click Update and then click Finish. At this point you will be ready to go.

Figure 17-1. After RealPlayer has been installed by a self-installer executable, you must run the setup assistant, which starts an Internet connection speed test.

Adding Flash Support

Flash is a multimedia plug-in used for animations, games, and video playback on web sites. It is a standard requirement on modern Internet-equipped computers, and finding commercial sites that don’t utilize it in some way is becoming difficult. For example, YouTube (www.youtube.com) uses Flash for the playback of video files, as shown in Figure 17-2.

Adobe is the originator of the Flash technology and makes a version of its proprietary Flash Player web browser plug-in especially for Linux, which can be easily installed under Ubuntu. You can also choose to install one of two open source Flash players: Swfdec or Gnash. Of the three, Adobe’s own Flash Player offers the best all-round compatibility with web sites of all kinds—general, video, games, and animations. Swfdec is perhaps the best open source choice, although it specializes primarily in video playback, such as that offered by YouTube or the BBC (www.bbc.co.uk). Gnash may be the weakest of the three (at the time of this writing), but may be worth investigating if you prefer to use open source software and find that Swfdec doesn’t work correctly with your favorite web sites. Be aware, though, that open source Flash solutions are running behind compared to the possibilities of commercial Flash players. For the best Flash experience, use Adobe Flash.

Figure 17-2. Flash is increasingly popular on video playback sites such as YouTube.

Installing a Flash Plug-in

As with multimedia codecs, Flash support is installed on demand and is entirely automated. However, this time, installation takes place from within the Firefox browser, as follows:

1. The first time you visit a web site that uses Flash, a yellow bar will appear at the top of the browser window, informing you that you need to install a missing plug-in. Click the Install Missing Plugins button.
2. In the Plugin Finder Service dialog box, click your choice of plug-in and then click the Next button. You’re asked whether you want to install additional software. Click the Yes button.
3. The software is downloaded and installed in the background automatically. After installation has completed, click the Finish button to close the Plugin Finder Service dialog box. The browser will then display the Flash content.
4. Some users may find that this method doesn’t work and that the plug-in is not available. In this case, go to www.adobe.com, click the link for Get Adobe Flash Player, select the appropriate version to download (.deb for Ubuntu 8.04+), and then install as with the RealPlayer software earlier. Note that you’ll be prompted to close down all browsers during the installation procedure.

Removing a Flash Plug-in

If you want to remove a Flash plug-in—perhaps because it doesn’t work correctly and you want to try an alternative—open Ubuntu Software Manager and search for gnash to remove Gnash, swfdec to remove Swfdec, or flashplugin-nonfree to remove Adobe’s Flash Player. Click the check box alongside the entry in the list and select Mark for Removal from the menu that appears. (If you want to remove Gnash, you’ll need to mark both gnash and gnash-common for removal.) Then click Apply on the main toolbar. Close Ubuntu Software Manager when the removal is complete.

Following this, whenever you visit a site requiring Flash, you will again be prompted to install a Flash plug-in. You can then select a different option from the list.

Adding Java Support

Java is a software platform that some programs use. The intention is that Java is cross- platform, which means that software developed for, say, Microsoft Windows will also work on Linux and Macintosh. Because of this, some web sites use Java applets—small programs embedded into the web page—to present interaction, animation, and even movies.

To access web sites that employ Java applets, you’ll need to install the Java Runtime software along with a browser plug-in. Previously, Java would have been a separate installation, but since Sun Microsystems released the software under an open source license, it has been available to distribution developers and hence is now included in the Ubuntu software repositories. The simplest way to install is to open Ubuntu Software Center, do a search for Java, and then select Sun Java6 JRE for installation (see Figure 7-3). Other options will automatically be selected, including the binaries and plug-ins for Firefox, and you can just click Apply to install the software.

Figure 17-3. Install the Sun Java Runtime Environment for optimal Java support.

Watching Movies

The Totem movie player application (Applications Multimedia Movie Player) is used to play back video under Ubuntu, as shown in Figure 17-4.

Figure 17-4. Totem handles movie file playback under Ubuntu and is simple but effective.

To play a movie file on your hard disk, simply double-click its icon. This will automatically start Totem and play the video, if Totem has the appropriate codecs, as shown in Figure 17-5. If not, Totem will suggest which codecs to download and install, as explained earlier in the chapter.

Using Totem is easy, and the interface has only a handful of options. At the bottom left of the screen are the transport controls that enable you to pause, play, and move forward and backward in the video file. Alternatively, you can right-click the video window and select the controls from there.

Above the controls is the Time bar. You can usually drag the slider to move through the video, but not all files support this function. You might find that some dragging is allowed, but you’re not able to click a new place in the Time bar and have the counter jump to that position.

Figure 17-5. Totem can play just about every kind of movie file, such as QuickTime, Windows Media Player, DivX, and Ogg (or .ogv) files, as shown here.

At the right of the program window is a playlist. You can queue several video files to be played in sequence by simply dragging and dropping movies from a Nautilus file browser window. You can hide the playlist by clicking the Sidebar button. This gives nearly all of Totem’s program window to the playback window. To play the video full screen, thereby hiding the desktop and Totem controls, press the F key. To return to the program window, press Esc (or press F again). In full-screen mode, you can start and stop the video by pressing the spacebar.

To adjust the image quality, click Edit Preferences and then click the Display tab in the Preferences dialog box. You can make adjustments by clicking and dragging the Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, and Hue sliders. If a video is playing in the background, the changes are shown as you make them.

OPEN SOURCE MOVIE FILE FORMATS

Watching DVDs

DVD movie discs are protected by a form of DRM called CSS. This forces anyone who would like to create DVD playback software or hardware to pay a fee to the DVD Copy Control Association, an industry organization set up to protect DVD movie technology.

