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The Full Story on GStreamer
JigSaw writes "Gnome's Christian Schaller has written an intro/status document on GStreamer, the next generation multimedia development framework for Unix. Christian explains what it is, why it is important, its use in both the desktop and server side, its use on embedded Linux, Gnome and even KDE. He also discusses its current competition and the plans for the future."
It is apparent that many of you lack the ability to comprehend a single one of my posts. If you did, you would understand that you are all pawns on a chessboard I bought and own. You are all merely dancing chimps here to amuse me, and I have the ability to pull your strings and control your every move. If your reactions weren't so banal and tedious, I might be impressed.
There was one snippet of news buried in the last page that I think is pretty big:
:)
"Another interesting development is that we currently got a team of about 7 french students who are going to make a GStreamer-based non-linear video editor as the final year project."
7 students running a final year project suggests it ought to be good, so does that mean we might finally have some really high quality video editing software other than Cinelerra? If so, that's brilliant!
I like the fact that GStreamer support is now filtering even into non-GNOME apps like Juk (in KDE). Good stuff
Fuck yeah! Eat that, GNAA t00L5!
The BeOS had the Media Kit and it was great, allowed for cool stuff easily done on apps. Check Cortex for example: http://www.bebits.com/search?search=cortex and its surrounded plugins.
The "pipeline" he describes is somewhat similar to what you can do with VST plugins in Windows. E.G., you could hook up a microphone, then attach some distortion filters and eventually terminate the pipeline at some output device. All in all, this is a great article in my opinion. For the technically inclined, there are much more in-depth docs here, including all the gory API details.
Buy some computer games!
. . . Yet ANOTHER *nix multimedia library.
To those of you who wonder why linux on the desktop has not taken off, here's your answer. Different developers, same itch, same not-built-here syndrome, same wheel.
Video playback I could resize on the fly!
Call me lazy, but I hate putting in all those switches for mplayer.
Pretty Pictures!
I'm surprised that KDE users would use something that started w/ a "G" instead of a "K"....and vice versa ;-)
I mean, seriously, guys. How can you hope for any product recognition at all if it doesn't even have a name. GStreamer is not bad for Unix, after all they could have just called it "xyzzy" or "foo" or "ogg vorbis" or "xmms", but you gotta take product names seriously, otherwise the public will always perceive your products as pieces of shit hacked together in a haste. Which, to tell the truth, is what most of the stuff on freshmeat and sourceforge is.
KDE was cooked up in the same country that started both World Wars, embraced philosophies of destruction and hate (such as Nazism and Fascism), and spawned evil murderous maniacs such as Adolf Hitler.
By using KDE you are implicitly endorsing these hatemongering people and their genocidal dogmas.
A true patriot uses GNOME, written in the land of the free and the home of the brave. By using Gnome you are re-affirming your American ideals and supporting the open doctrine of truth, liberty, and justice for all.
So, the choice is yours: Do you use Gnome or are you a terrorist?
GNAA / Google confirms: Linux is dying.
.
.
By GNAA Staff
Here you have it: it's official; Google confirms: Desktop Linux is dying
Now, you might be thinking this is just another cut & paste troll based on the typical *BSD is dying bullshit.
It isn't.
As you might have know, your favorite search engine, Google [google.com], has been running a little statistics service, called " Zeitgeist [google.com]".
Since about a year ago, they started providing statistics of the operating systems used to access their search engine worldwide.
I will let the numbers speak for themselves:
Operating Systems Accessing Google in January 2002 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in March 2002 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in April 2002 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in May 2002 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in June 2002 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in July 2002 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in August 2002 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in September 2002 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in November 2002 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in December 2002 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in January 2003 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in February 2003 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in April 2003 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in May 2003 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in June 2003 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in July 2003 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in August 2003 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in September 2003 [google.com]
Operating Systems Accessing Google in November 2003 [google.com]
If you've looked at even a few of these links, you don't need to be a Kreskin [amdest.com] to predict Desktop Linux's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Desktop Linux faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Linux on Desktop because Linux is dying. Things are looking very bad for Linux on Desktop. As many of us are already aware, Linux on Desktop continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
According to Google Zeitgeist [google.com], there are about 80% of Internet Explorer 6 [microsoft.com] users. The only platform supporting Internet Explorer 6 is, of course, Microsoft Windows. These statistics are consistent with the earlier presented graphs of the operating systems used to access Google, with the Windows family consistently taking the top 3 ranks. Out of remaining 20%, the split is even between MSIE 5.5, MSIE 5.0, both Windows-only browsers. Netscape 5.x (including Mozilla) counts for only a measly 5% of browsers used to access Google. As you can see from the graph, this sample was calculated starting from March 2001 until September 2003.
