UMPlayer Update; Sublime Text 2 Gets Solarized [WebUpd8 PPA]

UMPlayer

UMPlayer is a new cross-platform SMPlayer fork. Since it uses Mplayer, it can play most video formats and comes with some very interesting features. For instance, it supports CSS skins so it's very easy to theme.

I've updated UMPlayer to revision 143 in the WebUpd8 PPA - this update brings a feature many have been asking for in the comments: the time position in the video is now remembered (thanks to Steve for the tip!).

Install UMPlayer in Ubuntu 11.04, 10.10 and 10.04:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install umplayer

Sublime Text 2

Sublime Text 2 is a TextMate-like text editor currently in alpha which is now available for Linux too (as well as Windows and Mac OSX).

Sublime Text 2 has also been updated to the latest rev but besides this, I've also incorporated Solarized dark and light color schemes with the Sublime Text 2 package. I've also announced this on ppa.webupd8.org but I felt this deserves a mention on WebUpd8 too.

What's "Solarized"? Check out our previous post: Solarized: A Must Have Color Scheme For Gnome Terminal, Vim, Gedit And Lots More

Install Sublime Text 2 in Ubuntu 11.04, 10.10 and 10.04 using the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/sublime-text-2
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sublime-text-2

To get the new Solarized color schemes for Sublime Text 2 (Sublime Text 2 supports TextMate color schemes so these are TextMate color schemes) you may have to either purge the previous Sublime Text 2 (sudo apt-get purge sublime-text-2) and then reinstall or manually remove the config folder (~/.config/sublime-text-2 - you can backup some files if you've customized some settings and copy them back once you install the latest Sublime Text 2).

Then, select Preferences > Color scheme > Solarized dark or light.

Of course, if you want you can also manually install the Sublime Text 2 Solarized color schemes: download them from HERE, then place the files under "~/.config/sublime-text-2/Packages/Color Scheme - Default".

Note: Solarized for TextMate (which are used by Sublime Text 2) are currently work in progress.

UMPlayer Available In The WebUpd8 Ubuntu PPA

UMPlayer is a new cross-platform Mplayer front-end that supports CSS skins, easily searching, watching and downloading YouTube videos, lots of ShoutCast radio stations and more. Check out our initial post on UMPlayer for more info.

I know you like PPAs so I've uploaded the latest UMPlayer 0.9.2 (svn r162) to the WebUpd8 PPA for Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10 and 11.04 and I'll continue to update it when major changes happen.

Add the WebUpd8 PPA and install UMPlayer using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install umplayer

A few readers have reported that using Mplayer from the Ubuntu official repositories UMPlayer doesn't work so you may want to install the latest MPlayer from the MPlayer daily builds PPA (this PPA is even linked in the MPlayer download page). Add it and upgrade MPlayer using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:motumedia/mplayer-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

If you don't want to add the PPA, you can download Ubuntu .deb files @ UMPlayer download page (there are also openSUSE, Fedora and Mandriva .rpm files as well as a Windows installer available for download).

UMPlayer: New Cross-Platform Mplayer GUI Based On SMPlayer

"UMPlayer (Universal Multimedia Player) is the multimedia player that fills all your needs. With dozens of advanced features and built-in codecs it can handle any media format, and can play Audio CDs, DVDs, (S)VCDs, TV / Radio cards, YouTube™ and SHOUTcast™ streams and even incomplete or damaged media files."

UMPlayer is a new cross-platform SMPlayer fork. Since it uses Mplayer, it can play most video formats and comes with some very interesting features. For instance, it supports CSS skins so it's very easy to theme. For now, there are just a few themes available but more should be available soon.

Here's an example of a UMplayer skin:

Another interesting feature is that it allows you to search, play and save YouTube  videos straight from its interface. However, this seems to be broken for the moment, most probably because YouTube changed something once again, breaking Mplayer.

