Translations by ibob63

Music, video and photos

This section describes how to import, organize and use music, video and photos with Xubuntu.

Play music and movies

On Xubuntu, you use the <application>Movie Player</application> to play both music and videos. To start it, choose <menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guisubmenu>Multimedia</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Movie Player</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

The <application>Movie Player</application> supports standard audio formats and AudioCDs. It has many useful features, some of which are turned off by default. For example, it has a plugin for an infrared remote control. To access these optional features, press <menuchoice><guimenuitem>Edit</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Plugins...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> and select the features which you would like to use by ticking them. It can even play internet radio stations! For those, chosse <menuchoice><guimenuitem>File</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Open Location</guimenuitem></menuchoice> and enter the radio stations URL.

Other music applications

There are much fancier music player/organizer applications available for Xubuntu, each with their own set of features. Most of these, however, have dependencies to large library files, so keep away from these if your machine is slow and/or short on diskspace/memory. Below is a list of the most popular ones:

Rhythmbox Media Player

Amarok

Banshee Music Player

Beep Media Player

Muine Music Player

Editing track details

Sometimes, you may find that music files on your computer have incorrect or incomplete information about the artist or album which they are from. It is possible to correct this information using a suitable application.

Install the <application>cowbell</application> package from the <quote>Universe</quote> repository (see <link linkend="add-applications">Add Applications</link>);

To run <application>Cowbell</application>, choose <menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guisubmenu>Multimedia</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Cowbell</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

Play, rip and burn CDs

Xubuntu is able to play CDs and to copy tracks from them to your computer (<quote>ripping</quote>).

Ripping audio CDs

If you would like to keep a copy of an audio CD on your computer without needing to insert the CD to listen to it, it is possible to <emphasis>rip</emphasis> or <emphasis>extract</emphasis> the music onto your computer.

By default, Xubuntu does not include an application to extract audio CDs onto your computer. However, you can easily install the <application>Sound Juicer CD Extractor</application> application, which is able to rip CDs.

Once installed, you can start <application>Sound Juicer</application> manually by choosing <menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guisubmenu>Multimedia</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Sound Juicer CD Extractor</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. Alternatively, once installed it should start automatically when you insert an audio CD.

To start ripping your audio CD, make sure the tracks that you want to rip are selected, then click the <guibutton>Extract</guibutton> button or press <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>Enter</keycap></keycombo>. The ripping process may take a while to complete.

You can use the preferences window to control where the extracted audio files are stored on your computer, the filename of extracted audio files, and the file format and codec used for the files. In the main window, choose <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu><guimenuitem>Preferences</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

<emphasis role="strong">FLAC</emphasis> - The Free Lossless Audio Codec. It can compress audio files up to 50% without removing any information from the audio stream.

<emphasis role="strong">WAV</emphasis> - Typically used for voice recordings. <application>Sound Juicer</application> uses this format for low quality mono audio files.

<application>Sound Juicer</application> can extract audio files to the following formats: <placeholder-1/>

You can also extract CD audio files to the proprietary, non-free <emphasis role="strong">MP3</emphasis> format. Instructions on how to rip to the MP3 format are in the help for <application>Sound Juicer</application>. Choose <menuchoice><guimenu>Help</guimenu><guisubmenu>Contents</guisubmenu></menuchoice> and navigate to the <emphasis>Preferences</emphasis> section.