A place to get started (application links)

[DaveQB]

So many times i see posts in Linux video forums simply asking
"what app can i use ??"

I too was one of these people not that long ago.
Well it seems recently i have developed a decent list of apps i have come across but by no means exhaustive.

So i figured why not have a thread with all that i know and added to by others and what they have seen out there. Will definately help beginners and quite possible people who have been searching high and low for that 'exact' app they are after.

So without further adieu....


GUI



Acidrip (http://untrepid.com/acidrip/)

ripping and encoding DVD tool using mplayer (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=MPlayer) and mencoder
AcidRip is a Gtk::Perl application for ripping and encoding DVD's. It
neatly wraps MPlayer (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=MPlayer) and MEncoder, which I think is pretty handy, seeing as
MPlayer (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=MPlayer) is by far the best bit of video playing kit around for Linux. As
well as creating a simple Graphical Interface for those scared of getting
down and dirty with MEncoders command line interface, It also automates the
process in a number of ways:


Avidemux (http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/)

A great starting point for someone coming from Windows. A VirtualDub (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=Virtualdub) clone it can also encode to mpeg1/2. A little slower in seeking lossless video, but maybe that was a hard drive issue of mine.


DVD Slide Show (http://dvd-slideshow.sourceforge.net/)

tools to create dvd slideshow with menus
dvd-slideshow
This is the main script. It generates a DVD-compatible MPEG2 video file
with audio from a text file input listing of pictures and effects.

dvd-menu
Creates a simple DVD menu with buttons that link to MPEG2 files generated
with dvd-slideshow or ones that you have created yourself.

gallery2slideshow
Instead of a GUI to create slideshows, I already have almost everything set
up from my web page that uses the Gallery program. I figured it wouldn't be
that hard to just get a listing of all the images in a given album
(sub-albums not supported!) and to generate an appropriate input file to
dvd-slideshow.

jigl2slideshow
Does the same thing as gallery2slideshow, but works on a jigl gallery


Kino (http://kino.schirmacher.de/)

(Site also homes dvgrab: DV capturing app)
Kino (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=Kino) is mostly thought of as a DV captuing and editing app but it can do more. I havent devled deep into this app as i have issues with my firewire and camcorder under Linux. I probably should explore its effects/editing ability.

Cinelerra (http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3/)

This looks like it has great potential but i have yet to really get into this one either. If anyone has a guide/tutorial for this please post.

Kmenc15 (http://freshmeat.net/projects/kmenc15/)

Essentially a script generator for MEncoder. Has a wide variety of options and generates a script for copying so you can batch up encodes. Also allows visual editing of start (-ss) and end positions (-endpos)
Sadly files i have tried to open with it have errored for some reason, although they play in mplayer (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=MPlayer). Its early days and has alot of potential i think.

gmencoder (http://gmencoder.sf.net/)

This the main GUI for MEncoder, but i find a little limiting to what MEncoder can really do. Its geared mainly for DVD backup.

KDenlive (http://kdenlive.sourceforge.net/)

A nice little Non-linear editor i havent got into yet.

LiVES (http://www.xs4all.nl/~salsaman/lives/)

Another Non-linear editor i havent really got into besides trying to load a lavc video file and having it crash KDE on me :\
Only one i have found to do a fade out/in effect.

LVE (http://lvempeg.sourceforge.net/)

Yet another non-linear editor that ....... i haven't looked into much.

Konverter (http://www.kraus.tk/projects/konverter/)

Similiar to Kmenc15 but it hasn't got the visual editor. Seems to be less buggy though.

KLVEmkdvd (http://lvempeg.sourceforge.net/klvemkdvd.html)

A very tidy looking DVD compiler. Doesn't seem to have any menu options.

mpgtx (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpgtx/)

No idea. Found this on my travels last week and then noticed it was installed b another board members app : mediacity.

Drip (http://drip.sourceforge.net)

A DVD ripper. Never used it.

mediacity (http://www.eclecity.net/mediacity.html)

Very new product still being tested. Written in Java. Developed by Graham Trott.

QDVDauthor (http://qdvdauthor.sf.net/)

A GUI frontend for DVDauthor (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=dvdauthor).

Varsha (http://varsha.sourceforge.net/)

Another DVD authoring program written in Java this time.

DVD::rip (http://www.exit1.org/dvdrip/)

A nice all in one DVD ripper. Does everything from the ripping to the burning. Writtne in Perl. Uses Transcode as a backend.





