3. Multimedia

Abstract

With MandrivaOne you can play CDs, DVDs, video and audio files and burn CDs and DVDs. You can also use powerful photo retouching software to manipulate images, for example the ones you download from a digital camera.

3.1. Playing Music

3.1.1. Audio CDs

When you insert an audio CD in your CD drive a window pops up, if you choose to play the CD, the KsCD player starts up.

Figure 1.16. KsCD's Main Window

KsCD's Main Window

[Tip] Tip

Once KsCD is launched, this quick-launch icon appears near the clock. Right-click on it, to access KsCD's main features.

On the left you have the typical CD player controls: Play/Pause, Stop, Eject, etc. The ones below alter the playing order. The CDDB button can be used if your CD information doesn't appear automatically, it displays the CD's title, artist and tracklist information. Click on the last button to access more advanced configuration options.

3.1.2. Audio Files

 Choose Multimedia+SoundAmarok from the main menu to launch Amarok.

Figure 1.17. Amarok's Main Window

Amarok's Main Window

Figure 1.17, “Amarok's Main Window” shows the main interface components of Amarok:

Browser. This displays various information depending on the function selected using the tabs at its left.

Playlist. Where the files to be played are shown. Right click on any file to access a menu allowing you to play the file, remove it from the playlist, etc.

Play Controls. Amarok's play controls are “standard” audio equipment ones: Previous/Next Tracks, Play, Stop. The Play button doubles as a Pause button too. Keep the Stop button pressed to select whether to stop playing immediately or after the current playing song has finished.

Volume Control. Slide it right to increase the volume and left to decrease it. Right click on it and select Equalizer from the menu that pops up to open an equalizer window where you can enhance bass and treble, and even select some preset equalization curves.

 The Collection browser enables you to view and organize your entire music collection. To use it, you need to create a collection first: click on the Build Collection button, check all the folders you want Amarok to look for music files and click Ok to start building the collection.

[Warning] Warning

If you added files from removable devices (such as a USB key or an external hard drive), make sure they are mounted at the same location as when you originally added them to your collection or Amarok won't be able to find the files they contain.

Then, start adding files to the Playlist by double clicking on them in the collection browser. Once satisfied with your songs selection, simply press the (Play) button to start enjoying your music.

3.2. CD/DVD Burning

We concentrate on using K3b to perform common CD burning operations. DVD recording is very similar to its CD counterpart.

[Note] Note

Copyrighted Material. Please note that data, audio, video CD or DVD copying is often forbidden by copyright law. We assume that if you want to duplicate copyrighted material, it's because you have the right to do so.

Choose Administer Your SystemBurn CDs-DVDs from the main menu to start K3b. Figure 1.18, “K3b's Interface” shows K3b's interface with a new data project open.

Figure 1.18. K3b's Interface

K3b's Interface

Toolbar. Where buttons to perform common actions lie: open and save projects, erase rewritable media, copy CDs, etc.

File Manager. To choose which files to include in the burned CD. Use the left-side tree to navigate the file system and drag and drop the files you want to include in the project into the Project Manager.

Project Manager. Where all files which will be on the burned CD are shown and handled. Files can be removed and their location (directory) on the CD can be changed here.

3.2.1. Burning a Set of Files or Directories

Choose File+New ProjectNew Data CD Project from K3b's menu . Then drop into the Project Manager the files and directories you want to include on the CD (see Figure 1.19, “Selecting Files and Directories to Include on a CD”).

Figure 1.19. Selecting Files and Directories to Include on a CD

Selecting Files and Directories to Include on a CD

[Note] Note

Adding directories containing lots of files can take some time. Please be patient and wait until the Adding files to Project PROJECT_NAME message disappears.

The space occupied by the selected files and directories is shown by a color-coded bar at the bottom of the Project Manager, together with the volume expressed in MB and the available MB of the medium's total capacity. The bar's color codes are as follows:

Green

The size of the set is less than that of the selected medium's capacity (700 MB by default). There are no capacity-related problems.

Yellow

The size of the set is nearly equal the selected medium's capacity. If it's a few MB below the medium's capacity, there won't be any capacity-related problems; if it's a few MB above the medium's capacity, the CD might be written without problems, but there's little guarantee of success.

Red

The size of the set exceeds the medium's capacity by many MB. The CD won't be recorded properly.

Right-clicking on any file or directory in the Project Manager pops up a contextual menu with options to remove and rename files, create new (empty) directories, etc. Files and directories can be relocated (change the directory under which you want them to appear) on the CD using drag-and-drop.

[Tip] Tip

Renaming the top element of the left side tree in the Project Manager changes the CD's volume name (K3b data project by default for data CDs).

Choosing the ProjectBurn menu entry displays a window where you can select writing parameters (see Figure 1.20, “Setting Writing Parameters”). Insert a recordable medium in the CD burner and click the Burn button to start writing the CD.

Figure 1.20. Setting Writing Parameters

Setting Writing Parameters

3.2.2. Burning Audio CDs (CDDA)

By audio CDs, we mean the ones you play in your car or home stereo equipment, not data CDs containing OGG, MP3 or any other digital audio format files.

