How to Install QMediainfo in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

Both audio and video (images too) have a "secret" place called the Meta-Tag in which they hold information such as Artist/Album/Year, etc or if it's a picture the camera that captured it, etc ... type information that can be read by your OS once the proper applications are installed.

This information can be accessed via the the File manager of your Operating system. Concerning GNU/Linux, well after you install the proprietary codec pack, the OS can read certain amount of those details, say using the Nautilus file manager, but there are dedicated applications that lets you read/extract a lot of other advanced details.

There is a such an application called Mediainfo that has the ability to read advanced information from the container format of audio/video and even image files and lets you easily see them. If you use MS Windows then Mediainfo comes as a part of the excellent K-Lite codec pack but I don't think that we can easily install its GUI (although the command-line version is available via a PPA) in GNU/Linux.  

So I think after facing the same problem as others who tried to "extract" advanced info from multimedia files, I guess that a developer decided to use the already existing mediainfo command-line libraries and create a GUI front-end in Qt toolkit that is called QMediainfo!.

Qmediainfo lets you read advanced technical information from audio/video files such as ...

*. Year/Track/Artist/Category.

*. Bitrate related info such as - Max/Min and overall bitrate (average).

*. Screen resolution.

*. Encoding app/library.

*. Comments and ratings.

*. Codec ID.

*. Duration.

*. Aspect ratio.

*. Frames per second.

*. Audio channels, sample-rate, etc.

*. Language. 

*. Subtitles

*. Save the date to text/HTML file ... are just a few to mention.

As said it's written in the Qt-4 toolkit but works really well with Gnome desktop nonetheless. It depends on the Mediainfo library. So we'll have to make sure it's installed first. But we can just add the two PPA channels and the installation will take care the hassle for ya :).

You can install qmediainfo in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (10.04 and 10.10) by using the below commands in your GNU/Linux Terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:razrfalcon/qmediainfo

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:shiki/mediainfo

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install qmediainfo

That should do it. Unfortunately whenever you want these advanced information, you'll have to separately launch the app and drag-n-drop the files into it because it does not integrate to the Nautilus File manager (don't know how its with Dolphin - The KDE file manager :D).

You can start the app by searching for "qmediainfo" in Unity dash or use it in the command box (use "Alt" + "F2" keys). Big thanks to the developer. Nice work, love it.

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traGtor - ffmpeg Encoder GUI for GNU/Linux (one of the best!)

I maybe wrong on this one but I think the origin of the Qt written KDE desktop actually comes from the German programmers. But the point is for good or worse..., unlike with Gnome, KDE has a philosophy that make sure the desktop and almost all the other applications come with a lot of options/features by default.

This was visible from the birth of KDE. But then again the reason for all those features is actually has nothing to do with the toolkit since it's the ideas and believe systems that define us thus even by a slight change of the "philosophy" any toolkit can be used to make a very powerful, features-rich application nonetheless.

In that sense, if you were looking for an easy to use yet powerful multimedia converter that comes with a GUI (hopefully :P) which is written in GTK+, then look no further, I don't know about you, but I've found it. It's called "traGtor".

Main features...

*. As said, this is actually a front-end that uses the ffmpeg multimedia library (one of the most efficient ones as well). So all the codecs supported by ffmpeg can be converted using traGtor.

I don't know about the manipulative history... but you gotta respect the way of the Germans... they really know their shi* :D

*. Change audio/video codec, bitrate, crop (my favourite and one of the important ones if you care about optimizing the output quality and size), and resize (enter values manually).

*. Edit audio sample rate, edit tags, change channels, 2-pass encoding (for the optimal results).

*. Change the output container (MKV, AVI, etc).

*. Change ratio and De-interlace.

By default it uses the German language... you can change it to English by Clicking on that "6th" tab under "Sparche wahlen" (don't know what that means though :/) choose "en" as shown in the screenshot.

*. If you know a bit about ffmpeg (command line) then you can enter additional encoding settings as well... and these are few of the features to mention.

You can install traGtor in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by following the below instructions.

It's not supported by the Ubuntu repositories at the moment but I'm pretty sure they'll be added when considering the amazing capabilities of this utility. So we have to add their repository first.