CLI



MEncoder (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/news.html)

The best encoder i have found, often the backend for many of the GUI's listed.

lxdvdrip (http://openfacts.berlios.de/index-en.phtml?title=lxdvdrip)

A simplified all-in-one DVD ripper.

ffmpeg (http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/index.php)

We owe alot to this project like lavcodec.

transcode (http://zebra.fh-weingarten.de/~transcode/)

A bit slow but does thing MEncoder can't.

encode2mpeg (http://encode2mpeg.sf.net/)

Uses MPlayer (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=MPlayer) and MEncoder as a backend as well as mjpegtools (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=MJPEG_Tools) to convert anything into a DVD/SVCD or VCD.


Mjpegtools (http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net/)

Good for operations on mpeg files like multiplexing etc. Used as a backend for other tools like tovid (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=tovid).


tovid (http://tovid.sf.net/)

Same as encode2mpeg except a little more in its infancy. Has better installer and documentation though.

DVDauthor (http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/)

A DVDauthoring suite. For making menu's and compiling DVD compliant files.





Audio


Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)

Very handy visual audio editor in the same fashion as GoldWave (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=GoldWave) for Windows.

A fast, cross-platform audio editor
Audacity (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=Audacity) is a multi-track audio editor for Linux/Unix, MacOS and
Windows. It is designed for easy recording, playing and editing of
digital audio. Audacity (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=Audacity) features digital effects and spectrum
analysis tools. Editing is very fast and provides unlimited
undo/redo.

Supported file formats include Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV, AIFF, and AU.


Glame (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)

versatile audio processor
GLAME provides a powerful and extensible framework for processing
audio files similar to what GIMP offers in the graphics area. GLAME so
far features a graphical frontend to set up filter networks and perform
basic audio editing tasks. A flexible Scheme-based command line editor
offers low-level access for scripting purposes.


sox (http://sox.sourceforge.net/)

A universal sound sample translator
SOX (SOund eXchange) is a generic utility for translating
sound files from one format to another, possibly performing
a sound effect at the same time. Sox is able to handle formats
like .ogg (vorbis), mp3, wav, aiff, voc, snd, au, gsm and several
more.





misc.

Xvicap (http://xvidcap.sourceforge.net/)

Handy video screen capturing with a nice tutorial (with of course video files showing how to use it;) )

MKVmerge GUI (http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/)

Part of the MKVtoolnix (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=MKVtoolnix), a good way to merge your mpeg4 videos with there Ogg Vorbis audio.

[jggimi]

:goodpost: :goodpost: :goodpost: I've made it a sticky!

[DaveQB]

Glad to help. I know i needed and still need it :D

[albertgasset]

Two interesting applications that are currently in developement:

Pitivi: "PiTiVi is a non-linear graphical audio/video editor for GStreamer. It's main goals are to provide a user-friendly interface for the non-linear editing of several different types of media using all the various elements made available through GStreamer"

Project page: http://www.pitivi.org

Screenshot:
http://pitivi.scooba.org/images/evolution/variant/original%22


Thoggen: Easy to use DVD backup applicationm based on GStreamer. It encodes to Ogg/Theora (AVI/mpeg-4 encoding will be added in the future). Features: picture cropping, picture resizing, language selection. It can encode directly from a DVD or from a local directory with video DVD files.

Project page: http://thoggen.net

Screenshot:
http://thoggen.net/images/0.3/progress-dialog.jpg

[KpeX]

I just found this app ( still in fairly early development ), a KDE front-end for mplayer. It's mentioned in the list above but I thought I'd post some screenshots. The options are a lot more intuitive than some other front ends i've seen and it looks pretty impressive. Here are some screenshots (without any video loaded):

http://img139.echo.cx/img139/9721/k19uz.th.png (http://img139.echo.cx/my.php?image=k19uz.png) http://img139.echo.cx/img139/3070/k34by.th.png (http://img139.echo.cx/my.php?image=k34by.png) http://img139.echo.cx/img139/2310/k48ao.th.png (http://img139.echo.cx/my.php?image=k48ao.png)
http://img139.echo.cx/img139/8992/k50ds.th.png (http://img139.echo.cx/my.php?image=k50ds.png) http://img139.echo.cx/img139/3792/k66sm.th.png (http://img139.echo.cx/my.php?image=k66sm.png)

More Screenshots (http://kmenc15.sourceforge.net/screenshots.htm)

Kmenc homepage (http://kmenc15.sourceforge.net/)

[DaveQB]

KpeX,

You'll notice thats in the original list of apps :)

I have helped the developer trouble shoot some bugs too.

