KubuntuMultimediaSimplification

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Most of the time when I want to hear a sound file (one shot) I do it from Konqueror. I have Konqueror configured so double clicking any form of audio or video file plays it in the builtin kpart in konqueror. I think this is one of Konqueror's strong points and its wasted in Kubuntu. A user shouldn't really have to open a new application to do something he was doing in another app, imho. Its just an idea, perhaps not everyone agrees with my mindset, but if you considered configuring konqueror to consistently play audio and video files inside konqueror? Most people who want to, for example, listen to a system sound would find it in Konqueror, and most who want to say, listen to a music track, would open a music player and find/add it to their playlist. Just me £0.02

-Rashid

Summary

Kubuntu should avoid duplicating functionality in multimedia applications, and improve default settings.

Rationale

There are lots of multimedia applications shipped by default with Kubuntu (kaudiocreator, kscd, kaffeine, kmplayer, amarok, k3b etc...), and lots of them duplicate the functionality provided by others.

This is useless, goes against simplicity and complicates the work of the documentation team.

Use Case

  • Paul wonders how to read an audio CD in Kubuntu. By looking at the popup screen when he puts the CD in the drive he finds right away which program fits his need and doesn't get confused with 3 apps offering the same feature.
  • Kate wants to read a video file, finds the video player and doesn't get confused by a bunch of audio functionality while she already has an audio player.

Scope

Applications in the Kubuntu desktop seed, and default settings in those applications.

Design

Current duplicated functionality is ripping an audio CD is currently possible with kaffeine, konqueror, kaudiocreator and k3b. Reading an audio CD is possible with kaffeine, amarok and kscd.

Kubuntu should focus on keeping the only the best apps and centralise the features. Amarok is the reference audio application, and allows CD reading, so KsCD can be removed. Kaffeine is our video application, it should be patched to remove its audio playing menu entries. KAudioCreator is slower than K3b and more complicated to use & configure than konqueror so there is no need to ship it.

Implementation

The default option provided for CD ripping and DVD ripping should be K3b.

Add servicemenu and bash scripts to Amarok to integrate it with the kde daemon popup box activated when audio CDs are inserted.

Patch Kaffeine to remove audio play options from the File menu and the launch tab, leaving only video options. Users who still want to use Kaffeine for playing audio files can still use File->Open, but the shortcut options will not be shown.


CategorySpec

Erm, not sure if I'm sposed to edit this, but I don't really understand how wikis work, so I apologise if this is wrong, just delete it! Smile :-)

I think it would be a mistake to hack the audio link functionality out of Kaffeine. I really like the fact that Kaffeine is quite a lightweight audio / video / tv / radio player. If I see an audio file somewhere and I just want to listen to it, I can fire up Kaffeine and do that. If I load up Amarok it takes longer and uses more memory and probably wants me to do something with the audio file or will store its location in my collection or something. It's important to have the ability to play things quickly easily and cleanly on the fly. It's not really treading on Amarok's toes, because if I really want to listen to my music collection I'll go in there.


I totally agree with that. Please don't remove the audio access of Kaffeine. Well, just don't integrate it in konqueror... Elaroche.


If K3B is meant to be the CD ripper of choice in feisty, than the feature has to be made much more prominent. KAudioCreator has the great advantage that it ONLY offers this functionality and does that in an easy to find and understandable way. In K3B it is not obvious how to rip a CD. I'd go as far and say that it actually is very hard to find the right place within K3B to rip a CD. Additionally it is not obvious that the application you use for CD and DVD burning is meant to be used to the exact oppisite action (CD or DVD ripping) as well. If K3B is the choice this should be taken care of.

In my opinion it shouldn't even be considered to patch audio functionailty out of Kaffeine. This is sounds like an awful lot of work, jsut to *remove* something that works, but 'should' be done somewhere else. Time better spend on improving other parts. Besides Kaffeine is not a bad video player just because it features audio playack. The video features, like playing DVD, VCD and opening video files are very prominent and throughout Kaffeine and it's obvious that this application is meant to be used for video playback. Remving audio functionality adds little and only moves Kubuntu's kaffeine further away from vanilla Kaffeine, making the availability of updates at release less likely. Instead Kaffeine couls be treated more like amarok, so that new releases might be made available for current Kubuntu releases - breaking audio playback only moves that possibility further away.

Suggestion for included multimedia apps: Amarok - music player Kaffeine - video player (and fast audio player)* Kaudiocreator - CD ripper (unless K3B can be made easy and obvious for this task) K3B - cd/dvd burning app (no KsCD, no etceteras)

* Unlike Amarok which is completely focused on playing music files Kaffeine is better suited to play a quick audio file that is NOT music. In Amarok you're expected to deal with your collection and play entire albums. Opening small audio files, like for example system sounds just to test them is possible but very awkward. Kaffeine is better suited for that task and patching audio-only support out of it removes that use several users have found.

Chris

Most of the time when I want to hear a sound file (one shot) I do it from Konqueror. I have Konqueror configured so double clicking any form of audio or video file plays it in the builtin kpart in konqueror. I think this is one of Konqueror's strong points and its wasted in Kubuntu. A user shouldn't really have to open a new application to do something he was doing in another app, imho. Its just an idea, perhaps not everyone agrees with my mindset, but if you considered configuring konqueror to consistently play audio and video files inside konqueror? Most people who want to, for example, listen to a system sound would find it in Konqueror, and most who want to say, listen to a music track, would open a music player and find/add it to their playlist. Just me £0.02

-Rashid

KubuntuMultimediaSimplification (last edited 2008-08-06 16:35:29 by localhost)