Open your GNU/Linux Terminal window and enter the below commands.

wget http://repository.mein-neues-blog.de:9000/PublicKey

sudo apt-key add PublicKey

rm PublicKey

echo "deb http://repository.mein-neues-blog.de:9000/ /" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

Now we can install it using the "apt-get" command as usual.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install tragtor

As said, you have to have the ffmpeg multimedia codecs pack (library actually) to do the actual work. If you haven't already, you can install ffmpeg by using the additional commands, again in your Terminal window.

sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get --quiet update

Then we can install ffmpeg in Ubuntu 11.04 and the id3v2 (MP3 tag editor) by using the next command.

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

sudo apt-get install id3v2

That's it. Now you've installed TraGtor and all its dependencies thus you can start converting any audio/video under the sun in Ubuntu Linux! :D.

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paprefs - An App to Configure PulseAudio Preferences in Ubuntu Linux Easily (GUI)

When it comes to computing there are main two types of programs. One type is the software applications that operates with the hardware devices (which are "invisible" to the PC users) and then there's the other kind which works with the users which are usually GUI such as Totem, Office suit, mail-clients, etc.

But there is also another type of applications which fall in between the two of the above types. They actually act as the "middle-man" between those two. Although sometimes they come separately but usually they're attached to user interacting GUIs, most of the time.

In that sense a sound server is actually that "middle-man" which sends/receives audio related information between the actual OS hardware level software (the Kernel, in GNU/Linux OS) and your sound card speakers, etc which "carries" the "mixed" sound-output.

Unlike with the original sound subsystems which were not that easy to configure since they were "close" to the Kernel or the PC hardware, thus even a small fluctuation could jeopardise things easily. So as a fix, later came the sound servers which run in a more "close to users" such as above mentioned applications thus they're easy to configure + even if a sound server fails the stability of the OS is not affected that much since it's doesn't run closer to the hardware level or at the core of the OS.

These days we have few main sound servers OSS, ALSA, ESD, etc and the latest is the Pulse Audio. Although personally I don't like it that much since it doesn't work that well with my sound card hardware yet many prefer it since it does come with many features and better compability (not in my case :D) nonetheless.

So if you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and want to configure your sound sever related setting such as ...

*. Local network access to your sound card.

*. Configure various audio-network-server related setting such as - enable/disable the access, automatic authenticate, enable/disable DLNA or UPnP media server access, etc.

*. Configure audio multicast severer settings (RTP receiving and sending) - send audio from local speakers/microphone or create a new virtual device for the RTP multicast.

*. Add simultaneous output support.

That's actually about it. It's a small application, a font-end actually, written in GTK+ toolkit and has a tabbed interface and very easy to use + can be extremely useful as well.

You can install paprefs (pulseaudio preference, tool) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by entering the below command in your GNU/Linux Terminal.

sudo apt-get install paprefs

You should be able to access it via: "System" -> "Preference" -> "PulseAudio Preference" or simply type "Alt" + "F2" keys and enter "paprefs" in the run box. That's it. Good luck.

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DeVeDe - An Excellent DVD/SVCD/Divx Video Disk Creator for GNU/Linux!

Well, VCD had their days. Now it's the era of DVDs, Blue-ray disks and also the extremely popular low bitrate optimised Xvid and Divx codecs/players as well :D. Not as a user who enjoys watching them, but as a video disk author, as always with GNU/Linux, it's still a bit hard to find applications that lets you easily create DVD or VDC, etc videos.

But if you search in the proper place there's always "that" which fits :D. In that instance, there is an excellent utility called DeVeDe which is basically a GUI written in GTK+ toolkit that uses several other "engines" such as MPLayer, Mencoder (the encoder portion of MPLayer), DVD Author and several other applications.

So basically the developer of DeVeDe has done an excellent job of bringing together very useful applications and creating something "whole", that without a doubt be much appreciate by all the nerdy video author s ;-).

Main features...

*. Has a built in start-up menu, so you can easily choose the disk type that you want to create. 

