Chapter 8: Music, Video, and Images in Linux

Overview

In This Chapter

• Listening to music

• Using Webcams and TV cards

• Playing video

• Working with digital cameras and images

Nearly every kind of audio and video format available today can be played , displayed, encoded, decoded, and managed in Linux. With the recent development of the Theora video codec, there are now patent-free, royalty-free formats available for every major type of multimedia content. If you are starting from scratch, today you can legally create, manipulate, and share your own multimedia content from Linux using all free applications and codecs.

This chapter covers many different tools that come with Fedora and RHEL for playing or displaying digital music, video, and images. It also takes a swipe at explaining some of the legal issues surrounding software for playing commercial movie DVDs, MP3 music, and various audio/video formats in Linux.

Video content that is readily available on the Internet for playing movie clips, commercial films , and other content can be viewed using several different players in or available for Fedora and RHEL. Also, you can view live television and video using TV cards and Webcams.

Because CD-ROM is the medium of choice for recorded music, this chapter describes how to set up and use CD burners to create your own music CDs. After your CD burner is set up to record music, you can use the same CD burner to back up your data or to create software CDs. (The same tools can be used to burn DVDs as well.)