[KpeX]

Originally posted by DaveQB
[b]You'll notice thats in the original list of apps :)
'doh. /me strikes myself for rule 1 ;).

[Nightweaver]

There's a couple of relatively new apps that I think deserve a mention here, OGMRip and the Vamps tools.

OGMRip (http://ogmrip.sourceforge.net/) is, essentially, a rather basic DVD to AVI convertor, though it does have a couple of nice features:
- Store movie in either AVI/OGM/MKV container
- Record audio in MP3/Ogg/Wave/AC3 format
- Record video in XviD/libavcodec's MPEG-4 format (X264 and Theora coming).

You can also choose the resize filter to use, and encode subtitles (it scans them with OCR and auto-spell-checks them, if you want).

It's still quite new though, as I mentioned, but I'm finding it a very sleek solution to DVD ripping on Linux. (Just for info, it uses mplayer/mencoder behind the scenes for the actual conversion, but works out all the settings for you.)

The second is The Vamps Tools (http://vamps-tools.sourceforge.net/), which is an attempt at a DVD Shrink clone for Linux. I haven't actually used it myself yet, so don't know what works and what doesn't, but looking at it there's definite promise there.

Hopefully some of you will find these apps useful.

[KpeX]

As you'll find if you do any google searches there are a billion command line tag tools for *nix for various formats. But for mass operations or renaming CLI tools are no fun, so I wanted to find some good GUI tag tools, including lots of useful functions.

tagtool (http://pwp.netcabo.pt/paol/tagtool/): Basic tag editor / renamer for Ogg Vorbis & MP3 files. When I emerged it there seemed to be some problems with some of the buttons and navigation. Didn't look into whether it's a gentoo bug or a problem with tagtool. If the interface problems were worked out, it looks like a nice prog.

Easytag (http://easytag.sourceforge.net/): utility for viewing and editing tags for MP3, MP2, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MusePack and Monkey's Audio files. Although the interface isn't the most intuitive, it has every tag function I could ever imagine needing, seems very powerful. This is the prog I'll be using for tag operations.
Also worth mentioning is the musicbrainz (http://www.musicbrainz.org/) library, a very neat idea for tagging that identifies songs from an internet database based on a footprint generated from the audio. Unlike cddb and similar ideas this can work on an individual track. A couple of ways to use musicbrainz are through amaroK (http://amarok.kde.org) to fill in missing tags or through qmbtagger (qmbtagger.sf.net), a QT and musicbrainz based tagging program (still in early development).

[boombastic]

Are there binaries of xvid for linux?I mean some rpm packages for Suse,Mandriva or Suse?

[bugmenotwillyou]

are there any chapter grabbers for linux? I need the start seconds for each chapter to make a good mkv..

[bugmenotwillyou]

Are there binaries of xvid for linux?I mean some rpm packages for Suse,Mandriva or Suse?
Try
http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=xvid&submit=Search+...

[oldcpu]

Some additional packages. Apologies for any duplications (I tried to remove the duplicates in my original list, where I saw the packages already mentioned previously in this thread). I also may have some tools in the wrong category.

RIPPING TOOLS:

chaplin [chaplin parses a DVD disc or image and extracts the exact duration for each chapter of a given title. Then the total list of chapters is split into a user-selectable number of subsets. Each subset should have approximately the same duration. This is a very useful approach for multi-cd rips (backups). You no longer simply split the movie in the middle of the frame count but you choose two sets of chapters for both parts which both have (almost) the same length. Then the disc-break is not at a rather random point (concering the story telling of the movie) but at the end of a dvd-chapter. The chapter timings and the split sets are also very useful for chapter navigation (even on a single disc). The normal output mode of chaplin thus prints the chapter's relative beginning time and the duration in a wide number of formats, ranging from seconds, frame counts to timestamps.
http://www.lallafa.de/bp/chaplin.html

cpvdvd [a tool to transfer a DVD title to your harddisk on Linux. This tool copies all required files for a movie title from a DVD on your harddisk for further processing with libdvdreads image mode (e.g. transcode). It automatically selects the title with longest duration (but you can also pick a specific one). The tool determines the correct title set (VTS-VOB files) for the selected title, clones the navigation information (IFO files) and extracts (decodes) the data into new video object streams.]
http://www.lallafa.de/bp/cpdvd.html

cpvts [can raw copy title sets from a DVD to your harddisc. This tool can copy a single or all title sets from a DVD to a directory].
http://www.lallafa.de/bp/cpvts.html

