Linux Media Players and Editors
Here are some great free applications for consuming or editing media such as sound and video on Linux. With these applications you can manage music and video collections, edit sound and video and create professional audio recordings. With Linux is it possible to set up a professional audio recording studio with cheap hardware and totally free software
Rhythmbox
Rhythmbox is the default music player in Ubuntu and Linux Mint and it was inspired by iTunes. It comes
with a nice clean interface and is not too complicated for everyday users although audio freaks will find
that it lacks some features. Importing an existing music collection into the Rhythmbox library is simple and
you can then create playlists on the left pane and drag files into the right pane from your file browser
Rhythmbox is a pleasure to use and it is a very popular music player for that reason. You can add the addresses of online radio stations and podcast feeds into Rhythmbox and these then become available from the navigation section on the left pane. Rhythmbox also supports some cool plugins and these include a 10 band graphic equaliser and a function for ripping online radio broadcasts straight to your hard drive. Nice
VLC Media Player
"It plays everything" is the slogan and it is true because VLC Player comes packed with audio and video codecs for the recording
and playback of just about everything including: internet video and audio streams, tv card and DVD input. It looks very simple but
this is deceptive considering all the features this player has. It always gets rave reviews and it is a media player everyone should
have, even Windows users can download and install it
A great feature of VLC Player is that it allows you to adjust the Brightness, Contrast and Colour Saturation of a video before playback and this is great if you have a video that has been shot in sub-optimal conditions resulting in original footage that is too bright or too dark
Miro - Internet Television and Video Podcast Player
Miro is a free High Definition (HD) internet video player and searcher designed for full screen HD viewing. It offers free access
to over 6000 internet TV and Video Podcast shows which you can watch live or download and save to your hard drive. It also downloads
and saves videos from sites such as YouTube and Google Video which you can easily organise and then playback at your leisure. Miro
is good for people on the move and who want something to watch when they are between meetings or travelling
Miro has a built in content guide where you can find and subscribe to shows and Miro informs you when new episodes are available. For offline viewing Miro can playback a wide range of video formats including: QuickTime, MPEG, AVI and RSS BitTorrent
Brasero - CD/DVD Creator
Brasero is the default Gnome Desktop application for creating CDs and DVDs without having to think about it. It works perfectly
and allows you to copy disks and burn audio, video and data disks. The interface is self explanatory and the program offers you plenty
of clues as to what it can do without resorting to the use of instructional labels and requiring the user to wade through reams of
help files. Brasero's simple interface demonstrates nicely the point about creating an application with an intuitive interface
With Brasero you can create and save a project for further editing and it supports drag and drop / cut and paste operations from the Nautilus file browser. It also allows you to erase CDs and DVDs
PiTiVi - Create and Edit Videos and Slideshows
PiTiVi is a really nice free video editor which will hopefully and at long last bring some respectable video editing capabilities
to the linux desktop. Currently PiTiVi allows you to create slideshows from photos and video clips with background music and the
developers are planning on adding effects and transitions in the next upgrade
Currently PiTiVi offers these features: a multi-layered timeline with zoom slider, trimming, audio mixing, video mixing, ripple/roll edits. PiTiVi is one to watch out for and the developers of Ubuntu were extremely keen to include it in Ubuntu 10.04 to push the concept of Linux video editing capabilities to their target audience
Audacity - Sound Editing
Audacity is an audio recorder and editor which works on all major operating systems and is capable of handling professional audio
work. People usually have mixed feelings about the user interface but the help files are excellent and will quickly help you make sense
of it all. Those who get to know Audacity say that it is superior in many ways to commercial audio editing suites
Audacity is extremely flexible and it can be configured to work with all sorts or hardware. It can be used to record from vinyl and tapes; musical instruments and voice mics; and it has a lot of built in effects such as reverb for post process editing. According to one reviewer Audacity is a musicians dream and a serious tool for professional audio recording and production
AviDemux - Video Editing
AviDemux is a general purpose editor with functions for cutting, joining, filtering and encoding videos. AviDemux supports projects and
allows you to save projects as work in progress for future editing. It can handle a wide range of video formats including AVI, MPEG,
ASF, Flash, QuickTime and OGM. You can input, convert and save video from one format to another
AviDemux can strip audio tracks from videos and save the audio in various audio file formats including mp3. The user interface, like most Gnome Desktop applications is simple and suitable for beginners as well as more experienced users. All in all AviDemux is a nice little tool for quick and easy video editing and re-encoding
Links
The home of Linux Mint
You can download Linux Mint from here
Mint Art Work and Themes
A nice article on all previous and current Mint releases listing their unique tools on Wikipedia
Mint on Distro Watch
Review of Linux Mint 7 'Gloria' on OSNews
How To Forge tutorial packed with Linux Mint screenshots detailing the easy installation routine and how to create the perfect desktop