This chapter is about multimedia on Linux. Multimedia is a rather vague and much abused term. For the purposes of this chapter, our loose definition is anything related to sound, graphics, or video.

Multimedia has historically been one of the more challenging areas of Linux, both for developers and users, and one that did not receive as much attention from Linux distributions as it should have, perhaps because Linux was initially embraced by so many as a server operating system. It was only recently that Linux has been seriously considered as a desktop solution for mainstream users. To be successful at attracting users from other popular operating systems, multimedia support is a requirement.

The good news is that, unlike a few years ago, most modern Linux distributions automatically detect and configure multimedia hardware for the user and provide a basic set of applications. And despite its historic use as a server, for a number of reasons Linux is well suited to audio and other multimedia applications.

We start off this chapter with a quick overview of multimedia concepts such as digital audio and video, and a description of the different types of multimedia hardware devices. Those familiar with the technology may wish to skip over this section. If you don’t really care about how it all works or get lost in the first sentence of this section, don’t worry, you can get applications up and running without understanding the difference between an MP3 and a WAV file. The section “Movies and Music: Totem and Rhythmbox” in Chapter 3 describes the basic playback tools offered on most Linux desktops.

We then discuss some of the issues related to multimedia support at the kernel level, which is a prerequisite for using the hardware. We then move on to applications, first those offered by some of the popular desktop environments, and then a sampling of more specialized applications broken down into different categories. If you want to develop your own applications, we briefly cover some of the popular toolkits and development environments. Finally, we wrap things up with a list of references in print and on the Web where you can find information that is more detailed and current.

Keep in mind that multimedia is an area where Linux development moves rapidly and new technologies quickly move from primitive prototypes to mainstream usage. In 1996, in a book on multimedia on Linux, we wrote about a technology called MPEG-1 layer 3, or MP3. At the time it was relatively unknown, used only by some obscure web sites to distribute music, and my then-current 40 MHz Intel 386 computer was barely able to decode it in real time. Not so many years later, it has become ubiquitous and the de facto standard file format for digital music on the Internet. At the same time, other technologies that appeared promising have fallen by the wayside, often not for technical reasons. To stay current, check the resources listed at the end of the chapter.

There are minor differences among Linux distributions. Although most of the information in this chapter is generic and applicable to most Linux distributions, for details you should consult the documentation that came with your system, contact your distribution vendor, or consult with fellow users.