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Archives For November 30, 1999

Kodi 19.4 Released with Various Fixes! Install it via Ubuntu PPA

Last updated: March 5, 2022

The popular Kodi media center has the first update in 2022 by releasing v19.4. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu.

The release fixed many issues in the Kodi 19 “Matrix”, including Chinese keyboard character display issue, seekbar wouldn’t disappear when pause via a remote app, EDL mute now working, flickering with interlaced H.264 SD on AMD GPUs. For Linux, it now automatically plays DVDs.

And for Xbox users, it may now passthrough audio via WASAPI, and install Python add-ons without permission issue. See release note for more about Kodi 19.4.

How to Install Kodi 19.4 in Ubuntu:

Kodi has an official Ubuntu PPA. It usually contains the latest packages for all current Ubuntu releases.

1. Add Kodi PPA.

Firstly, open terminal either by searching from the activities overview screen or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.

When terminal opens, paste the command below into it and hit Enter to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

Type user password when it asks (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue.

2. Install / Upgrade Kodi.

If you’re now running the stock version of Kodi package in Ubuntu, the Software Updater may refuse to update it. So it’s recommended to use the command below to install or update the media player.

Firstly refresh system package cache for old Linux, e.g., Ubuntu 18.04, by running command:

sudo apt update

Next, install or upgrade Kodi via command:

sudo apt install kodi

Once installed, you may open Kodi like normal apps by searching from the overview screen. Or log out and select login via Kodi session.

The PPA also provides more audio encoder and PVR add-ons packages. Install them as you need via either apt command or synaptic package manager.

How to Downgrade:

You can purge the Ubuntu PPA as well as downgrade Kodi to the stock version available in Ubuntu main repositories. To do so, run command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
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How to Install The Latest Kodi 19.2 via PPA in Ubuntu 21.04, 20.04

Last updated: October 10, 2021

This simple tutorial shows how to install the latest version of Kodi media center in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04, and their based systems, e.g., Linux Mint 20, Elementary OS 6 and Zorin OS 16.

Kodi, formerly XBMC, is now at version 19.2 “Matrix”. It fixed some possible crashes caused by missing timer type, missing channel icons, accessing invalid PVR channel, or switching monitors, toggling on/off HDR from Windows 10 display settings.

The big one in the release it that Kodi 19.x now is available on the Xbox, along with swap chain and HEVC DXVA2 decoder performance improvements, and 4k resolution and HDR video playback fixes. For more, see the release note.

How to Install Kodi 19.2 in Ubuntu:

Kodi has an official Ubuntu PPA. It usually contains the latest packages for all current Ubuntu releases.

1. Add Kodi PPA.

Firstly, open terminal either by searching from the activities overview screen or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.

When terminal opens, paste the command below into it and hit Enter to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

Type user password when it asks, while no asterisk feedback, and hit Enter to continue.

2. Install / Upgrade Kodi.

If you’re now running the stock version of Kodi package in Ubuntu, the Software Updater may refuse to update it. So it’s recommended to use the command below to install or update the media player.

Firstly refresh system package cache for old Linux, e.g., Ubuntu 18.04, by running command:

sudo apt update

Next, install or upgrade Kodi via command:

sudo apt install kodi

Once installed, you may open Kodi like normal apps by searching from the overview screen. Or log out and select login via Kodi session.

The PPA also provides more audio encoder and PVR add-ons packages. Install them as you need via either apt command or synaptic package manager.

How to Downgrade:

You can purge the Ubuntu PPA as well as downgrade Kodi to the stock version available in Ubuntu main repositories. To do so, run command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
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SMPlayer 21.8.0 Adds macOS Support, Linux Appimage, Flatpak, & Snap

Last updated: August 18, 2021

SMPlayer media player released version 21.8.0 with official dmg package for macOS, and more binary packages for Linux users.

SMPlayer is a free open-source video player for Windows and Linux. By releasing v21.8.0, it finally adds macOS support officially. It uses MPV and/or MPlayer multimedia engine, so it can play virtually all video and audio formats.

