I go from Windows to Linux. Need help

[marc_albero]

I plan going Linux anytime now. I have had some contact with Linux in the past, but didn't use it for playing video /ripping DVDs /encoding video and audio / using OGM as container. So I am really at loss now.

I call on anybody working with Linux to help me do this faster than working alone.

SO:

1-What are the names of the best players for Linux (or their homepages). Also, what software is used in Linux for CD/DVD ripping (some equivalent to Exact Audio Copy -EAC-, SmartRipper and the ASPI layer)? What about encoders?

2-How do they manage to read AVI/OGM? I have heard something about reusing the dlls from windows. How is that? (I think there is no directshow architecture under linux) Is there performance penalty when decoding or encoding?

3-Are there linux alternatives to VirtualDubMod (or has it been ported to linux)? What is the (free) OGM/AVI editing solution for Linux?



I thank all of you who answer.
Pirata

[pacohaas]

1. mplayer or VLC for playing videos, grip for ripping audio. Just do a google search and you'll find em.

dunno about 2 and 3, sorry

[killingspree]

please no crossposting

thanks
steVe

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=300940#post300940

[((( atom )))]

2. is done by using the ffdshow-codec wich for instance is even used in a well-known windows-software: ffdshow!

3. that should be transcode. never tried it, though..

[TelemachusMH]

1) mplayer (htpp://mplayerhq.hu/) will play nearly anything you can make. (If you find something it doesn't play, that is used even infrequently, I'd be shocked) I can tell you that I've played my DVD rips with OGM container with no problems whatsoever. Although, I haven't tried multiple audio tracks, or subtitles, but they are reported to work fine.

As for CD ripping utilities, there are tons of them. try searching at Freshmeat.net (http://freshmeat.net/).

2) There are modified windows dlls that you download and install with mplayer. It is on their download sites.

3) You can try using transcode with or without dvd::rip, there is also memcoder which you can get with mplayer, and gstreamer. I think you can find all of these at freshmeat.

If you need some help with these, try the Linux forum here.

TelemachusMH

[((( atom )))]

2) There are modified windows dlls that you download and install with mplayer. It is on their download sites. afaik those were only used in the very beginning of mplayer. nowadays mplayer comes with a set of 50 audio and 135 video codecs, the most important ones based on libavcodec/ffmpeg.

the very nice thing about mplayer is, that one can build a /reliable/ standalone-device with full remote-control support. that kicks ass!

:)

[Joe999]

For VirtualDub, you might like avidemux (http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/). It has a layout somewhat similar to VirtualDub, though I miss the preview pane. It's missing a few things VirtualDub has, but it also has a few features not present in VirtualDub, so it's a fair tradeoff. Avidemux2 is also in the works, and I think I recall some time back the author mentioning ogg/ogm support being planned for it. For converting to ogm, there's a collection of command line programs called OGMtools (http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/ogmtools/).

I tried VirtualDubMod a month or two back, and it seemed to run fine in wine, so that might be an option too if you wanted to stick with that program.

[marc_albero]

I thank you all.

And about wine... does it come with any distribution? Is there a big penalty with using such a funrther software layer?

[TelemachusMH]

There is no penilty in using wine. The Wine project has re-writen the windows API calls so they work in linux. I have actually heard that in some cases using Wine is faster then using windows. (I am mainly guessing this happens because of device handling, filesystem used, and process handling.) But for all real purposes, it is the same as running the program in windows, as long as all the system calls used in the program are working in wine.

I know that Red Hat, and Mandrake have wine preinstalled, but I would guess that many more have it too. You can download wine here (http://winehq.com/), or WineX (http://transgaming.com/), which is another distro of wine that mainly emphisises directx calls and other game related APIs. *Note: If you want to get WineX, you'll either have to pay to get the binary installation, or download the source from the cvs and compile it yourself.*

TelemachusMH

[marc_albero]

Hey thank you, man. I feel safer now. The only thing that worries me is my many dvd rips. I have manage to link my multi-cd rips with a ASX playlist (the one used by zoom player) that tells the player to read first the file-1.avi in drive z: and then the file-2.avi in y: (and so on). Thus, I don't have to direct the player to each file. I have done something similar with m3u files when I've got several mp3 I always want to hear together.

Are this playlist files supported by mplayer? What kind of playlist file format does it support? Is the coder kind enough to extend his player's functionalities with such things if he is asked to?

Also, the chp file format is used by zoom player to add extern chapters to avi and mpeg files (any video file, actually). Do you know it? Is it supported, or could it be supported?

Thank you boyz!!!

[TelemachusMH]

I don't know for sure without trying it, but asx playlists have previous and next commands in the docs. So, I would guess it would work, but I don't know for sure.

TelemachusMH

[((( atom )))]

with linux you use a lot of scripts, so you might get around using playlists. my mplayer for example does the following upon pressing a certain button on the remote:

it mounts both cdroms and plays every avi-file it finds from the first disc then from the second disc and when all is done it throws out both cd-trays.

dead simple and i can modify it in any way i'd want.

[TelemachusMH]

Would you mind posting that script? I'd like to tinker with it on my system. ;) Also, make sure to say how to use it with mplayer. I haven't done much Linux/Unix scripting yet.

TelemachusMH

[((( atom )))]

#!/bin/sh

mount /mnt/cdrom
mount /mnt/cdrom1


mplayer [-your options] /mnt/cdrom/*.avi /mnt/cdrom1/*.avi

#eject cdrom
#eject cdrom1