I'm simply looking for the best Multimedia options within Linux.
Right now I'm concerned with Playing DVD's, CD's, and The most common
Audio and Video Formats.

These include MP3, WAV, RealAudio etc for Music
and Mpeg2, Mpeg4, and Windows Formats for video

I'd like to be able to play protected content if possible, because well,
I paid for it, and it sucks that many programs won't play my DRM'd
material.

Also, I'd like a player that's easy to use and can communicate with
my aging mp3 players. I have a Zen Touch and an older Nomad Juke Box from Creative.

All ideas and suggestions appreciated.

MPlayer. It's in both the automatix repos and the ubuntu repos. Make sure you download the additional multimedia codecs.

joedude,

Can you tell me if those codecs are OpenSource Freeware
or restricted unlicensed?

This is important to me because I want to stay within the bounds
of the Music I purchased. I´m not after compliance but rather,
I want my protected media to play properly.

there are 2 main package sets for codecs. The one which loads with the MPLAYer are the free ones. The additional codecs are restricted. I haven't had any problems even with DRM'ed packages since I installed these.

Thank you sir.

The only music I´m having issues with is the MusicMatch files that have
śome sort of autorun script embedded in them and will Only run on
MusicMatch Jukebox. This severely bites, especially for someone trying
to follow the rules.

I wonder how many people feel allienated by the fact that they purchased
their music and it´s unuseable now.

Guess I'm just an old fogey, but all this stuff about DRM and pay per play and monthly subscriptions or your downloads are cut off is inconceivable to me. It's like renting your music. Remember the days when you bought an album and it was yours to keep?

I would understand the principle behind it if the artists and musicians were the true recipients, but I have a feeling this is just to fatten up the distributors pockets...well.....kind of like the old days huh?

Oh well...

I believe there are music match plug-ins in the Ubuntu repos. if not then sourceforge will most likely have them.

For just a player, I have always used MPlayer, as it's pretty much install and go. It plays 99.9% of formats, audio and video and is very hassle free.

If you want more, ie:multi-track recorder, audio editting and the like, then check out Ardour. I have heard some great things about it. However, I have never actually tried it myself.

Here's a screeny:



Apparently, it plays music as well...imagine that...

Musicmatch can be run through WINE (its not a solution, rather a band-aid on a missing limb, but something to work with) this is according to codeweavers and a few other sites.

MPlayer works pretty well for everything for me as well , If I have any problems then I use Kaffeine.

BlackSpyder,

I was quite aware of WINEhq, however, the point here is to move away from restrictive
to open source. I may just have to give up on those music files, oh well.

I've just downloaded Mplayer from Synaptic so we'll see how that goes.

Other than multimedia my Linux experience is going great.

P.S.
Any recommendations for DVD, HD-DVD, Blue-Ray, etc?

MPlayer

OK letś beat a dead horse.

My nephewś Transformers DVD won´t play, but works great in a standard player connected to a TV.
It also works inside windows just fine. I´ve looked through Synaptic and am unable to determine which
codecs I need. I may Just check out the gstreamer plugins as that´s what I believe I´m missing.

Any suggestions as far as what to look for?

Many DVD's are not allowed to be played in the US because the codecs violate the DMCA if installed for free. in other words you have to pay to play some DVDs because the RIAA, and (insert name of the Movie version of the RIAA)think that since you have the codecs your going to "steal" the DVD.


Use the Codec packages in Automatix for everything else and the plugin/driver for the Nomad can be found in the Ubuntu Repos. (sorry missed this part last time.