Download web videos in Ubuntu

Thinking of downloading that video you just saw. Well, there's no dearth of websites that allow you to copy and paste the URL of the page hosting the video and voilà! you have it in your videos folder.

But obviously things are not that simple for you windows guys making a transition to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu users need to install a Java plug in that actually loads an applet and downloads that video for you ( not getting into what's an applet thing ).

Let's make things really simple.Just open the 'Synaptic Package Manager' and search for 'java'. As usual a long list would be returned. Just mark the package titled 'sun- java6-plug in'. You have in the screen shot right here.Let the 'Synaptic' take care of dependencies while you enjoy that coffee of yours ( well, net speeds here make it really possible ).

Now we are set. Just copy the URL of the page hosting the video you wish to 'have' an open one of those websites ( well keepvid.com is what I use) . You would have to a bit patient here. Choose the resolution and 'save target as' .



As usual , keep in mind those copyright issues ( actually , I don't care ).



p.s : pretty elementary stuff huh! Wonder what took us so long.

Minitube - There's life outside the browser.

The name makes it pretty obvious that this has something to do with Youtube.
'Minitube' is an application that brings your Youtube videos out of your web browser.
The initial 'minitube' window presents a search bar that lets you specify keywords . Enter a keyword and click on the 'Watch' button. Inclusion of high definition (HD) videos can be enabled by clicking on the HD button at the bottom right of the window.



Search performance is pretty impressive. The search bar even provides search suggestions as you type in the keywords.Search results are presented under three tabs- most relevant, most recent and most viewed.
Videos grabbed from Youtube form a playlist and can be played in a full-screen mode.
However, as we figured out, we could not playback videos in the Minitube client itself. The right portion of the screen supposed to playback videos only displayed a description of the video against a black background. This is not really the final release and is just a preview.

Gejengel 0.1.0

Doownload Gejengel 0.1.0 and liblastfm1 from Getdeb.
To know more about 'Gejengel', click here.

Capture Frames From A Video File With A 'GFrameCatcher'.

'GFrameCatcher' is an application that allows you to extract frames from your video files.Frames are generated automatically by this application and may be saved as a collection or as individual files.
After installation, launch 'GFrameCatcher' from the 'Sound & Video' menu.



To save an individual file,click on the 'Save' button at the bottom or 'Extract To File' using the 'Extract' button. Use 'Extract To All' to save all the extracted images in a folder.
To change the configuration of the program ,click on the 'Preferences' button.Here, you could change the image width,height, margins and other parameters.


To alter the number of frames to be extracted and the time interval between individual frames, click on the 'Frames' tab.
To re-extract frames, click on the 'Refresh' button.


Click here to download 'GFrameCatcher'

Gejengel-A Simple Audio Player For Ubuntu

'Gejengel' is yet another simple audio player with a simple interface for your Ubuntu 9.04 system.'Gejengel' looks and feels very similar to the 'Listen' music player.



To add music to the library,click on the 'Edit' menu and choose 'Preferences'.Here you can provide the music folder.'Gejengel' provides album art support.



The 'Plugins' tab lets you add 'Last.fm','System Tray','Noitification Plugin' and 'Dbus" support.



The top portion of the frame window displays the current track being played along with its album art.The left portion displays the albums scanned from the music folder.The right portion displays a play queue.Random tracks and albums can be added to the play queue from the 'Tools' menu.



To Download Gejengel,click here.

Open Cubic Player-Groove, the terminal Way!

Open Cubic Player provides you with a unique music playback experience.It plays your music in the UNIX terminal.It has been ported from DOS to UNIX.Open Cubic Player can be installed from the 'Synaptic Package Manager'.


After installation,launch 'Open Cubic Player' from the 'Sound And Video' menu.

Now,select a directory containing music files from the list provided.Press 'enter' to start playback of a music file.



The top of the playback window displays the track information.The highlight of the 'Open Cubic Player' is the spectrum analyser composed of #,*,= and some other symbols that is displayed during the music playback.



The spectrum analyser looks good but on the other hand ,there are hardly any options available.I even could not figure out a 'pause' option.There seems to be no way of getting back to the initial directory selection menu.Configuration file can be modified by using the ALT + C combination at the initial window.

Let a 'Dragon' play your media.

'Dragon Player' is a very simple multimedia player based on the Xine engine. It has a very uncluttered interface and is "a video player that has a usability focus".
It can play all media formats that can be played by the Xine player. It also supports VCD and DVD playback with a full screen support.


It allows you to adjust brightness,contrast,hue and saturation under the 'Settings' menu for video playback.
With a strong focus on usability, it even allows you to configure the toolbar. You can get your favorite buttons on the window toolbar under the 'Configure Toolbars' menu.


'Dragon Player' is available for KDE but can be installed in Ubuntu from the 'Synaptic package manager'.Simply search for the keyword 'dragonplayer' and mark for installation.