Linux "leaders" will have you believe that Linux is gaining market share. However, according to Google [google.com], "Linux" was never a top 10 search word at *any time* since Google began tracking search statistics. This can only mean one thing: Linux is dying
All major surveys show that Linux on Desktop is something never meant to happen. Repeatedly, reputable organizations review Desktop Linux offerings, and consistently [osnews.com] give [com.com] it [com.com] unacceptable [yahoo.com] scores, compared to even Apple [apple.com]'s MacOS X [apple.com], which is actually based on the "claimed to by dying long time ago" *BSD. If you paid attention to the operating systems used to access Google graphs earlier, you will notice that MacOS has consistently scored higher percentages than Linux. Infact, the obscure "other" category, which we assume is embedded systems, PDA's, cellular phones, etc, has at times ranked Higher [google.com] than even Mac OS - and of course, Linux.
In almost 2 years worth of statistics, Linux [
...surrender to our cheese-eating code monkeys.
The article wasn't clear if Gstream addresses this problem, but one of the things I've been looking for is X-server based audio. I have a variety of types of systems and try to run or two desktops. Since Windows and Mac won't remote natively, they're the ones I'm currently stuck with, and my unix systems, being capable of it, are off in another room somewhere and I get to them using a local X-server or ssh. But that means no Unix multimedia, because no audio.
And here I believed the rabid zealots that told me in no uncertain terms that Linux was a viable multimedia platform... 3 years ago. 3 years ago Linux wouldn't detect most soundcards.
OT really, but you guys should think more before blathering it up in the trenches. Coming back with a zany "we have that, fucker" and pointing people to a page for a project maintained by a kid in Romania barely out of alpha that's been abandoned for 2 years as an alternative to a mature, stable commercial application is not my idea of "we have that". The computer is not just a browser, office suite and MP3 player.
7 students in a final year project doesn't mean dick.
Student produced code is typically SHIT, even in final projects.
-1 TROLL
One of my terminal windows looks this:
killall gst-thumbnail
killall gst-thumbnail
killall gst-thumbnail
killall gst-thumbnail
killall gst-thumbnail
KDE has a runaway process killer. Why doesnt gnome?
and the US Patent Office granted him the rights, as always! No questions asked...
A correct use of the possessive pronoun a whopping three times! Congrats submitter!
X is noisy enough, let's not audio.
*shudder*
Besides X doesn't do remote all that well, it's too chatty. Use something like Timbuk Pro or VNC which are much more effecient.
But where are the places where GStreamer innovates over the DirectShow APIs? The basic concept seems to be the same. DirectShow even has a filter graph editor which GStreamer's stream editor is eerily reminiscent of.
I have a positive modifier on Troll. When I mod someone Troll their karma should go UP!
This really has come a long way from when I checked it out a while back.
.doc decode filter and a grep, then to a .csv. All file conversion could be handled by the environment, rather than individual programs, which is messy and inconsistent.
It's a fantastic idea, although it's been around for a while. But being able to apply different filters to an audio stream is really cool. It's unix pipes for audio.
What would be great is if gnome standardized a bunch of filters like this for everything. Imagine being able to apply a tar and then a gzip filter in this manner. Or perhaps a
Gstreamer is a big step in the right direction. Way to go guys.
If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.
I wonder what will happen when MPlayerG2 comes out from an incubator. Will the two projects simply compete, or will they work out some way to integrate/support each other?
Before everyone jumps all over me and thinks I'm being facetious, I don't mean applying tar and gzip via the command line, but rather with a GUI interface, as in the article. :-)
If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.
Gnome is a rival to KDE, the popular collection of programs for Linux and freinds. Unfortunatley, ever since Gnome 2.4 (and the BETA 2.5) was released, I have found more and more Zealots who MUST advocate it at every possible moment. Here are some of their most common claims and what they REALLY MEAN.