UMPlayer also comes with ShoutCast support and a huge list of radio stations so if you're missing this being removed from VLC, try UMPlyer. You can find this under Tools > ShoutCast.

Other features include: audio and video equalizers, take screenshot of running video, find subtitles on OpenSubtitles, audio & subtitles delay adjustment and many more. Check out the UMPlayer features page for more info.

Overall, UMPlayer has a great potential, but it's a bit buggy for now. For instance if I play a video, open the equalizer and close it, the video starts from the beginning. I've found a few other minor glitches but overall it looks pretty good and you should definitely give it a try.

Download UMPlayer (available for Linux - .deb and .rpm, Windows and Mac OSX)

Thanks to rAX for the tip!

PPA Updates: Minitube, gThumb, Launchpad Getkeys, Dropbox Share

This post is just a short summary of some updated packages in the WebUpd8 PPAs.

Minitube

Minitube stopped working yesterday due to some changes to the YouTube website. The update broke all applications for playing / downloading YouTube videos, but luckily Minitube has been updated (version 1.3) to include a fix. The new version also comes with a new icon and is available as always in the main WebUpd8 PPA, for Ubuntu Lucid and Maverick:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install minitube

Unfortunately this version also comes with a regression: the Linux version has lost its seeking functionality. Hopefully it will be re-added in a future version.

gThumb

I've also updated gThumb (2.12.1) which is now in sync with Debian unstable. This is not a new version of the application but a new version of the packaging which fixes some pretty important bugs. As usual, gThumb is available both in the WebUpd8 gThumb PPA and in the main WebUpd8 PPA.

Install it from the gThumb PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/gthumb
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gthumb

Launchpad Getkeys

Late last night I've updated Launchpad Getkeys to work with non-English Ubuntu. Initially, the script only worked if you had installed Ubuntu in English.

Install Launchpad Getkeys:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install launchpad-getkeys

Unfortunately the script does not work if you need a proxy.

Dropbox Share

Dropbox Share has been updated to use "dropbox-index.html" instead of "index.html" file name when sharing a folder (an .html file is created when sharing a folder so you can easily navigate all the subfolders in a web browser). The new version also removes these dropbox-index.html files automatically when unsharing a folder (and when the script notices you've removed the link from the Dropbox Public folder).

Install Dropbox Share:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dropbox-share

Install Miro 3.5 In Ubuntu [Now With Built-In Media Converter]

Miro is a free/open source video player that automates subscribing to feeds of videos that are fetched using Bittorrent and then played in a flexible player that supports practically every format. Miro works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Miro 3.5 was released yesterday with an option to easily convert media to various video/audio formats for your media devices, better HTTP downloading performance using libcurl, option to specify the font style and encoding for the subtitles and bug fixes which include faster torrent restarting, proxy/http authentication and more.

Install Miro 3.5 in Ubuntu

To add the Miro PPA and install Miro 3.5 in Ubuntu (Karmic, Lucid and Maverick), use the following commands:

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

How to enable conversion for most formats in Miro 3.5

Using the default Ubuntu packages (ffmpeg), Miro 3.5 can't convert to most of the media so it will fail when trying to convert a video for your iPhone, Droid, G2 and so on (when trying to convert to these formats, you'll get an error related to libfaac). That's because the ffmpeg package in the official Ubuntu repositories has not been build with libfaac support.

To fix this (I know, I hate that everything needs fixing too, but this one is just an extra installation):

1. Add the Medibuntu repository.

2. Install libavcodec-extra-52:

sudo apt-get install libavcodec-extra-52

Now the new video conversion feature in Miro 3.5 should work with any format (well, except for PSP, I didn't have any luck with that):

Download Miro 3.5 for Windows, Mac OSX and source files.

VLC 1.1.0-Pre1 Might Be Released On Tuesday

Jean-Baptiste Kempf, one of the main VLC (everybody's favourite movie player. well, true for 64% of you anyway) developers posted the following message on the VLC mailing list:

I suggest a tag of 1.1.0-pre1 and a following string freeze the next tuesday. Tarball and binaries for Win32/Mac would then be available for testing.

