getting heavily into multimedia on ubuntu, how to start?

[Robert P. J. Day]

  obviously an open-ended question, but is there a canonical guide for
setting up a multimedia-oriented version of lynx?  i'm aware of the
ubuntu-studio distro but i would prefer to configure the various MM
apps one at a time to see how they all hold together.

  certainly, there's enough out there if one googles on some
combination of "ubuntu" and "multimedia".  but, as i said. i'd like to
put this together step by step to understand the underlying technology
(mostly gstreamer, of course).

  as a first step, from what i've read, i probably want to install the
ubuntu-restricted-extras package.  and almost certainly add the
medibuntu repository to my sources.list file.

  and a more specific question now.  i see that my default lynx
install gave me the "totem" player which, predictably, can't play a
DVD for me due to a lack of appropriate plugin:

"The required software to play this file is not installed. You need to
install suitable plugins to play media files. Do you want to search
for a plugin that supports the selected file?

"The search will also include software which is not officially
supported."

  exactly what i expected, but i'm curious as to whether one can then
determine precisely what plugin is required.  the search fails to find
an appropriate plugin, but is there some kind of debugging mode that
would tell me what exactly is missing before i even started the
search?

  long story short:  i want to get these MM apps working but i want to
carefully follow along *how* they fit together as i do it.

rday

p.s.  is it safe to assume that gstreamer forms the fundamental basis
of multimedia on ubuntu these days?

-- 

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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

            Linux Consulting, Training and Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
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