Ubuntu on a Media/Torrent machine

freshmasterfresh

All I use this computer for is media playback and my various torrent needs, so I decided to install Ubuntu after my most recent installation of XP took a shit. Aside from my ATI video card, all of the hardware support seems just fine. I was impressed with the installation process, but I'm not happy with either the default media player or VLC player. At this point I'm thinking of retreating to the familiarity of Windows, but before I do, I want to give you fine gentlemen a chance to work your magics.

Should I stick with Ubuntu?

If so, can I get Ubuntu to play nice with NTFS? Which media playback software and codecs should I go with? What is the best torrent program?

Unfortunately, www.getautomatix.com appears to be down at the moment, but I'll be checking into that when I can.

postenl

First off, don't use automatix.. it makes things easy but it also has the tendency to break stuff. My advice is to use the guides in the community wiki there will be guides for everything you need in there for setting up a media/torrent computer. for Example you asked about NTFS. This guide will show you how to setup NTFS for read/write in ubuntu. And this one might be more detailed if you need it.

As for media players. You didnt say why you had a problem with VLC so im not sure what you are looking for. I use Mplayer cause it just works, along with the mplayer plugin for mozilla. Just make sure you have all the normal codecs installed, here is a page on that

For torrent progams I recommend Ktorrent. It has been the best torrent program I have used in windows or linux. its a KDE app but you can run it in gnome, just install it through the repositories and it will install all the KDE stuff that it needs automatically.

DruG

I love Ubuntu so far. Beautifully done. Try installing Beryl sometime.

NTFS support is automatic. Just have to mount the partition to be able to read it, although I think I had to claim ownership from my root account so I could modify it with my regular account.

I have trouble running multiple torrents myself, but I haven't tried ktorrent yet. The one that comes pre-installed pulls up a port error when I try to open more than one torrent to download.

Other than that, it's really the favorite part of my computer right now. Especially since they sent me a CD for free in the mail, it arrived two weeks later in a nice package, and had stickers!

Darmak

DruG wrote: »

I love Ubuntu so far. Beautifully done. Try installing Beryl sometime.

NTFS support is automatic. Just have to mount the partition to be able to read it, although I think I had to claim ownership from my root account so I could modify it with my regular account.

I have trouble running multiple torrents myself, but I haven't tried ktorrent yet. The one that comes pre-installed pulls up a port error when I try to open more than one torrent to download.

Other than that, it's really the favorite part of my computer right now. Especially since they sent me a CD for free in the mail, it arrived two weeks later in a nice package, and had stickers!

My copy came with stickers too! Hi5! (I didn't need a copy since I already had one downloaded, but my girlfriend saw I was interested in Ubuntu and went ahead and had them send me a CD!)

Seriously though, I love Ubuntu and I would probably use only it except for the fact that I love to play games and I don't feel like having to fuck with Wine whenever I want to play the new hotness that just came out. So instead I dual boot and get the best of both worlds.

Mblackwell

For movies MPlayer should do you well, and for music Rhythmbox/Amarok/Banshee should do you well (and doing well should do you well.... apparently I've forgotten other expressions for things working nicely). I think Rhythmbox is a default installation. Syncs with iPods too.

As far as torrents, you can just apt-get azureus, though for some people it's bloated I tend to mess with torrent settings a lot so as not to piss off the other people in the house .

If you want the latest ATI drivers your best bet is a program called Envy. It makes setup easy and generally won't break your system, though you must keep in mind that if you upgrade/install a new kernel you should uninstall the graphics driver and use the default BEFORE you reboot (unless you know what you're doing). Then you can simply reinstall and restart X. Tada.


Oh, and to get most codecs make sure you have installed

gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly

You can only get these if you have the universe and multiverse repos selected in synaptic.

Unicron

If you really, really don't like VLC, have a look at kplayer. A KDE frontend (so if you're in Gnome it'll be a bit more memory heavy) to mplayer, it has neato features like a library and playlist management.

For torrents I like deluge (there's an ubuntu .deb there, just download it and double click to install) or ktorrent. I find they're about equal in functionality so it's really up to personal preference there.

Also you didn't mention anything about music players, but if you want one, Amarok is better than sex (or so I've heard amirite lol) and should be reason enough for you to stick with Linux.

Oh yeah and please, please please don't use Automatix.

Mblackwell

There's also SMPlayer for an MPlayer frontend. I don't use it but it looks nice.

http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/en/index.php

DruG

Also, having an Add/Remove control panel that actually lets you ADD programs is a beautiful thing to behold.

I spent my first week on vacation just playing with the starcharts.

DruG

Is there a better place to find video drivers than what comes on the CD?

I've got a shitty Intel 950GM, but it's good enough for my purposes.

However, I can't watch video while using Beryl's 3D desktop... is this an issue with Beryl and the 950 or does Beryl still require dev work?

Barrakketh

DruG wrote: »

Is there a better place to find video drivers than what comes on the CD?

I've got a shitty Intel 950GM, but it's good enough for my purposes.

However, I can't watch video while using Beryl's 3D desktop... is this an issue with Beryl and the 950

You mean it's slow, or you don't see the video at all?

does Beryl still require dev work?

Beryl is no more. It is being merged with Compiz Fuzion, which will be available in the next release (Gutsy Gibbon).

japan

DruG wrote: »

However, I can't watch video while using Beryl's 3D desktop... is this an issue with Beryl and the 950 or does Beryl still require dev work?