The player remembers the settings of all files you play, so when you open an unfinished movie it will be resumed at the same point you left it, as well as the same settings. It also has built-in YouTube browser, allows to search for and click to play YouTube video directly in the media player.

I always keep SMPlayer in my system as an alternative media player, because it has some useful features that I need. They include:

  • ability to fetch subtitles from internet.
  • cast to smart phone and chromecast.
  • rotate video and change aspect ratio while playback.

What’s New in SMPlayer 21.8.0

Besides the macOS package, Linux Appimage, Flatpak, and Snap support, the release also include following changes:

  • Better automatic resizing of the main window, trying to prevent black borders.
  • Add option to rotate the video by 180 degrees.
  • Add some predefined speeds (0.25x, 0.5x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x).
  • Prevent a one second delay when using play prev/next.
  • The installation of YouTube support is now optional on Windows.
  • Disable power saving on Linux Wayland during playback.
  • And some bug-fixes.

How to Get SMPlayer:

The media player now is available at Github. All the binary packages as well as source tarball are available to download at the link below:

Download SMPlayer

For Linux, since Appimage is a non-install executable, Flatpak and Snap are universal package formats need separate daemons to run in sandbox, native .deb / .rpm package may still be preferred.

To install and keep SMPlayer native packages up-to-date, you can either use the official OBS repository for Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE.

Or use the official Ubuntu PPA for all current Ubuntu releases, Linux Mint, and derivatives.

1. Add Ubuntu PPA.

Open terminal either from start menu (click top-left ‘Activities’, search for and open terminal), or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rvm/smplayer

Type user password, no asterisk feedback, and hit Enter to continue. So for, it supports Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 21.04.

2. Install / Upgrade SMPlayer:

After adding the PPA, you can either install it via command:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install smplayer smtube

or upgrade the player via Software Updater (Update Manager) if an old release was installed.

Uninstall SMPlayer in Ubuntu:

To remove the PPA, either open “Software & Updates”, go to “Other Software” line and remove the relevant repository line, or run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:rvm/smplayer

To remove the media player, run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove smplayer smtube
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Install Parole Media Player 0.9.2 via PPA in Ubuntu 17.04

Last updated: July 9, 2017

Parole, a modern simple media player for XFCE, has reached the 0.9.2 release. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.10, Ubuntu 17.04 via PPA.

Parole 0.9.2 requires GTK >= 3.20. Ubuntu 16.04 won’t be able to update to this release with the default GTK+3 libraries.

Parole 0.9.2 features:

  • Update homepage to docs.xfce.org
  • Switch Xfce URLs to HTTPS
  • Keyboard shortcuts helper available in the Help menu
  • New B/N keybindings for previous and next track
  • Fixed null pointer dereference
  • Fixed adding directories to queue via commandline
  • Fixed shuffle functionality also repeating
  • Fixed display order of audio and subtitle tracks
  • Fixed “Clear Recent” clearing global history
  • Fixed Ctrl-Q keybinding when in fullscreen
  • Fixed string escaping in audiobox widget
  • Complete the Parole Plugins documentation and improved documentation quality
  • translation updates and code quality improvements.

How to Install Parole 0.9.2 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 16.10 and Ubuntu 17.04, do following steps to add PPA and install or upgrade Parole to version 0.9.2:

1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for “Terminal” from app launcher. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Type in your password (no visual feedback when typing due to security reason) when it prompts and hit Enter.

2. Then upgrade the media player via Software Updater utility:

or run following commands to install / upgrade it:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install parole

For Ubuntu 16.04 users who’ve updated GTK version (no recommended for beginners), grab the .deb package for Ubuntu 16.10 from HERE.