*. Create a DVD/VCD/SVCD/Divx-MPEG4 disks out of any multimedia file that's supported by MPLayer/Mencoder (that means a lot... avi, mpg, wmv, mkv, divx, etc).

A clean GUI...

*. Change video bitrate, audio bitrate, resize, De-interlace, add black borders (only recommended for DVD otherwise, lower bitrate optimised codecs such as Divx may hurt in quality since they occupy a reasonable amount of "bitrate"), split according to your own preferred output size, use 1 pass or 2 pass (may change depending on the format/codec) and few other video quality related settings such as resizing methods, live previews... it is very rich in features!.

Note:- when creating live previews, when asked, try to add few seconds rather than in minutes otherwise it'll take some time to generate the preview since it actually has to encode the multimedia file. 

*. Add fonts and change the font size.

*. Rotate, swap filed.

*. PAL/NTSC support.

*. I forgot to mention the most important one... creating menus! - Change font size and colours, background change, add shadow, various alignments (center, left, top, etc) and create menu Title separately, again including live previews.

*. Adjust disk size by using built in standard sizes such as 4.7GB/8.5GB DVD, 185/650/700MB CDs and 1.4GB mini DVD, etc.

*. Volume gain.

*. Save you settings as a single project file.

*. Use multi-threading (for speedup the painstaking encoding ;-)).

*. Create .ISO or BIN/CUE image files so you can easily burn then using any CD/DVD burner.

*. Change aspect ratio.

Seriously!, this is a one heck of an application that can be recommended even for professional to use because it's really that powerful!.

You can install DeVeDe in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the below command in your GNU/Linux Terminal.

sudo apt-get install devede

That should install the application and all its dependencies for you. So, if you want an easy to use DVD/SVCD/Divx... disk creating (including menus) application, then I humbly advice you to use DeVeDe. It's just bloody brilliant! :D.

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Install FAAC in Ubuntu 11.04 - AAC Audio Encoder for GNU/Linux

AAC is a very popular audio compression format (codec) that was developed/funded by several famous companies such as Nokia, Dolby, Sony and Bell Laboratories (few to mention). That information alone should be enough to give you the impression that AAC is not an open-source codec ;-), although some portions of the project is licensed under GNU/GPL, nonetheless.

But the rest assured, it's efficient and especially under low bitrates, AAC codec will give much better quality outputs when comparing with the MP3 format. It is actually widely used by Apple (in almost all of their products such as iPhone, iPod-touch, etc) and various other electronic manufacturers all around the world. 

Unlike with MS Windows or Mac OSX, it's actually really hard trying to find a decent AAC encoder for GNU/Linux. Don't get your hopes up so high, because after doing some search, I've only come up with a command line tool :/. If you know any better utility, I'll be more than happy to hear about it.

It's called "FAAC". And with it you can only use WAV and Raw PCM files to convert into the proprietary AAC lossy audio format.

And on the other hand, encoding a MP3 file to AAC for instance, is pretty much useless since it actually "defeat" the purpose because, MP3 is a lossy format thus valuable "information" is already lost once you convert something into MP3, so you won't be able to get the desired results by re-converting them into the AAC nonetheless.

But there are applications that can convert MP3 to AAC, anyhow.

First install FAAC in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the below command.

sudo apt-get install faac

A Simple FAAC guide :).

You can read its manual, which explains almost everything by using the below command.

man faac

But for a quick wrap up :) let me give a basic example. Say that you have a .wav file called "1" in your Home folder that I need to convert into AAC format. Then I'd use a command similar to below one.

faac -b 96 1.wav -o new.m4a

The "-b" attribute defines the desired audio bitrate, so depending on your needs you can replace it with values within the range of - 12 kbps to 600kbps. The "-o" defines the output file, so you can replace the "new" with any name you like but make sure to use ".m4a" or ".mp4" as the extension.

You can use multiple attributes as well.

Say that you wanted to change the audio channels (default - 2, stereo) to 5 and the sample rate to 22100, which are among the main needs when it comes to encoding audio in general other than the above mentioned bitrate, then I'd use a command as below.