I had this problem, but I can't remember how I fixed it. There's an obscure setting you need to tweak.

Found it here:

For GStreamer players (such as totem, the default movie player in GNOME, Ubuntu and so on), you need to run from the command line the command
gstreamer-properties
(with older distributions such as Ubuntu 6.06 there is an option in System/Preferences for this).
and pick Video, then for Default Video Plugin choose X Window System (No Xv). Click on test to verify that it actually works. Click Close and you are set.

DruG

Barrakketh wrote: »

DruG wrote: »

Is there a better place to find video drivers than what comes on the CD?

I've got a shitty Intel 950GM, but it's good enough for my purposes.

However, I can't watch video while using Beryl's 3D desktop... is this an issue with Beryl and the 950

You mean it's slow, or you don't see the video at all?

does Beryl still require dev work?

Beryl is no more. It is being merged with Compiz Fuzion, which will be available in the next release (Gutsy Gibbon).

No video at all.

Will the auto-updater cover downloading everything for the new release?

Or should I just order a new CD? (I want to stockpile them.)

DruG

japan wrote: »

DruG wrote: »

However, I can't watch video while using Beryl's 3D desktop... is this an issue with Beryl and the 950 or does Beryl still require dev work?

I had this problem, but I can't remember how I fixed it. There's an obscure setting you need to tweak.

Found it here:

For GStreamer players (such as totem, the default movie player in GNOME, Ubuntu and so on), you need to run from the command line the command
gstreamer-properties
(with older distributions such as Ubuntu 6.06 there is an option in System/Preferences for this).
and pick Video, then for Default Video Plugin choose X Window System (No Xv). Click on test to verify that it actually works. Click Close and you are set.

That'll allow me to keep video running while using the Cube? I realize it's kind of pointless... but I don't like turning off Beryl every time I try to watch some anime.

japan

DruG wrote: »

Will the auto-updater cover downloading everything for the new release?

Or should I just order a new CD? (I want to stockpile them.)

What version are you running just now? If it's 7.04 (fiesty), then when 7.10 is released it should pop up a dialogue that will let you upgrade.

It worked fine on my laptop moving from 6.10 to 7.04.

EDIT: re: playback. It works for me (on both my machines), but I can't say with absolute certainty that's what I did to fix it. For reference, my laptop has a Mobility Radeon 7500 using the "ati" driver (that's the open-source one, not the Ati-supplied fglrx driver) and my desktop has a Geforce FX5200 using the nVidia driver.

DruG

7.04.

But I've been neglecting it lately in favor of adobe premiere pro under XP.

Know of any good free video editing software for linux?

victor_c26

I'd like to add to the conversation and ask a question about VLC in Ubuntu.

Did anybody notice that VLC video playback in Ubuntu isn't as sharp as, say, the CCCP community codec pack?

For some reason, video playback with VLC in Ubuntu doesn't look as sharp and as vibrant as video playback in Windows.

His Corkiness

uTorrent, arguably the best torrent client for Windows, runs fine under Wine.

Mblackwell

victor_c26 wrote: »

I'd like to add to the conversation and ask a question about VLC in Ubuntu.

Did anybody notice that VLC video playback in Ubuntu isn't as sharp as, say, the CCCP community codec pack?

For some reason, video playback with VLC in Ubuntu doesn't look as sharp and as vibrant as video playback in Windows.

I dunno, maybe it's just VLC. Using Totem and MPlayer I find I have a much better video playback experience than I did in Windows with MPC and WMP. Could be your codecs too, or their settings. Maybe could be filters....

I'm talking out my arse since I don't use VLC, but it's something to look at.

DruG wrote: »

7.04.

But I've been neglecting it lately in favor of adobe premiere pro under XP.

Know of any good free video editing software for linux?

On the level of premiere, I don't know. I believe there were a few like Cinelerra. And then you have Kino, and Avidemux. There's also PiTiVi, which I don't know much about but hey look a Wiki...

DiannaoChong

Yeah since wine was updated last I started using utorrent again, its probably one of the best clients for BT ive seen hands down.

I am having an issue getting the RSS downloader to automaticly start downloading things though

freshmasterfresh

I really like uTorrent and the Community Codec Pack w/Zoom player in Windows. I'm tempted to just reinstall XP, spend a few hours to get everything the way I like, and then be done with it until it decides to fuck up again.

Not having 3D acceleration is a bit of a deal breaker, and it doesn't seem worth it to spend an untold number of hours just to get that enabled when I've got all the XP drivers ready to go.

That said, I am going to keep this Linux partition around. It's neat.

Mblackwell

Erm... What was wrong with installing Envy as I suggested and installing the latest official ATI driver? It does all the setting up for you...

freshmasterfresh

I'll just leave what I have with feisty as it is and install the drivers when that becomes a reality.

I don't need 3d acceleration, but I have decided that I do need Windows. Sometimes I don't want to fuck around with my computer to get something done. Eventually I may start needing windows less often, but for now I'm going to dual-boot.

EDIT: ohwait, I read that wrong the first time. I thought for some reason you were talking about using an older version of Ubuntu just now. I remember thinking I should do that next time I have time to fuck around with my pc, but that probably won't be until either Tuesday or Thursday night.