Audio/Video

A Better Raspberry Pi Streaming Solution

By Shawn Powers 

In the June 2016 issue, I described my Raspberry Pi outdoor camera build. Since then, however, I've discovered a different way to stream video from it. more>>

Radio Free Linux

By Alan Peterson 

You would have a difficult time today finding a radio station that was all-live and did not have some kind of computerized, automated means of storing and playing audio. more>>

DVEO's Jitter Box IP/IP

By James Gray 

Telco TV/OTT and IPTV operators must deal with the fact that many IP transport streams are asynchronous. This makes the streams prone to poor video quality due to jitter if they are sent to Program Clock Reference (PCR)-compliant devices. more>>

When BirdCam Goes Mainstream

By Shawn Powers 

If you read my articles on when I originally set up BirdCam a few years ago, you'll remember I did it with compatibility in mind. At the time of this writing, BirdCam is simply an HTML page with the JavaScript language to refresh the images constantly, in order to create a low-fps video stream of sorts. more>>

Nativ Disc

By James Gray 

Although most music lovers stream or download music today, the stubborn pre-millennials among us have legacy CD collections at home. This demographic is the perfect target group for Nativ Disc, a bit-perfect CD Ripper that allows users to import up to 12,000 CDs—in lossless FLAC, uncompressed WAV or lossy MP3 format—into their Nativ Vita high-resolution music player. more>>

Blender for Visual Effects

By James Darvell 

Video editing and visual effects are two closely related fields. They're also dominated by expensive proprietary software. There are open-source alternatives to some of these packages, and some of them stand up very well by comparison. more>>

Dear Kodi, Where's My Surround?!?!

By Shawn Powers 

I love Kodi. (This is just an evolution of my love for XBMC, since it's the same thing with a new name.) In fact, although I've expressed my love for Plex over and over (and over) the past few years, I still use Kodi as my main interface for the televisions in my house. more>>

Non-Linux FOSS: Airsonos

By Shawn Powers 

I love Sonos. There probably are some audiophiles reading this who rolled their eyes at my lack of auditory prowess, but honestly, the speakers sound wonderful to my 1980s-damaged eardrums. Granted, the Wi-Fi-enabled speakers are very expensive, thus limiting my supply. more>>

Look Mom! I'm on the Internet!

By Shawn Powers 

Streaming video to multiple people always has been a challenge. Back when Kyle Rankin and I did "Linux Journal Live", we'd use services like ustream or justin.tv in order to accommodate the bandwidth requirements. The problem with those services is that unless you pay significant money, the features are extremely limited. more>>

The AtoMiC Toolkit!

By Shawn Powers 

If you're a cord cutter (and a nerd), you most likely have a server or two dedicated to serving and possibly retrieving videos from the Internet. Programs like Kodi and Plex are awesome for media delivery; however, there's more to a complete system than just playing the videos. more>>

Non-Linux FOSS: Animation Made Easy

By Shawn Powers 

If you've ever wanted to make an animated film, the learning curve for such software often is really steep. Thankfully, the Pencil program was released and although basic, it provided a fairly simple way to create animations on your computer (Windows, Mac or Linux) with open-source tools. Unfortunately, the Pencil program was abandoned. more>>

Tomahawk, the World Is Your Music Collection

By Shawn Powers 

I don't listen to music very often, but when I do, my tastes tend to be across the board. That's one of the reasons I really like Pandora, because the music selection is incredible (in fact, I can't recommend the Pithos client for Pandora enough—I've written about it in past issues). Unfortunately, with Pandora, you don't get to pick specific songs. more>>

Roll Your Own YouTube/Flickr with MediaGoblin

By Shawn Powers 

Everyone has wasted an afternoon on YouTube clicking through videos of talking cats, screaming goats and bad-lip-reading renditions of popular movies. Heck, there are plenty of YouTube videos of me doing odd and silly things as well. (Does anyone remember 'Buntu Family Theater?) For important family videos, however, I much prefer to control my own data. more>>

Great Scott! It's Version 13!

By Shawn Powers 

No matter how much I love Plex, there's still nothing that comes close to XBMC for usability when it comes to watching your network media on a television. I've probably written a dozen articles on Plex during the last few years, so you know that's tough for me to admit. more>>

Pro Video Editing with Pitivi

By Shawn Powers 

Several decent video editors are available on the Linux platform. Kdenlive, OpenShot, Cinelerra and Pitivi are those that come to mind as "big players" in an admittedly small market. I've used them all through the years, with varying levels of success. more>>

Syndicate content