Uninstall:

Run following command to purge the PPA repository which also downgrade installed packages to the stock version in your Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps
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How to Install the Latest MPV Media Player in Ubuntu 16.04

Last updated: July 19, 2016

MPV is a free and open-source media player forked from MPlayer2. It was started to modernize MPlayer by adding modern features, and removing unmaintainable code and dropping support for very old systems.

MPV uses FFmpeg or Libav for decoding, it can be used as a library in other applications (e.g., SMPlayer, and Gnome MPV).

Notable changes from MPlayer:

  • Through youtube-dl, MPV natively supports playback of HD content on YouTube and over 300 other supported sites.
  • include customizable video output driver based on OpenGL that supports for controlling playback quality
  • MPV can be used directly by other applications through a library interface called libmpv.
  • a new video encoding mode that can save playing files under different formats.

How to Install MPV in Ubuntu:

MPV is available in official Ubuntu repositories, but it’s old and Canonical does not provide updates for it. Besides building from the source code, you can install the latest version from this PPA.

1. To add PPA, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/mpv-tests

2. Then upgrade Mpv using Software Updater or just run the command in terminal to install/upgrade it:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install mpv

3. (Optional) To remove the PPA, go to Software & Updates -> Other Software tab. And remove mpv via command:

sudo apt remove mpv && sudo apt autoremove
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How to Install QMplay2 Qt Media Player via PPA in Ubuntu Linux

Last updated: January 1, 2014

QMplay2, a qt-based media player and downloader just got a new update. As you may know, QMplay2 plays all formats and stream supported by ffmpeg and libmodplug (including J2B). Also it has an integrated Youtube browser.

According to the changlog, the new release fixed ALSA issue, improved the code and playback settings, added the possibility to record covers as well as German translations.

Install QMplay2 in Ubuntu:

QMplay2 is updating frequently, one or two weeks per release, the best way to get the player is using the PPA repository.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:samrog131/ppa

After that, you can always run below commands (or use Synaptic Package Manager) to install or upgrade QMplay2:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install qmplay2

Once installed, open the player from Menu / Unity Dash, or media files’ context menu.

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VLC 2.1.0 (Stable) Released, Upgrade in Ubuntu 13.10

Last updated: September 27, 2013

VLC 2.1.0 stable has been released with numerous improvements, new features and bugfixes. 2.1 is a major upgrade for VLC, named RinceWind.

Below is the announcement in VLC website:

VideoLAN and the VLC development team are glad to present the new major version of VLC, 2.1.0, named RinceWind

With a new audio core, hardware decoding and encoding, port to mobile platforms, preparation for Ultra-HD video and a special care to support more formats, 2.1 is a major upgrade for VLC.

Rincewind has a new rendering pipeline for audio, with better effiency, volume and device management, to improve VLC audio support.

It supports many new devices inputs, formats, metadata and improves most of the current ones, preparing for the next-gen codecs.

Rincewind fixes around a thousand bugs, in more than 7000 commits from 140 volunteers..

At the moment of writting this tutorial, the release note is still 404 page. I’ll add the link once it’s OK.

Features:

AUDIO:

  • Rewritten audio core, allowing better volume and device management.
  • Rewrite of the audio modules, to adapt to the new core.
  • Correct support for multi-channel layouts in all formats: 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1
  • New audio outputs for Windows Vista, Android, iOS, OpenBSD and OSSv4.
  • New remapping, gain, stereo widening, downmixing effects.
  • Higher samplerate, precision, live configuration in the core.
  • Numerous new audio metadata format supported.