An example...

faac -b 96 -C 4 -R 22100 1.wav -o new.m4a

As you can see, the "-C" is used to change the desired audio channels (which is 4 in this example), "-R" is used to change the sample rate (in Hz), I've already talked about the "b"... :D. So that's about it actually. And if you have questions, then as mentioned above, I highly advice you to read the manual, that's where I got all those "tips" ;-).

Although this cannot be recommended for batch audio to AAC encoding since it won't be easy to put command after command for multiple files... but for everyday use, this is pretty handy nonetheless. Good luck. 

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Shrinkta - Backup DVD to hard drive Application, for GNU/Linux

If you want to backup a DVD (video) to hard drive easily in GNU/Linux then there is an excellent dedicated application called Shrinkta. Although you can backup video files in a DVD by simply copying the content and pasting it somewhere else but ...

Since almost all the commercial DVD movies come with pre-encrypted by default (a folk of DRM, digital right management), if you just copy and paste the content, then you won't be able to play the content nonetheless.

And since in a DVD video disk, within the container format, usually there are several audio files embedded into it (different languages, different tracks with different audio channels, subtitles, etc) other than using a dedicated app like the Shrinkta, backing up a DVD to hard drive properly with selected audio files only, etc, is not possible.

Also, by extracting the content you want will reduce the overall output file size dramatically as well. Let's have a look at some of the,

Main features...

*. Very easy to use (written using GTK+ and Python) interface.

*. Extract/Backup selected portions of the DVD movie disk such as - Selected chapters.

*. Choose preferred audio channels - DTS/AC3, etc.

*. Opt-out certain languages.

*. Excellent help file (I humbly advice you to read it first). 

*. Has the ability to make the DVDs region free (another locking/encrypting mechanism).

*. Both single and dual layer supported.

*. Can burn the data to DVD disk using the assigned CD/DVD burning application. 

*. Shrink video files under given size.

*. No subtitle extracting available (my only complaint).

Remember it can be illegal to create a backup of your DVD into hard disk or any other media depending on your country. But if you've purchase them within your region or country, then it is most certainly legal, as long as you don't "share" (as far as I know, but I advice you to do your own research :D).

Anyhow, you can install Shrinkta in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by entering the below command in your GNU/Linux command line.

sudo apt-get install shrinkta

That should do it. Good luck.

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Gaupol - A Video Subtitle Editor for GNU/Linux!

Whether its GNU/Linux or MS Windows you can edit video subtitles by using a simple text editor without using any dedicated tool at all. But apparently, this should be used to simple editing such as changing a fraction of text (such as correcting spellings, etc)... but for mass editing and creating a video subtitle from the scratch,etc ... well that ain't gonna be easy!.

So in that sense, if GNU/Linux is your main operating system and want to learn how to edit/create subtitles with ease, then I highly recommend this amazing little application called Gaupol. It's written in GTK+ toolkit thus aimed at the Gnome Desktop (obviously) but of course we can use it in KDE or other GNU/Linux desktops as well.

But remember, you however cannot load subtitles that are embedded into the video container it self. In that case you'll have to extract them from that multimedia container first.


Main features...

*. Supports almost all the major subtitle formats such as - .ssa, .sub, .srt, .txt, etc.  Again, if you have a DVD, then you'll have to extract the subtitle from the .vob format first.

*. Very easy to use but extremely powerful features (hard to believe actually.. I mean, after all it's a GTK+ app, they usually drift towards Gnome's version of simplicity... but have to say it.. well done -> to the developer).

*. Auto spell checking.

*. Change FPS (can be used to fix invalid subtitle display times... not always though).

*. Split subtitles.

*. Easily merge video subtitles (say that you have 2 subtitles for cd1 and cd2... but would like to merge it to a single file... not that easy since you have to manually edit the time delays, etc but possible).

*. Insert new subtitle to the current one.

*. Translate!.

*. Shift entire positions.

*. Unlimited undo capability. 

*. Remove hearing impaired texts.

*. Save in different formats.

*. Search and replace specific words/texts. 

*. You can even play the subtitle with the proper video file and make a live preview too!.

These just the main features of the amazing application called Gaupol to name. To be honest, this is one of the best video subtitle editors that I've come across, so far.

