Multimedia

From openSUSE-Community

Image:Multimedia.png
Support for some multimedia formats cannot be included on the openSUSE CDs because they're proprietary, patented, Restricted Formats. Some of these include MP3, MPEG-4, playing of Encrypted DVDs, etc. In many cases you can use free formats instead. Below we'll go through a few of these:


Contents

[edit] Free Formats


[edit] Ogg

Ogg is an open standard for a free container format for digital multimedia, unrestricted by software patents and designed for efficient streaming and manipulation. This includes both Audio and Video.

Being a Container format, Ogg can embed audio and video in various formats, and usually Ogg is used with the following:

Audio

  • Vorbis (lossy)- handles general audio data at mid- to high-level variable bitrates (~16-500 kbit/s/channel)
  • FLAC (lossless) - handles archival and high fidelity audio data.

Video

  • Theora - based upon On2's VP3, it is targeted at competing with MPEG-4 video (for example, encoded with DivX or Xvid), RealVideo, or Windows Media Video.

Software Freedom is important, please always use these where possible.

[edit] Restricted Multimedia Formats (MP3, MPEG-4, etc.)


[edit] openSUSE 11.0 or 10.3

To go through a simple wizard guiding you through the installation process of some additional multimedia codecs where necessary, simply click on one of the links below:

If you are using the KDE Desktop Environment

codecs-kde.ymp

If you are using the GNOME Desktop Environment:

codecs-gnome.ymp

This will enable you to have:

  • Flash
  • Java
  • Latest Amarok (with MP3 Support) for KDE, or Helix-Banshee for GNOME users
  • Encrypted DVD (libdvdcss)
  • Extra xine Codecs, for MPEG-4 etc. (libxine1)
  • K3b with MP3 Support (k3b-codecs)
  • Win 32 Codecs (w32codec-all)

..as well as the option of installing (select Advanced mode at the screen) many more applications, including Opera, KMPlayer, Kplayer, MPlayer, Azureus, VLC, Codeine, and more.

Note: Different copyright and patent laws apply differently depending on what country you are in; if you are unsure about a particular restriction or patent, you might consider applying for legal advice. This site does not offer legal advice. For more information about why some formats/codecs are restricted and why they don't ship out-of-the-box on openSUSE, read Restricted Formats.