<chapter>
<title>Video tools</title>
<subtitle>Video software included in dyne:bolic</subtitle>

<para>
The GNU/Linux platform nowadays offers an interesting range of tools
for video manipulation; most of them are in development, being video a
frounteer for multimedia production, they are being set new standards
and paradigms of interaction which users may not always find familiar.
At present time the most reliable and flexible tools available absolve
tasks like encoding, converting between video formats, streaming and
realtime effected video.
</para>

<para>
You should consider the fact that most of the video tools running on
GNU/Linux platform are still in a BETA stage of usability and
therefore can reveal to be unstable in certain situations.
</para>

<para>
Now lets proceed thru the video softwares included in dyne:bolic,
following a subdivision in task categories:
</para>

<section>
<title>VeeJay</title>

<para>
The following applications represent a pioneeristical way to approach
video manipulation in realtime, made possible by the constant growth
of computational power offered by personal computers. If you work in
the field of media art and visual art, dance or scenografy, the
following softwares can reveal to be useful to your research:
</para>

&freej;

&effectv;

&synaesthesia;

</section>





<section>
<title>Play</title>

<para>
In this section you'll find tools to playback various video formats as
AVI, MPEG and DIVX files, signals from TV cards or RTSP live streams
from the net.
</para>

<tip><para>
The main codec suggested for video files is <ulink
url="http://www.xvid.org">XViD</ulink>, a free reimplementation of the
DivX:) compression algorithm.
</para></tip>

&mplayer;

&xawtv;

&gmp4player;

</section>



<section>
<title>Record</title>

<para>
Video recording is supported from the firewire device, TV/video card
and from DVD: you can record from your DV cam, from TV or an analog
video input as a VHS, or you can rip DVDs in a digital file that can
then fit inside a simple CD.
</para>

&kino;

&mencoder;

&nuvrec;

</section>




<section>
<title>Edit</title>

<para>
Editing video is a hot topic speaking about free software, in fact
there is still not a wide choice of tools covering this field
(compared to other fields), while development is rapidly evolving.
</para>

<para>
Inside dyne:bolic you'll find the two best applications that are
available for video editing, the first implements a canonical approach
to non-linear editing, while the second is a new promising application
using a linear "cut and paste" approach and supporting more video formats
for input files.
</para>

&cinelerra;

&lives;

</section>




<section>
<title>Stream</title>

<para>
Streaming video can be easily setted up in three different ways: each
of them has advantages, requirements and drawbacks.
</para>

<para>
Let's make a scheme to make things easier to catch: in the top row
you'll find the name of the software employed in each of the three
ways, and further down explained their peculiarities.
</para>

<table><title>The three ways to stream video with dyne:bolic</title>

<tgroup cols=4 colsep=1><thead>
<row>
<entry> </entry>
<entry> mp4live </entry>
<entry> palantir </entry>
<entry> hasciicam </entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis>codec</emphasis></entry>
<entry>Mpeg 4</entry>
<entry>Multipart/Jpeg</entry>
<entry>(h)ASCII</entry>
</row>

<row>
<entry><emphasis>requirements</emphasis></entry>
<entry>an online server running Darwin broadcast software; to watch the stream an external video player is necessary.</entry>
<entry>the video camera must be directly attached to the server; needs a web browser supporting multipart content push (m$ IE doesn't works).</entry>
<entry>need just a video-in and eventually an online webserver with ftp access.</entry>

</row>

<row>
<entry><emphasis>features</emphasis></entry>
<entry>good quality and smooth framerate; can record while streaming; efficiently uses bandwidth when running on multicast; can stream audio synced with the video.</entry>
<entry>good quality; can be seamlessy embedded in webpages and works very smoothly in local networks; can stream audio synced with the video.</entry>
<entry>uses very low bandwidth; can upload video via ftp to a server; can be viewed directly from any web browser (also text based); it looks pretty cool</entry>
</row>

<row>
<entry><emphasis>drawbacks</emphasis></entry>
<entry>can be hard to find or setup a broadcast server; slower machines can't stream neither play it.</entry>
<entry>uses much bandwidth; it's impossible to have smooth movement when streaming on the web.</entry>
<entry>the image is formed of characters: nifty, but doesn't gives a clear image and is just monochrome; can't achieve a smooth frame movement.</entry>
</row>

</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>

<para>
I'm also writing an extensive research on the topic of streaming video
with free software, the latest version is published online at the address
<ulink url="http://korova.dyne.org/video_streaming">
korova.dyne.org/video_streaming</ulink>
and available as well as a downloadable and printable document:
<ulink url="http://korova.dyne.org/video_streaming.pdf">
korova.dyne.org/video_streaming.pdf</ulink>.
</para>

&mp4live;

&palantir;

&hasciicam;

</section>


</chapter> <!-- VIDEO -->