If you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal or 10.04/10.10, and want to learn how to install Gaupol, then use the below command in the Linux command line (Terminal).

sudo apt-get install gaupol 

That's it!.

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Install LiVES in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (a Video Editing System for GNU/Linux)

LiVES is an advanced video editing system written in GTK+ toolkit designed to be used with GNU/Linux operating system (aimed at Gnome desktop, actually). From loading different types of video files to its GUI to editing them using a lot of effects, it is a small (needs about 23-24MB of downloading size) yet a powerful video editing application nonetheless.

It's a very flexible utility and can be controlled directly (other than in your PC of course) through a video sever as well. It uses the MPlayer (my favorite :D) as the multimedia decoding engine, although not always but I think as a result it must help to speed up things a bit since MPlayer rely on the FFMPEG libraries which are well known for their performance when comparing with other multimedia frameworks such as Gstreamer and Phonon (may not always be true, anyway). 

Lets have a look at few of the main features of LiVES Video Editor...

*. Any video format supported by MPlayer, you can use in LiVES (means a LOT :D).

*. Also supports editing Ogg-Vorbis and Theora (GNU licensed competing multimedia codecs).

*. Forward/Reverse playback.

It comes with a lots of features that can be a bit confusing if you aren't much of a video editing expert, like me :)...

*. Edit/Cut/Paste/Copy clips.

*. Record and save individual clips or frames.

*. Backup files in losseless formats.

*. Remotely stored file editing support.

*. It's very flexible and by using the the plugins API (written using C/C++), you can expand its features as well.

*. According to the LiVES features page, it now supports over 50 multimedia file types such as - mjpeg, mpeg4, mpeg1/2, h264, VCD, SVCD, DVD, ogg/mp4 ogm, Matroska mkv, dv, swf, Ogg Theora, Dirac, MNG, Snow, xvid, and even animated GIF and even PDF!.

*. Rotating/changing bit-rate, cropping, resizing and trimming videos with ease.

*. De-interlacing (using MPlayer's built in powerful features) and subtitle extracting/embedding.

*. Supports audio formats such as mp3, vorbis, mod, it, xm and wav files.

*. Extracting audio file from a video.

*. Automatic adjusting of audio speed when rendering.

*. Drag and drop support.

*. Live previews.

*. Lots of built in video effects such as - zooming, color cycling, panning, fade-in/fade-out frames and lots of real-time effects... are just a very few of its main features to mention.

If you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (should work in 10.04 or 10.10) you can install LiVES Video Editor by entering the below command in your Terminal.

sudo apt-get install lives

That should do it. Enjoy!.

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How to Install Yakito in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal ? (A Cross-Platform Multimedia Converter)

Yakito is an interesting little tool for converting multimedia files in GNU/Linux. Although the application itself is not an encoding "engine" because it relies on the FFMPEG and JAVE projects to get things done yet I think the developer has done a pretty decent job of giving the users an easy to use, powerful multimedia converter nonetheless.

To make things much more easier, Yakito comes with predefined presets that let you easily convert a file for a give device such as Xbox, HTC Desire, iPod, etc as well. You can add create a list of multimedia files that need to be converted into its main window and start converting.

Main features...

*. As mentioned before, it's based on FFMPEG mainly thus you can convert between almost all the popular codecs.

*. You can either choose to extract audio/video files within the container format or convert them or can simply disable them.

*. Change audio or video codecs.

*. Set bitrate depending on your needs.

*. Change FPS, compression levels.

*. Re-Size video resolution. Although you cannot crop videos currently with it which is very handy while preserving that bitrate/file size but lets hope that the cool Yakito developers would add it in the future.

*. Amplify audio (audio gain).

Although for this example I used Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal but you can install Yakito in other GNU/Linux distributions by using the below procedure.

1. First download the ".sh" shell script from here.

2. Then go to that downloaded location/folder in your Terminal and enter the below command (replace the text in "Red" with your downloaded version).

chmod +x yakito-0.1.2-linux.sh

3. Then again enter the next command (this time also replace the text in "Red" with your version).

sudo ./yakito-0.1.2-linux.sh

That should do it. The developers have even created a video guide on how to install it ... so here it goes. Enjoy!.