DVDRipOMatic [translate movie from DVD to XviD format]
http://pingwing.xs4all.nl/view.php/page/DVDRipOMatic

dvdbackup [rips DVD to harddisk]
http://dvd-create.sourceforge.net/download.shtml
http://dvd-create.sourceforge.net/

gbDVDenc [rip and encode DVD into mpeg files]
http://sakya.altervista.org/gbdvdenc/index.html

k9copy [a small utility which allows the copy of DVD9 to a DVD5 on Linux. The DVD video stream is compressed by the program Vamps. K9Copy reproduces the original structure of the DVD. The navigation packs as well as IFO files are modified to point on the compressed MPEG stream]
http://k9copy.free.fr/

kdvdbackup
http://agmanager.sourceforge.net/

ldvd [DVD backup tool with GUI]

http://ldvd9to5.gff-clan.net/

streamdvd [fastbackup to DVD on fly – can handle DVD9 to DVD5]
http://www.badabum.de/streamdvd.html

subtitleripper [tools to extract DVD-subtitles]
http://subtitleripper.sourceforge.net/ - home page
http://sourceforge.net/projects/subtitleripper - download

VanRed (eVaporate and Reauthor DVDs) is an application which makes it possible to copy the main movie from a DVD to your hard disc and which allows you to remove certain audio and subtitle streams and evaporates (requant) if necessary the video stream.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/charemma

vobcopy [copies vob files to hard disk]
http://vobcopy.org/projects/c/c.shtml


[B]LINUX DVD SHRINKING TOOLS:

dvdshrink [xdvdshrink: BASH and Perl-Gtk2 to create archival copies of DVD content on single-layer writable DVDs]
[It backs up only one user selectable video track, audio stream, and subtitle]
http://dvdshrink.sourceforge.net/ and http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=630 and http://sourceforge.net/project/show...group_id=133818

ldvd [DVD backup tool with GUI]
[Again, I myself never succeeded in getting this working]
http://ldvd9to5.gff-clan.net/


LINUX DVD AUTHORING PROGRAMS:

DeVeDe [the DeVeDe project creates video DVDs, suitables for home players].
http://www.rastersoft.com/programas/devede.html

DV Slideshow [creates slideshows from photos, adds music – stores in Sony DV format]
[Not yet released]
http://pingwing.xs4all.nl/view.php/page/DVSlideshow

DVDAuthorWizard [create video DVD with multiple titles & menu]
http://pingwing.xs4all.nl/view.php/page/DVDAuthor

DVD Home Video Project [a tool that provides a simple, quick way to transform video on a DV camcorder into a DVD].
http://people.eecs.ku.edu/~ssantner/index.html

dvdstyler [frontend for dvdauthor and dvd-slideshow – single movie/single menu]
http://dvdstyler.sourceforge.net/docs-linux.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dvdstyler/

dvdwizard [wrapper-script automate creation of DVD chapters/menu's. Needs dvdauthor, [No home URL but there is a download for the script]:
http://www.wershofen.de/downloads/dvdwizard.tar.gz

kmediafactory [authoring done by dvdauthor, ffmpeg, ImageMagick]
http://susku.pyhaselka.fi/damu/software/kmediafactory/

KmPg2 [an MPEG2 encoding wizard that allows the user to create DVD compatible MPEG2 streams].
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/KmPg2-MPEG2-Encoder-5324.shtml

ManDVD [This is a program to create DVD Vidéo.]
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=38347
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/ManDVD-12812.shtml
ManDVD forum: http://csgib36.ifrance.com/phpBB2/index.php

pgcedit [A DVD IFO and Menu editor designed to allow the modification of the navigation commands and parameters of an already authored DVD structure].
http://home.tiscali.be/debie.roland/pgcedit/

tovid [A suite of shell scripts to make VCD, SVCD and DVD authoring easier. Converts arbitrary video formats into (S)VCD/DVD-compliant mpeg, and can help with menu creation and disc authoring]
http://tovid.berlios.de/en/index.html

videotrans [a set of scripts that allow its user to reformat existing movies into the VOB format that is used on DVDs].
http://videotrans.sourceforge.net/

-----
[I] Edit1 (28-Aug-2005) added pgcedit
Edit2 (6-Oct-2005) fixed alphabetical order
Edit3 (12-Nov-2005) added gbDVDenc and k9copy & added colour to titles
Edit4 (13-Nov-2005) added VanRed
Edit5 (25-May-2006) added tovid, videotrans, DeVeDe, KmPg2, DVD Home Video Project
Edit6 (28-May-2006) added chaplin, cpdvd, cpvts
Edit7 (17-Jun-2006) added ManDVD
Edit8 (29-Jul-2006) added ManDVD forum URL

[john.smith]

Hello.

