The Basics

First things first so just get these basics in….

FPS: for Frames per second. The number of movie frames displayed per second.
Resolution: The number of horizontal and vertical dots that make up the display.
Codec: Algorithm that is used to compress and decompress a video/audio stream. Needless to say, a stream compressed using a codec needs the same codec to decompress it. Open source codec examples: Mpeg1, Xvid, X264, etc. Other popular codecs include MOV, DivX, WMV, WMA, QT, RM.
Container Format: The file used to pack data. Data (Audio, Video, Text) can be compressed using any codec but should be packed in one of the many container formats. This would explain why it is possible to hear the audio even when the video codec is unavailable. Some containers are not compatible with certain codecs. Open source container formats: Matroska, Ogg, etc.
Aspect Ratio: The ratio of the width and height of a display. Most monitors use a 4:3 aspect ratio, whereas widescreen displays use the 16:9 aspect ratio.
AVI: Stands for Audio Video Interleave. So called because Audio and Video data are alternately arranged in the data stream. AVI is a container format.
DVD: Digital Versatile Disk. For the purpose of this article all DVD refers to Video DVD only. By default uses MPEG2 for video compression and offers resolution of 720x576 (PAL) and 720x480 (NTSC). Audio can be compressed using other codecs.
MPEG: Motion Picture Expert Group. Default compression format for VCD. Resolution of 352x288 (PAL), 352x240 (NTSC)
MPEG2: Motion Picture Expert Group 2. Default compression for Video DVD. Allows significantly more features than MPEG1 in the form of menus, customizable angles, customizable audio output, customizable subtitles and languages.
PAL: Phase Alternation Line, a format of Video display used in India. This is made up of 600 lines refreshed at 25fps.
NTSC: National Televisions Standards Committee, a format of video display mostly used in US. This is made up of 525 lines refreshed at 29.97fps. Since most DVD player available at present can play PAL and NTSC DVDs the distinction between these formats is not significant.
VOB: Files used to store data on DVD movies. VOB files use MPEG2 compression.
DAT: Video CDs use DAT files store data. These are normal MPEG1 files with additional information.
Interlaced VS Progressive: These relate to how information is displayed on a screen. Progressive display shows the entire screen in one o. Interlaced display causes data to be divided into two fields- odd and even, each one consisting of the alternate lines on the display.

Open Video

Nothing consumes as much space on you hard disk as videos. While there are many free proprietary tools available for viewing videos, there are hardly any free proprietary video converters and editors. The most capable of these tools are from the Open Source domain.

Before I start with the review all those players, editors etc. I suggest you guys to install all the codecs from any of the codec packs like K-Lite Mega codec pack etc.

dyne:bolic

This is actually an entire Linux distro that’s targeted at the multimedia enthusiast. You will soon see why this distro has a mention of its own.

“ dyne:bolic is shaped on the needs of media activists, artists and creatives as a practical tool for multimedia production: you can manipulate and broadcast both sound and video with tools to record, edit, encode and stream, having automatically recognized most device and peripherals: audio, video, TV, network cards, FireWire, USB and more; all using only free software!”

Basically, it’s a Live CD of a distro that bundles in a lot of open source multimedia software. The reason for not mentioning any Linux based audio software thus far is solely because of dyne:bolic.

The good news for those of you who did not want to switch operating systems, just to use the “Linux Only” open source audio packages that are freely available, is that you no longer need to do so. All you have to do is to download the ISO for this distro, burn it to a CD, and then get started using you favourite open source audio (video, image and 3D as well) software.

So here’s a look on all the audio softwares bundled with the distro (as published on their site).

PLAY AUDIO

Xmms: An audio player with a minimal and intuitive playlist manager that can play
Internet streams and local files and can be skinned or customised with plugins.

Amarok: A fully featured personal jukebox that can handle your audio collection,
automatically download labels and lyrics, search your collections by keywords,
remember your preferences, automatically create favourite playlists, and more.

Timidity: A midi synthesizer that uses GUS patches to render your MIDI files into audio
files, as well as make you listen to MIDI partitures.

PERFORM

Hydrogen: A drum-machine that lets you load sample kits of instruments and compose a
partiture for them to play on a specific rhythm. You can download more drum kits for it
from http://www.hydrogen-music.org/

Jamin: The Jack audio mastering interface can perform professional audio mastering of
any stereo input stream, equalizing signals with an intuitive and advanced interface to
shape all the frequencies in real-time.

Jack Rack: A powerful effect rack that can apply chains of audio plugins (LADSPA) on the sound currently being played by other programs. Using Jack, you can interface it with all other performance tools and add one of the more that 200 effects available in dyne:bolic.

Free Wheeling: A funky application that lets you record and play multiple samples in real-time, so that they loop, and can be overlayed one after the other. You can manipulate, sum and create recorded sounds, but make sure you read the manual before you start using it, because it’s all controlled via keyboard (or midi).

EDITING

Ardour: The fully-featured multi-track studio that offers the most advanced interface for you music recording studio. Combined with other applications (such as Jack), it can resolve all your needs for audio mastering and music production.

Audacity: Read my earlier posts for any knowledge about audacity.

Rezound: A sample editor that lets you manipulate (with precision) your music samples, record, loop and apply effects using an intuitive and complete interface.

Time Machine: A simple tool for recording audio, requiring Jack as a sound engine. It is, quite simply, a big red button: press it, and it starts recording from 10 seconds ago! This is so that you can record what you find interesting in an audio input, just by listening, without needing to rewind to start recording again.

STREAM

MuSE: A software that lets you stream audio on the Internet over various servers (Icecast, Darwin, and SHOUTcast) in MP3 or OGG format, so that listeners will be able to listen to you voice and music using the most commonly available sound player around.
Visit http://muse.dyne.org/ , or http://flossmanuals.org/muse for a lot more documentation on how to use the cool software.



Here’s a list of other bundeled apps:

- MP4Live lets you stream mpeg4 audio and video on a Darwin server.
- HasciiCam, to have a cool (h)ascii webcam, also on low bandwidth.
- TermionatorX, GDam, SoundTracker and PD, to perform with live audio.
- Kino, Cinelerra and LiVES, to edit video and publish clips.
- GIMP, the GNU image manipulation program.
- Blender, a powerful 3D modeling and rendering tools.
- ABiWord and Ted, to read, edit, and save any kind of word file.
- GCombust, to easily burn data on CDs.

And much more, including email clients, games, html editors, etc….Can’t enlist every feature or bundled app. as it’s, you know an entire Linux Distro/OS.