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How To Install Miro 4.0.1 In Fedora Core 15 ?

Now I previously talked about installing Miro 4 in Ubuntu but it won't work in Fedora Core (really Gayan!, oh I didn't know that :P). And to be honest when comparing the both operating systems, although I have a few issues with Canonical, yet these days thanks to the PPA (personal package archive), you can install almost anything (codecs, etc) in Ubuntu using as low as three commands.

But with Fedora Core things are a bit hard, well, they've always been. But you certainly don't have to get frightened, since Miro developers are kind enough to maintain an official package for Fedora Core in their repository.

Since I've already talked about it I'm not gonna write a complete list of its new features all over again. Yet as an introductions, Miro is both an excellent multimedia player + converter that comes with a gorgeous looking GUI... and with the update to the latest version 4... now you can easily share your multimedia files with Android devices, purchase MP3 online (via Amazon), etc.  So it's more than just another "player".

To install Miro 4.0.1 in Fedora Core 15, just open your Terminal and enter the below command.

yum install Miro

That should do it. Enjoy!. 

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How To Install the PiTiVi Video Editor in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (stable PPA)?

Video Editing in GNU/Linux has never been easy. Although not just me but anyone who's got a decent knowledge (like me) would agree to this, I think :). I don't know if the reason for this is because there are less "business" opportunities (is it?, really?) in the GNU world but this could well easily be due to the fact that almost all the widely used audio/video codecs these days are proprietary.

Since most of the GNU/Linux developers aren't that forgiving when it comes to dealing with proprietary software in general (I'm also a bit like that, but I love my movies too :P) because they're fighting to eliminate the "mindsets/believe system" behind software proprietary, or at least that's what we're told... so by creating a magnificent Video editor, can easily end up being a "helping hand" for the expansion of the proprietary codecs.

Anyhow, these days we're seeing a lot of new projects + the totally "free" multimedia codecs seems to be gaining some momentum such as Vorbis or Theora, etc, GNU/Linux will most definitely have a bright future concerning multimedia "without a doubt" :/.

In that sense, if you're searching for an excellent video editor for your PC/Laptop then PiTiVi is a pretty good one. Although in comparison with some other apps such as Openshot, etc PiTiVi does not have a lot of options yet it looks promising.

Main features...

*. Import/Export files.

*. Trim/Crop/Cut/Ripple, etc your video files with ease.

*. It uses the Gstreamer multimedia framework.

*. With PiTiVi you can also separately edit the audio file within the container format as well (Again, cut/paste/trim, volume settings, etc).

*. Zooming/Change playback speeds.

*. Mouse wheel integration for ease of control.

*. Generate video thumbnails (well it should!).

*. Although it's written in non vicious Python :P, but integrates with GTK written apps as well.

*. Well written user manual.

*. Save files in predefined settings (resolution/codec, etc).

*. Easy to use GUI... are just a few to mention.

As said this uses the Gstreamer, so any file that Gstreamer support you can import into PiTiVi. I'm not quite sure about other distributions but with Ubuntu you actually get the PiTiVi installed by default.

But whenever the developers release new features (lets say, while they're at "stable/beta" stages) then by installing it using the stable PPA you can get a taste of those features which is impossible with the official versions.

If interested, you can install PiTiVi 0.14.0 (the latest stable release) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pitivi/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pitivi

For 10.10 and 10.04 users, please use the below command instead.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gstreamer-developers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pitivi

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Miro 4 Is Released, How To Install it in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

Miro is one of the best open-source media player applications that is available for lots of different types of platforms such as GNU/Linux, MS Windows and Mac OSX. Not just the gorgeous looking GUI but with Miro you can even convert multimedia files with ease as well.

Although I've written about it in the past (when it was at 3.6 version) but according to the developers themselves you should consider upgrading to the latest version (4) since it brigs major improvements/features when considering its predecessors.

Few of the noticeable "enhancements"...

*. Sync multimedia files with Android devices.

*. Android and Amazon MP3 store support.

*. Unity's appindicator integration.