Exaile- Play it , Enjoy it.

Exaile is another one of those music playback applications that you can install in Ubuntu from the 'Synaptic package manager'.It offers a complete package for a pretty fulfilling music playback experience.
Initial startup allows you to provide a path to your music folder.This library can also be created later from the 'Library Manager' under the 'Edit' menu.
The left sidebar of the window, maintains a list of all the albums from the library.Other tabs provide quick access to online radio,file system and custom playlists.
'Exaile' provides album art support.To set a custom image as an album art,simply right click on the album art box.
Last.Fm users can configure their service under the 'Preferences' section from the 'Edit' menu.
'Exaile' provides an inbuilt podcast support.To add a new feed,choose the 'Radio' tab from the left sidebar and right click on the 'Podcasts' folder.Just type in the feed URL and let 'Exaile' fetch your favorite podcasts.


Burn your favorite tracks and playlists right from within the 'Exaile' interface by right clicking on a track in the current 'Playlist' section (current playback section).MP3 tags can also be edited by right clicking on a track.
'Exaile' just doesn't provide an equalizer section to import equalizer settings,infact,it provides its own set of equalizers.So you do not need to import anything to "equalize" your music.



Enable the usual 'Gnome Notification Area' from the general preferences section.

RipOff- Rip audio from your CDs

'RipOff' is a simple GTK based audio cd ripper for ubuntu.It can rip cds in proprietary as well as open-source formats.'RipOff' is pretty similar to some other applications like 'Asunder' and the 'Audio CD Extractor'.Ripping off tracks in the popular MP3 format can be a daunting task for a new Linux/Ubuntu user.


'Rip Off' makes this pretty simple.Although Mp3 support is present by default,it can be added by installing the 'rip-off-mp3' plugin from the 'Synaptic Package Manager' of ubuntu 8.10.



'RipOff' provides the usual CDDB lookup feature.Tags can also be edited manually before ripping.To choose the output format, click on the 'Edit' menu and choose the desired plugin under the 'Plugins' tab.To choose the bit rate specifications, click on the 'Preferences' button.
Under the 'Input/Output' tab,you can select the track name format and and the output folder (Click on the 'Save' button' to choose a new location).

Rhythmbox Podcast Managemant

The 'Rhythmbox Media Player' that you get with the default ubuntu installation can help you manage your podcasts.Podcasts management is an integrated feature of the 'Rhythmbox Media Player'.To manage podcasts ,simply click on the 'Podcasts' section in the left sidebar of the player and then click on 'New Podcast Feed' button.Rhythmbox also lets you download new versions of your podcasts with a single click.Podcasts are saved by default in the 'Home' directory.


To change the download location,open 'Preferences' under the 'Edit' menu and find relevant options under the 'Podcasts' tab.

Cool 'Icepodder' podcast management.

'Icepodder' lets you to subscribe to your favorite podcasts and download them with ease.It has a pretty "cool" interface.To get you started,some podcast feeds are provided by default.To add a new feed,click on the 'Tools' menu and then on 'Add a Feed'.Just provide the feed URL in a window that follows and get ready for some listening pleasure.'Icepodder' updates all your feeds in two modes:'Catch-up' and 'Check all' (under the 'Tools' menu).'Check all' looks for updates of all the subscribed feeds and 'Catch-Up' skips all but the top item in each feed.
A download scheduler is also provided that allows you to schedule the feed updates and downloads.'Icepodder' can be scheduled to update feeds after a particular interval of time or at specific times.It all gets pretty easy with 'Icepodder'.


Feeds can also be imported or exported through OMPL files under the 'File' menu.'Preferences' can also be set under the 'File' menu.Here,you can configure the default download location,enable an option to play podcats right after download and also choose the default podcast player.


'Icepodder' provides an efficient feed management system and can be installed using this Debian package.Launch it from the 'Sound and Video' menu.

Organize your music with the 'Audio Tag Tool'

To maintain a nicely organized music library,you need to properly tag your MP3s and OGG files.
'Audio Tag Tool' is a package that can tag your music.It has a very simple and nice GUI.Install 'Audio Tag Tool' from the 'Synaptic Package Manager' (search for 'tagtool' in the Multimedia Universe repository).After installation ,launch it from the 'Sound and Video' menu.Load MP3 or OGG files in the 'Working Directory'.


You can tag these files individually as well as in a group.Five tabs are provided on the right side of the window.The first tab allows you to tag an individual file and the second tab allows you to tag a group of files.
The other three tabs allow you to clear tags ,configure the file name format and create play lists.
Once you fill in all the required fields , click on 'Go' button provided at the bottom of the window.A drop down menu present along with the 'Go' button allows you to apply the tag fields to all the files of the directory or only the selected files.
'Audio Tag Tool' can create ID3 v1 and ID3 v2 tags.You can choose between the two formats from the 'ID3 Preferences' section under the 'Settings' menu.Your music player may support a particular ID3 version so check with the reference before applying tags and transferring music.'Character Conversions' can help you in easily removing the underscore symbol found in the names of the music files.You can change all underscores to white spaces and vice-verse.An option of converting case is also provided.



