getting heavily into multimedia on ubuntu, how to start?

[sam tygier]

On 29/05/10 10:32, Robert P. J. Day wrote:

>    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.

ubuntu make much use of meta packages. a software package can tell the package manager that it needs some other packages installed. meta-package does not contain any software itself, but will cause several related packages to be installed

ubuntu studio uses some metapackages to install all the applications that it needs. if you look at the metapackages you can see what software they install. eg,ubuntustudio-audio
http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/ubuntustudio-audio

you can see all of them at
http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=ubuntustudio&searchon=names&suite=lucid&section=all


>  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:
  
this page is pretty good to find out how to play something (including DVD)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats


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

gstreamer is a library that many pieces of software use to deal with multimedia. but its not the only one. also it is not the whole stack. a standard example might be:
appplication (totem)
library (gstreamer)
sound-server (pulseaudio)
driver (alsa)
hardware (your sound card)


sam