*. Share files in any PC/Laptop that has Miro installed (over the network as well) - DHT support.

*. Shuffle/Repeat playback options.

*. Watched/unwatched "filter" for video feeds.

*. New volume slider (only for Mac OSX).

*. Important media option added.

These are just a few of the main features to mention. So, if you want to install the Miro version 4 in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, then open your Terminal and enter the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pcf/miro-releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install miro

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How To Install Rosegarden in Ubuntu

I love music, well who doesn't. It's just awesome the feeling that you get... although I don't know what's in it for others but, me, for some reason, music just brings the mind to "this" moment rather than indulging in here and there... it maybe for a few minutes... but it's totally awesome! :).

But sadly I'm the worse musician :(. I have a friend who has same pretty impressive artistic (creating music to be precise, dude sucks when it comes to singing :P) abilities and after seeing him doing his "thing" in his PC I also wanted to install and to create a music track!.

But within the first few minutes, I was confronted by my intuition, showing how bad I was as a musician... so I gave it up.

But for all ya lucky ones out there with a talent for music creation who also happens to be using GNU/Linux, then you might be interested in the app called Rosegarden!. Although I'm not an expert in this field.. so, honestly, I really can't say if Rosegarden is really worth it. But I'll let you decide.

I couldn't find a singe "Rose" in it :)....

Here are few of its main features (fetched from the official site)...

*. Audio track editor.

*. MIDI manager.

*. Matrix, Event editor.

*. Record and mix your audios with the provided effects and samples.

*. Edit/Print notations.

These are just a few to name (I guess ;-) ), if you want to install Rosegarden in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, then you can do so by entering the below command in your Terminal. This should also work for 10.10 and 10.04.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ferramroberto/rosegarden
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rosegarden

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Gnac for GNU/Linux, Convert Audio Files Has Never Been This Easy!

Multimedia or proprietary software in general does not go so well in GNU/Linux . Although this has nothing to with GNU/Linux being a insensitive entity... when properly configured, oh she can do amazingly well.

Hell!, sometimes when it comes to playing audio/video, advanced players like MPlayer can actually play your content with the same amount of quality still using less system resources when comparing some of the "paid" multimedia players for Microsoft Windows for instance.

Anyway, let me get back to the story, if you want to convert between a lot of different audio files in GNU/Linux then you should consider Gnac!. I do criticize Gnome's idea of simplicity whenever it's been reminded ;-) but even though Grac also has a simplified GUI which is written GTK+, yet it comes with almost all the features that one needs in an audio converter without a doubt.

The developers recently released a (May 5th, 2011 actually) new version which now add the support for extracting audio files within the video container itself as well.

Main features...

*. Since it uses the Gstreamer, it can convert between all the major audio files with ease - mp3, aac, wma, wav, ogg, etc.

*. Edit track/year/album-name/artist name from the app itself.

*. Change bit-rate and sampling rate, etc.

*. Change the storing location of the converted audios.

*. Add album-art/covers... are few of the main features to mention.

You can easily install Gnac in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (should work on 10.10 and 10.04) by entering the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnac-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnac

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Have You Tried Floola, Manage iPod/iPhone in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Made Easy!

Not everyone is a fan of Apple's iPhone or iPad but most seems to be :P. In that sense, Floola is an excellent iPod-Phone manager (also works on several Motorola models it seems) that lets you do things even the official iTunes itself can't!.

Yep that's right. For instance, according to the developer you can move audio files directly from your audio player to your laptop or PC (that runs GNU/Linux) and then you can move that file directly to the reader!. Not just music but Floola supports all the things the Apple's fancy iTunes let you to such as ...

*. Manage playlists.

*. Manage Podcasts, Video, pictures and audio.

*. Excellent Lyrics support.

*. Convert audio/videos into iPhone/iPod supported formats.

*. Fixing some of the "messes" that other software did to your iPod!.

*. Search for lost and duplicate files... are very few of its main features to mention.

When it comes to converting, it supports a huge amount of file types since it uses the ffmpeg library as well. Anyhow, as said, if you run Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal then you can install Floola by downloading the package form here and simply double click on it to install. That's it!.

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