Some open source advocates reverse-engineered DVD protection and came up with the DeCSS software. This bypasses the CSS system and allows the playback of DVD movies under practically any operating system. Sadly, DeCSS is caught in a legal quagmire. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has attempted to stop its distribution within the United States, but has so far failed. Some experts suggest that distributing DeCSS breaks copyright laws, but there has yet to be a case anywhere in the world that proves this. Nor has there been a case proving or even suggesting that using DeCSS is in any way illegal.

Ubuntu doesn’t come with DeCSS installed by default, but you can download and install the software by issuing a simple command if it hasn’t been installed on your computer yet, following the installation of a software package. Here is the procedure:

1. Open Ubuntu Software Center.
2. In the search bar, type libdvdread4. In the list of results, click the check box alongside the package and click Mark for Installation. Click Apply on the main toolbar. Close Ubuntu Software Center.
3. Open a terminal window (Applications Accessories Terminal). Type the following in the terminal window to download and install the DeCSS component:
   sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
4. After the command has completed, you can close the terminal window.

After you’ve installed DeCSS, just insert a DVD, and Totem will automatically start playing it, as shown in Figure 17-6.

If the movie doesn’t start playing automatically, double-click the disc’s icon on the desktop. In the Nautilus file browser window, click the Open Movie Player button.

Unfortunately, there is a slight limitation to playing DVD movies within Totem: the chapter menus don’t work, so you can’t navigate from chapter to chapter in the disc. Additionally, in our tests, we noticed that DVD playback can be a little glitchy. To get around both these issues, you can install the totem-xine package. This installs a separate but otherwise identical version of the Totem movie player that utilizes the Xine multimedia framework. Then you can choose between using the standard version of Totem, which relies on the GStreamer multimedia framework, or the Xine version of Totem. Installing the totem-xine package also installs Xine versions of the codecs you need for virtually all multimedia file playback, meaning no extra configuration is necessary.

Figure 17-6. Just insert a DVD in your computer, and it will automatically play in Totem.

MOVIE EDITING

The field of Linux movie-editing software is developing, and only a handful of programs are available for the nonprofessional user. One of the best is Kino (www.kinodv.org), which is available in the Ubuntu software archives. Although far from being a professional-level program, Kino allows competent users to import and edit videos, apply effects, and then output in either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 format.

If you’re looking for something more powerful, but also more complicated, Cinelerra is worth a look (http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3). Just follow the instructions at http://cvs.cinelerra.org/getting_cinelerra.php#hardy to install a version of Cinelerra for Ubuntu.

For those who want something a little simpler, the PiTiVi (www.pitivi.org) project is attempting to build a piece of software akin to Apple’s iMovie. The possibilities that are offered by PiTiVi are limited, but you can use it to apply simple movie editing to your video films. You can find a default installation of PiTivi in Applications Multimedia PiTiVi Video Editor. After starting it, PiTiVi shows the screen that you can see in Figure 17-7.

Figure 17-7. PiTiVi offers a simple solution for Video editing on Ubuntu.

Basically, all you can do with PiTiVi is put video clips together to join them in a new file. There are no other editing features, neither is it possible to write to another output format as the default PiTiVi format. If you’re interested in using this application, you can drag and drop your movie files to the pane in the upper left corner. That makes them available for further editing in PiTiVi. From this location, you next drag them to the time line. By dragging several clips to the timeline, you can compose your own video and that is basically it.

Another approach to movie editing, is to go web-based. An example of this is Adobe’s Premiere Express (available through the Photobucket picture-sharing service), which is designed specifically for online video editing and distribution. It works very well under Ubuntu with the Flash plug-in.

Professional moviemakers don’t just use software that comes with normal desktops. Quite a few use Linux all the time, particularly when it comes to adding special effects to movies. Movies like Shrek 2, Stuart Little, and the Harry Potter series all benefited from the CinePaint software running under Linux! For more details, see www.cinepaint.org.

Watching TV

If you have a TV card, you may be able to use it to watch TV under Ubuntu. Ubuntu doesn’t come with a TV tuner application by default, but you can download the tvtime program from the software repositories by using the Ubuntu Software Center.

Checking for Video Input

Ubuntu includes the Video for Linux project, an extension to the Linux kernel, to allow many popular TV and video-capture cards to work. You can find out whether yours is compatible by opening a terminal window (Applications Accessories Terminal) and typing gstreamer-properties. In the dialog box that appears, click the Video tab and click the Test button in the Default Input part of the window. If you see a video window without an error message, your TV card is compatible. If you receive an error message, your card probably isn’t compatible.

Installing tvtime

To download and install tvtime, open the Ubuntu Software Centerand enter tvtime as a search term. In the list of results, click the entry for the package, mark it for installation, and then click Apply.

When the download has completed, you’ll be asked a number of questions during the configuration process. First, you need to choose your TV picture format. Users in the United States should choose NTSC. Users in the United Kingdom, Australia, and certain parts of Europe should choose PAL. To find out which TV system your country uses, look up your country at www.videouniversity.com/standard.htm. You also need to choose your geographical area from the list so that tvtime can set the correct radio frequency range for your TV card.

After the program is installed, you’ll find it on the Applications Multimedia menu. Using the program is straightforward, but if you need guidance, visit the program’s web site at http://tvtime.sourceforge.net.

Summary

In this chapter, you looked at how you can watch movies on your PC. You’ve seen how you can update Ubuntu to work with the most popular digital video technologies, such as Windows Media Player and QuickTime.

In addition, you looked at how you can view online multimedia such as Flash animations on your computer, and learned how you can watch TV on your PC.

In the next chapter, you’ll take a look at image editing under Ubuntu. You’ll learn about one of the crown jewels of the Linux software scene: GIMP.