How To Get WebM Support In Epiphany Web Browser

Epiphany web browser is probably the only browser which doesn't need an update to be able to display WebM videos.

You do need however an updated Gstreamer which Ubuntu users can install from the Gstreamer devs PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gstreamer-developers/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

If at this point you get an error about some package trying to overwrite a file in some other package, you can easily fix it using the following command:

sudo apt-get -f install

Then also install Gstreamer plugins bad:

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

At this point you'll be able to watch WebM videos in Epiphany web browser. For YouTube, don't forget to activate the HTML 5 mode.

Gnome Media Player Added To The Official Ubuntu 10.10 Repositories

GNOME Media Player supports the VLC, Xine and Gstreamer engines for playing media. It also has the ability to switch between the engines, and an engine auto select mode which automatically selects the best engine for playing a particular type of file.

GNOME Media Player is very new so until now you had to use a PPA to install it in Ubuntu - but that's not the case in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat as GNOME Media Player has been included in the Official Ubuntu repositories.

If you're still using Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala or Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx however, you still need a PPA to install it (note: this is a development PPA; also: GNOME Media Player is still in it's very early stages so it may not be very stable):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome-media-player-development/development && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-media-player

Gnome Media Player requires VLC < 1.1.0 (libvlc2 to be more specific - this is now libvlc5 in VLC 1.1.0) so if you've added the WebUpd8 PPA and installed VLC 1.1.0, use PPA Purge to remove it (you can then safely re-add the WebUpd8 PPA as VLC 1.1.0 has been removed from the PPA due to many issues with it).

Easy To Use Gnome Audio Conversion Application Based on GStreamer: Gnac

[Linux only] Gnac is an easy to use audio conversion program for the Gnome desktop. It is designed to be powerful but simple! It provides easy audio files conversion between all GStreamer supported audio formats.

To install Gnac in Ubuntu, you can add the following Launchpad PPA repository:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/gnac-team/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

And the GPG key:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 10394F73

And then:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gnac

Or you can just download the .deb package:

gnac_0.2.1-0~ppa1_amd64.deb

gnac_0.2.1-0~ppa1_i386.deb

For other Linux distributions, see Gnac download page.

Please note: To enable MP3 encoding, you need to install GStreamer! If you do not have GStreamer installed, follow the instructions specific to your distribution:

• Ubuntu: Simply click here.
• Debian: Add the debian-multimedia repository. Then, install the gstreamer0.10-lame package.
• Fedora: Add the livna repository. Then, install the gstreamer-plugins-ugly package.
• Gentoo: emerge gst-plugins-lame.
• Mandriva: Add the PLF repository. Then, install the gstreamer0.10-lame package.
• Suse: Add the packman repository. Then, install the gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly package.

[via ubuntu tips]