You can read Jean-Baptiste's entire message, HERE.

Of course, he only suggests this so it's not official yet. But it could mean we'll have a first VLC 1.1.0 (pre1) release around Tuesday, next week. The new release will come with a few known bugs:

• 2864/3088, mkv multiple audio freeze
• http, rc, telnet are not working on Win32
• upsampling/resampling asserts/crashes #3199
• some Qt fixes
• various lua issues
• projectM
• fontcache rebuilding on all videos on Win32

As you can see, the new 1.1.0 will be released for Windows and Mac OSX. But if you're using Ubuntu, you can still give VLC 1.1.0 a try because as you probably know, VLC 1.1.0 is available in the WebUpd8 PPA. In fact, I've uploaded a build as of today just seconds ago and I will continue to maintain VLC 1.1.0 (as long as I can do it - there are huge changes to the source every day) until there is an official Ubuntu PPA or VLC 1.1.0 will be available in the Ubuntu repositories.

As always, before using the WebUpd8 PPA, I have to remind you that it contains experimental packages and I am not responsible for whatever happens if you use it (your computer explodes, etc =) ).

You can add the WebUpd8 PPA and install the latest VLC 1.1.0 from GIT (as well as the latest x264 of course), using the following commands (Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic and 10.04 Lucid only!):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install vlc

How To Compile VLC and VLMC (From GIT) In Ubuntu Karmic [Complete Step-By-Step Guide]

I wanted to post a full how-to for compiling VLC Media Player and VLMC (VideoLAN Movie Creator) from GIT in Ubuntu Karmic for some time, but since I've already compiled both VLC and VLMC, the how-to couldn't have been complete (that's why I initially only posted some very basic steps) since there would be some dependencies missing (there might still be, but the how-to is now more accurate). But since the holidays are over and I had to go to work today, I tough I'd compile it on this computer and tell you exactly what dependencies you need to install and the complete compilation steps needed to run both of these applications developed by VideoLAN.

Current VLC version: 1.1.0-git
Current VLMC version: 0.0.1-git

The reason for also compiling VLC is that VLMC needs the latest VLC GIT version installed to run. That's also the reason you have to remove any VLC packages you may have installed on your computer (so that the GIT libraries are used).

Important: For all the "checkinstall" commands below: if it doesn't work for you, you can simply use "sudo make install" instead of "sudo checkinstall ...". The reason I like using "checkinstall" is that it creates a .deb file (for local use only - don't use it for distribution as it's not a normal .deb file with dependencies) so you can later remove or update the application, like any other application installed through a .deb file (sudo apt-get remove vlc x264 vlmc).


The first thing you need to do is install some dependencies and the tools needed to compile x264, VLC and VLMC:

sudo apt-get install checkinstall build-essential cmake libtool automake autoconf git-core ffmpeg libxcb-shm0-dev libxcb-xv0-dev libx11-xcb-dev libcdparanoia-dev libcdio-paranoia-dev libcdio-cdda-dev libqt4-dev qt4-dev-tools qt4-qmake nasm yasm libasm-dev lua5.1

QT libraries should be solved with "build-dep" but I had some issues with it.


And extremely important: remove all the VLC packages you may have installed through the Ubuntu repositories or PPAs:

sudo apt-get remove vlc vlc-data vlc-nox libvlc2 libvlccore2 mozilla-plugin-vlc vlc-plugin-jack vlc-plugin-pulse x264

You might as well search for VLC in Synaptic and remove everything.

