David King
davidk@gnome.org 2013
Multi-format audio and video playback and editing, streaming from the web, and webcam support.

# Multimedià

Play and record a multitude of audio and video formats

Access webcams and other media devices connected to the system

Share and stream media with remote devices

Add multimedia to your application so that users can easily play their content. Consume and share content with other devices attached to a system or remotely over the network. The underlying low-level API is available if you need more control.

Videos

# What can you do?

Multimedia in GNOME is built on the GStreamer framework. With GStreamer, flexible pipelines of media can be created, from simple playback of audio and video to complex non-linear editing.

GStreamer uses PulseAudio when outputting audio, and therefore can target many types of output hardware. PulseAudio also handles dynamic output switching and application-specific volume control.

For webcams, use Cheese. It provides a simple interface to webcams connected to the system, and an easy way to add an avatar chooser to your application.

Use Rygel to share content over the network to devices such as TVs and games consoles. Rygel uses GUPnP underneath, which is a low-level API to access content with UPnP protocols.

For simple event sounds, such as a shutter sound when taking a photo, use libcanberra, which implements the freedesktop.org sound theme specification.

# Real-world examples

You can see lots of real-world applications of GNOME multimedia technologies in open source projects, like the examples given below.

Videos is the GNOME multimedia player.

( Website | Screenshot | Source code )

PiTiVi is a non-linear video editor, which makes extensive use of GStreamer.

( Website | Screenshot | Source code )