The only disappointment is probably the absence of an album art field.
So have a nicely organized music collection with 'Audio Tag Tool'.

Listen - Just Listen

The tag line of 'Listen' is 'Just Listen' but you can certainly do a lot more than just listening to your music.
'Listen' music player for Gnome is a great way to 'Listen ' to your music.
Get instant artist,album or song information from 'Wikipedia' and discover similar songs from 'LastFm' as you enjoy your music.
Checkout the column right in the middle of the window.It gives you direct access to 'Wikipedia','LastFm'.The 'Context' section of this column maintains three play lists of 'Favorite albums','Favorite songs' and 'Last played songs'.All these play lists are maintained depending on your listening habits.The 'Lyrics' section provides you the lyrics of the current song being played.Data for lyrics can be fetched from lyrc.com.ar or leoslyrics.com.Browse your folders and files from the 'Filesystem' section.


Maintaining album covers with 'Listen' is very simple.Just right click on the album art window to apply a custom album art or find it online.Left click on the window to get an enlarged view of the album art.


Click on the 'View' menu to enable the 'Party mode' or press CTR + H.'Party mode' provides a full screen view of the music player.
To configure 'Listen' ,click on the 'Music' menu and open the 'Preferences' section.If you want a splash screen with the startup then enable it under the 'Startup' section.
To enable the 'LastFm' support,you need to provide your user name and password under the 'Audioscrobbler' tab.'Listen' also provides the visualisation support that can be enabled from the 'Behavior' section under the 'General' tab.


One of the problems that you might encounter with 'Listen' could be that the playback slider might not work.If it works for you,please do let us know.
Install 'Listen' from the 'Synaptic Package Manager'.

Real Player For 'Perfect Play' on Ubuntu

Real Player 11 is available for ubuntu and can be installed using a Debian package.With Real Player 11 you can play Real audio and video files.The Real format is a pretty popular web cast format and you would need Real Player installed to play Real Media from the web.So just fire in the URL in the 'File' menu and get your web cast.Besides RealAudio and RealVideo, it also supports MP3,WMV,WMA.Ogg Vorbis and Theora,H263,AAC and more.
Real Player for Linux is based on the open source Helix Player.
Play lists can be easily created and edited providing you a quick access to your favourite songs.
Check Out the 'Perfect Play' under the 'Playback' tab in the 'Preferences' section.'Perfect Play' allows you to take a break from a live stream by automatically buffering streaming content.So you get to pause ,rewind and fast- forward through live broadcast.'PlayNow' and'TrueLive' are two more features provided to enhance your web experience.'Play Now' is content dependent.


So 'Get ready for accelerated video, full screen playback, and a lot more to enjoy'.
Click here to downlaod the Real Player 11 Debian package.
Visit the Real Player for Linux web-page.

VLC Media Player For Ubuntu

If you want ubuntu to play almost every possible media format the install the VLC Media Player right now.You do not need to worry about codecs.VLC will take care of them itself.VLC is a very popular open-source media player with great media playing capabilities.It plays almost every audio and video file format.The interface of VLC is very simple and different themes can also be downloaded and applied.Unlike other media players ,you get an inbuilt equalizer providing almost every possible pattern from Rock to Techno.

VLC is highly customizable.Preferences can also be set from the Settings menu.The options provided are really advanced.Normal music lovers may like away from these options.
Check out the Magnify feature under the Extended Gui while playing a video.This feature lets you zoom into a specific area of the video.The zoom factor can also be varied.Working with the Video Filters provided is a lot of fun.

VLC can be installed from the Synaptic Package Manager.Just search for "VLC" and mark for installation.
There is a VLC plugin for mozilla for media playback inside the browser itself.
To download VLC themes click here.

Playing a DVD with menus in Ubuntu.

If you have tried playing a DVD in ubuntu with the default Totem media player ,then you might have noticed that Totem does not show DVD menus.This is a limitation with the Totem media player based on the Gstreamer framework.It does not play DVD with menus.But to have a better navigation and viewing experience ,you can consider Totem based on the Xine engine.
Totem has two versions.One is based on the Gstreamer framework and the other is based on the xine engine.Totem-xine does play DVDs with menus.You can get Totem-xine from the Synaptic package Manager.


It is completely similar to the Totem based on the Gstreamer framework and in addition provides some extra features like a better DVD playback.If you donot get Totem-Xine as an entry in your menu,then press ALT + F2 and type in "totem-xine" and hit the enter key.Now play a DVD from the Movie menu in Totem-xine.