K3b supports recording audio CDs from tracks digitized in Wave (*.wav), Ogg Vorbis (*.ogg), and MP3 (*.mp3) formats. You can mix digital audio formats since K3b decompresses the compressed ones on-the-fly. K3b can also create digital audio tracks from audio CDs.

Choose File+New ProjectNew Audio CD Project from K3b's menu. Select K3b's File Manager's filter to Sound Files, navigate to where the digitized audio files are and then drag the audio tracks and drop them in the Project Manager (see Figure 1.21, “Selecting Audio Tracks to Include on the CD”).

Figure 1.21. Selecting Audio Tracks to Include on the CD

Selecting Audio Tracks to Include on the CD

Use drag and drop to move the files up and down the compilation. Once you have the tracks compiled in the order you want in the Project Manager, you can write them to CD.

3.3. Playing Movies

3.3.1. Video Files

 Choose MultimediaVideo+kaffeine from the main menu to launch Kaffeine. The first time you launch Kaffeine you are presented a configuration wizard, you can just advance through it accepting the proposed settings.

Figure 1.22. Kaffeine's Interface

Kaffeine's Interface

Kaffeine's interface (Figure 1.22, “Kaffeine's Interface”) is comprised of the following:

Sidebar. The sidebar allows you to switch between Kaffeine's windows, according to what you're doing: view Kaffeine's start menu, listen to audio CDs, a playlist, and watch DVDs.

Play Controls. A reduced set of the usual VCR controls: Previous, Play/Pause (keyboard shortcut: Space Bar), Stop (keyboard shortcut: Backspace) and Next.

Display Area. Where the movie being played is shown. Press the Ctrl-Shift-F keys to switch between full-screen and windowed modes.

Status. Located at the bottom right of Kaffeine's window, it shows information about the playlist and the movie being played.

Choose FileOpen to open a standard file open dialog allowing you to choose the movie you want to play, select it and click Open, the movie starts playing immediately.

3.3.2. DVDs

When you insert a video DVD on your machine it starts playing immediately inside LinDVD. Figure 1.23, “DVD Playback Interface” shows LinDVD's interface. It is composed of two parts: the playback window, which looks like a TV screen, and the DVD control window, which looks, and works, like a regular DVD player.

Figure 1.23. DVD Playback Interface

DVD Playback Interface

3.4. Digital Photo Studio

 Choose MultimediaGraphics+digiKam from the main menu to launch digiKam. The 1st time you are asked to provide a folder to store pictures into. You can accept the default /home/your_user_name/Pictures.

3.4.1. Building a Photo Album

 Choose AlbumNew Album from the menu and fill album properties (see Figure 1.24, “New Album Settings”), then accept your settings to create the album.

Figure 1.24. New Album Settings

New Album Settings

 Choose Album+ImportAdd Images from the menu and use the standard file dialog to select the pictures you want to add to your newly created album, then click on Add.

[Tip] Tip

You can add all the pictures contained on a given folder by choosing Album+ImportImport Folders from the menu and browsing for a folder, instead of files.

3.4.2. Rotating Pictures

Create a set of pictures and choose one of the entries (90º, 180º or 270º) of the Image+Rotate menu.

Many digital cameras store rotation information within the image file. In this case you can choose ImageAuto Rotate/Flip Using Exif Information from the menu to have the picture rotated automatically in the correct direction.

[Warning] Warning

All transformations on pictures (such as rotation) are done on the on-disk file. digiKam doesn't make a backup of the transformed pictures. Also bear in mind that all transformations are, when possible, loss-less.

3.4.3. Touching-Up Pictures

Double click on a picture to open the image edit window. Note that all touch-up operations affect the quality of the picture's on-disk file. Also bear in mind that on-screen rendering is quite different from printing your digital pictures on photographic paper. So if you intend to both print and publish your pictures for online viewing, it might be wise to treat both copies differently from the beginning.

[Tip] Tip

Press Ctrl-Z to undo the last transformation operation. However, once you have saved the image, changes cannot be undone.

Brightness, Contrast and Gamma

 Choose Fix+ColorsBrightness/Contrast/Gamma from the menu and use the sliders to adjust the brightness, contrast and gamma of the picture using the picture copy as a guide.

Sharpen

 Choose FixSharpen from the menu, drag the square to the part of the image to be used as a guide, and use the slider to sharpen the picture.

Red-Eye Reduction

 Select the pupil of the eye to fix, choose FixRed Eye Reduction from the menu, and then select the aggressive (only part of the eye selected) or mild (more than the eye selected) option to reduce the red-eye flash effect. Repeat for the other eye, if needed.

Image Resizing and Cropping

 Multi-megapixel images are excellent for photographic paper print-ups, but are far from adequate for e-mailing or publishing on the web. Choose TransformResize from the menu, then select the desired size, either in pixels or in percentage, and whether to keep (recommended) or not aspect ratio.

 You can also crop an image to a desired size while keeping aspect ratio. Choose TransformAspect Ratio Crop from the menu, drag the square to frame the part of the image you are interested on and select the aspect ratio, orientation, width and height (one follows the other according to the aspect ratio selected).

[Tip] Tip

For electronic publication, the usual aspect ratio is 4:3, while for printing the usual aspect ratio is 3:2.

Usually a size of 640x480 is enough for e-mailing a photo, while 800x600 is enough for web publishing.