I wrote a small application called VanReD and it is available at sourceforge.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/charemma

the VanReD README:

VanRed (eVaporate and Reauthor DVDs) is an application which makes it possible to copy the main movie from a DVD to your hard disc and which allows you to remove certain audio and subtitle streams and evaporates (requant) if necessary the video stream.

The application combines the power of lsdvd and streamanalyze to analyze the content of a DVD and (tries) to calculate the title of the DVD that contain the main movie.

The information, that are readed and calculated are about:
- certain audio streams (language, format, channels, frequency, size, etc.)
- certain subtitle streams (language and size)
- the video stream (resolution, code, size etc.)
- the title (number of audio and subtitle streams, number of chapters, number of cells contained in a PGC (programm chain), color palette, size, etc.)

VanReD works in interactive mode and firstly determines the content of a DVD. In a second step the user is asked which of the audio and subtitle streams he wants to keep. With the collected information VanReD generates a XML file for dvdauthor, that specifies the new DVD structure and a color palette containing color information for subtitles. Last the generated XML file is passed to dvdauthor.

In order to run VanRed you will need in addition the following piece of software:
- libdvdread from the ogle project: http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/
- dvdauthor: http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/
- vamps and play_cell version 0.97: http://sourceforge.net/projects/vamps

Todo:
- find anonther way beside play_cell to extract a title from a DVD, that dvdauthor accepts :)
- Print the structure of a DVD in a XML file to facilitate the change of information with other programs and GUIs
- Gtk2 GUI with preview (xine-lib)
- Ability to add a simple menu to the DVD
- Packaging the read and print functionality in a shared library

- possibly, the ability to choose multiple titles instead of only the main movie
- possibly, a port for windows

[snherbst]

Hi There

Shouldent you mention for all Debian and ubuntu distroes there is a more simple way for theese apps namely.

Medibuntu http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/
Automatix http://getautomatix.com/

[rootkit]

Hi There

Shouldent you mention for all Debian and ubuntu distroes there is a more simple way for theese apps namely.

Medibuntu http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/
Automatix http://getautomatix.com/

Medibuntu http://medibuntu.org/

[snherbst]

I now use debian
here we have
http://www.debian-multimedia.org/

but there is alot of alternate repositories for debian

nice to see that medibuntu have a more simple web adress.

[karasu]

for the CLI section : Handbrake (http://handbrake.fr/)

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 converter, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.


Supported sources:

* Any DVD-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD (encrypted or unencrypted, but protection methods other than CSS are not supported and must be handled externally with third-party software), and some .VOB and .TS files
* PAL or NTSC
* AC-3, DTS, LPCM or MPEG audio tracks

Outputs:

* File format: MP4, MKV, AVI or OGM
* Video: MPEG-4 or H.264 (1 or 2 passes or constant quantizer/rate encoding)
* Audio: AAC, MP3, Vorbis or AC-3 pass-through (supports encoding of several audio tracks)

Misc features:

* Chapter selection
* Basic subtitle support (burned into the picture)
* Integrated bitrate calculator
* Picture deinterlacing, cropping and scaling
* Grayscale encoding

[Cantide]

While searching for a free DVD authoring tool i stumbled over this programme (Mac OS X only).

Sizzle
Free DVD Authoring GUI using dvdauthor

Developers site: http://thegoods.ath.cx/~hmason/sizzle/ (appears to be down at the moment)
Binaries can be obtained at Versiontracker: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17331

[Get Go]

Mac OSX: .TS to DVD video disc using 100% free software and no re-encoding

I wrote up a little tutorial on the above and posted it here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=149827

[HymnToLife]

I wrote a guide (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1333264) on the Ubuntu Forums about using AviSynth in Linux via WINE.

[snherbst]

I will suggest that you add Handbrake to your apps collection it's even available for Mac OS
get it here:
http://handbrake.fr/

[tassbur]

Hi,

Perhaps you should add:

h264enc (http://h264enc.sourceforge.net/)
xvidenc (http://xvidenc.sourceforge.net/)
divxenc (http://divxenc.sourceforge.net/)

They are scripts that use some of the utilities you mentioned before, but they simplified our lifes a lot.

For h264enc there is a thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=134652) here, in doom9