VLC new audio core

VEDIO:

  • Port the OpenGL output to OpenGL ES.
  • Support color conversion shaders in glsl on Android and iOS.
  • New outputs for OpenMax IL on mobile and Decklink Blackmagic.
  • New video outputs for iOS using OpenGL ES2.
  • Support for deinterlacing for higher bit depth and XYZ colorspace.
  • New anaglyph filter for side-by-side 3D.
  • 4K-ready :)

CODECS:

  • Add hardware decoding for OS X using VDADecoder.
  • Add hardware decoding for Android using MediaCodec.
  • Add hardware decoding for GNU/Linux using VDPAU.
  • Add hardware encoding for Windows using Intel QuickSyncVideo.
  • Support for G2M4, MSS1, MSS2, TSCC2, CDXL, Ut, VBLE video codecs.
  • Support for Ulead DV audio, Indeo Audio Coder, RealAudio Lossless audio.
  • Support for SCTE-27 and complete EIA-608 subtitles

faster video decoding

FORMATS:

  • Support for fragmented MP4, Wave/RF64 files.
  • Extended metadata tags and cover art support in Ogg, AVI, MP4 and MKV.
  • Support FLAC, Atrac, ADPCM, DV Type 1, 12bits DV audio in AVI.
  • Extended support for AVI, MKV and MJPEG streams.
  • Better recording of AVI and MKV format.
  • Audio fingerprinting using AcoustID.

INPUT AND DEVICES:

  • Support for screen input on OSX Lion and later.
  • Support for Microsoft Smooth Streaming, developed by Viotech.net
  • New RTMP input module, using libavformat!
  • Support for VNC/rfb and Remote Desktop view-only modes.
  • Important improvements on Blu-Ray, Dash, v4l2 and HTTP inputs.
  • New AVFoundation OS X and shm framebuffer inputs.

FOR ANIME FANS:

  • New 6.1 downmixer to 5.1 and Stereo from MKV/Flac 6.1.
  • Correct YUV->RGB color matrix in the OpenGL shaders.
  • Improved MKV support for seeking, and resiliancy.
  • Editions support in MKV.
  • Better subtitles and metadata support from MKV.
  • Various ASS subtitles improvements.

FOR MOBILE:

  • Port to Android, from 2.1 to 4.3, on ARMv6, ARMv7, x86 and MIPS.
  • New port to iOS, from iOS 5 to 7, on all iPads and iPhones after 3GS.
  • Partial port to WinRT, for Windows 8, 8.1 and WP8.
  • OpenGL ES optimized outputs.
  • Improvements of OpenMAX IL decoders, encoders and renderers.
  • New audio, video outputs and interfaces for mobiles.

VLC on mobile

FOR DEVELOPERS:

  • libVLC and most modules are now LGPLv2.1+.
  • libVLC media framework can now be used in all types of applications.
  • libVLC SDK packages now exists, in addition to more examples.
  • Improved libVLC API, for better control.
  • VLC’s web plugins now support windowless mode, for smoother integration with HTML elements.

VLC 2.1 release note.

The VLC stable PPA is ready for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy. Due to dependency problem, you can’t install VLC 2.1 on Ubuntu 13.04 and older editions.

Run below commands one by one in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to upgrade to 2.1.0 in Ubuntu 13.10:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:videolan/stable-daily

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install vlc browser-plugin-vlc
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Install Qmplay2 Video Player via PPA in Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.04

Last updated: September 23, 2013

Qmplay2 is a Qt-based Media Video Player for Ubuntu Linux and Windows. It plays all formats and stream supported by ffmpeg and libmodplug (including J2B). It has integrated Youtube browser.

This simple and brief tutorial is going to show you how to install Qmplay2 in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal, Linux Mint and Elementary OS via the PPA repository

To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:samrog131/ppa

Update the package lists:

sudo apt-get update

Install the player:

sudo apt-get install qmplay2

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Install Rosa Media Player via PPA in Ubuntu 13.10/13.04/12.04

Last updated: September 20, 2013

Rosa Media Player (ROMP) is a media player based on Mplayer. It’s the default player for Rosa Desktop, a Linux distribution based on Mandriva that comes with some special features. ROMP can play almost any audio/video formats, it also has the ability to extract audio from videos, trim videos or record the desktop.

To install Rosa Media Player in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise LTS, and their derivatives such as Linux Mint and Elementary OS, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8

Update package lists:

sudo apt-get update

Install the player:

sudo apt-get install rosa-media-player

Enjoy!

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