Before getting started, please note that to be able to build VLC with the mozilla plugin, at the time I'm writing this post, you need to have xulrunner version 1.9.1, and not 1.9.2 and 1.9.3, so if you have any of the last 2 installed (of course, with -dev), remove them and install xullrunner-1.9.1. You can of course install xullrunner 1.9.2 or 1.9.3 after successfully compiling VLC

Compiling x264-git

x264 is optional but you might want it for enabling x264 in VLC.

cd && git clone git://git.videolan.org/x264.git
cd x264/
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall --fstrans=no --install=yes --pkgname=x264 --pkgversion "1:0.svn`date +%Y%m%d`-0ubuntu2" --default

Compiling VLC-git

sudo apt-get build-dep vlc
cd && git clone git://git.videolan.org/vlc.git
cd vlc/
./bootstrap

We will now use configure with some basic options. Too see the available options, see ../configure --help. You can also simply use ../configure if you wish. ".." is needed because we will run the command in an empty folder and the configure file is one directory back.

mkdir build && cd build
../configure --enable-x11 --enable-xvideo --disable-gtk --enable-sdl --enable-avcodec --enable-avformat --enable-swscale --enable-mad --enable-libdvbpsi --enable-a52 --enable-libmpeg2 --enable-dvdnav --enable-faad --enable-vorbis --enable-ogg --enable-theora --enable-faac --enable-mkv --enable-freetype --enable-fribidi --enable-speex --enable-flac --enable-live555 --enable-caca --enable-skins --enable-skins2 --enable-alsa --disable-kde --enable-qt4 --enable-ncurses --enable-release --enable-realrtsp --enable-twolame --enable-real --enable-cddax --enable-mozilla --with-mozilla-pkg=xulrunner-plugin --enable-x264

Look through the options and remove (disable) what you don't need and only keep what you need. You could use the latest SVN versions of ffmpeg and live555, but I compiled VLC with their repository versions. See instructions for building ffmpeg and live555, here.

Why disable GTK and KDE? Because on the VLC wiki it says:

There are also some libraries that are no longer being maintained and which we advise not to use. These include the gtk, gnome and kde GUIs, the glide and mga modules.

Now we can finally "make" and install it:

make
sudo checkinstall --fstrans=no --install=yes --pkgname=vlc --pkgversion "1:1.1.0-git`date +%Y%m%d`-0.0ubuntu2" --default

Possible issues:

While running "make", I got an error which is because the Vesa and Nvidia drivers installation order:

/usr/lib/libGL.so: No such file or directory ubuntu

To fix it, run the following commands:

sudo dpkg-divert --remove /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2
sudo aptitude remove libgl1-mesa-glx
sudo aptitude install libgl1-mesa-glx
sudo rm /usr/lib/nvidia/libGL.so.1.2.xlibmesa
sudo aptitude install nvidia-glx-185

The above 'fix' (partially found here) presumes you are using nvidia 185 drivers. Change the last line if you are using a different version. Also, use "aptitude" instead of "apt-get", as this way you won't remove a lot of files because they depend on libgl11-mesa-glx. And finally, remember what packages are removed with the "sudo aptitude remove libgl1-mesa-glx" command, so you can install them back (just "ubuntu-desktop" and "nvidia-glx-185-dev" in my case).

Another possible issue is that even though you install VLC in /usr/lib/, it copies files to /usr/local/lib, and VLC fails to start with the following error (as seen here, but I've noticed some other files need symbolic links too):

vlc: error while loading shared libraries: libvlc.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

To fix this, you need to create symbolic links from some files in /usr/local/lib/ in /usr/lib/. To do this, run the following command:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libvlc* /usr/lib/
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libx264.a /usr/lib/
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/vlc /usr/lib/vlc

Compile VLMC-git:

cd && git clone git://github.com/VLMC/vlmc.git
cd vlmc/
cmake .
make

Now you can run VLMC:

./vlmc

Final note: There might still be some dependencies missing, but you will have to take care of those yourself (simply search for them in Synaptic or using apt-cache search). Wow! It only took me ~3 hours to write this post =).


References / further info:

VLC Wiki - Unix compile
VLC Wiki - Git