:Gnome has a new web browser
Claim : Unlike KDE, Gnome is free
Translation : GPL is freerer than LGPL. LGPL allows corporations like Novell
and Sun to have propeitry forks and lock away their changes from the user. Now
that Novell has taken over Ximian you can expect Gnome to get put under
corpirate lock. With KDE you have the choice, you either PAY UP or pay with
your source code. Most companies agree, the majority of commerical software for Linux is written in Motif and Qt, and NOT GTK. Apart from Ximian's desktop, there is no major product using GTK.
Claim : Nautilus is much better than konqueror.
Wrong, if your using nautilus for anything more than a simple finder clone you
can forget it. No split screen, no ioslaves (gnome-vfs can't compare, sorry) and forget about being able to
have a decent file dialog, not to forget that it is as unstable as hell and is
STILL slow on >3 Ghz machines. The latest version decided to copy Windows 95, complete with a my computer icon on the desktop.
Claim : Gnome is easier to use than KDE
Yep, nothing like using gconf-editor to edit all except the most trivial of
settings. Want tear off menus? Want a useable file dialog? You won't find it
here. Gnome was a lot more usable back in the 1.4 series, before sun came along with their usabillity "study".
Claim : Gnome has eye candy
Yes, my pirated Win32 fonts with the patent infringing font renderer. Bit
stream vera sans looks like Tahoma put through a shreadder! Of course I still
reboot into windows to print using "Comic Sans MS. Gnome themes don't even let you change the colour scheme. Looking at sites like art.gnome.org you will see that the majority of themes are the same one in different colours!
Claim : Gnome is not ugly like KDE
I am too stupid to realise that the look of KDE can be changed by going to the Appearence and themes section in KDE, not to mention that KDE has more themes wrote for it. Popular themes such as Keramik, Liquid, dotNET, Plastik and Alloy were wrote for KDE first, but somebody wrote a crappy port of it on art.gnome.org, so Gnome must be good.
Claim
Yawb! Along with Galeon, mozilla, thunderbird, konqueror, atlantis, lynx,
netscape and w3m. Yes I need another browser! Not to mention that its got a
religiously offensive name and it dosen't allow bookmark folders. It also
crashes like a crazy! Apple chose khtml for a REASON! its stable and light! Epiphany is also a faliure, it has gone through 6 major bug fixes and none of the major distrobutions use it because they stick with decent browsers.
Claim : Gnome is more popular than KDE
Despite the fact that the only mainstream Gnome based distro has been EOL'd,
and all the newbie distros such as Mangadrake, Lindoze, $u$E, Lycoris,
Xandroze, Gentoo use kde default, bruce perens decided to make a gnome based distro and everybody hated it because KDE wasn't in it.
Klaim : You KDE guys must be sick of the K
Our G's and monkeys are SO MUCH better, gedit, glib, gconf, bobono, ghex,
gless, same-gnome, gstreamer.
Claim : Gnome has multimedia framework
Its a kludge of esd combined with broken xine libraries. No wonder it crashes
all the time and dosen't work on 95% of video files. But we have Rhythmbox, a cheesy Itune clone using it, so it rules!
Zealot : My Gnome work station.....
My 2Ghz G5 box my mum bought for me from PC world, that is made of
made to break components and running Debian Gnu/Linux, but it has a GEFORCE RADEON 9000 card and a CUTE one button mouse, so it
You think mom and pop, or even corperate customers for that matter, know or care what DCOM, DDC, or OLE stand for or mean? Guess that means that Windows will never be taken seriously...
Frameworks are only used by developers, they can call them whatever the heck they want.
Substitute audio for video when necessary.
MORE OSDN personals ads? What shall I do? Just give in?
Maybe the comments section will do the job, so I won't have to pay!
SWM aged 31, likes computers, likes programming, enjoys long walks on the beach, enjoys blogging to a readership of 20 people.
Seeking white female aged 18-45. Smoking/drinking/drugs optional.
Potential candidate will must find anxiousness, neediness, nervousness, and lack of confidence attractive.
Sex optional.
Must like LED lights, dimly lit basements, and the smell of gasoline.
Reply to this post if interested!
Although the main integration isn't planned until 4.0, the upcoming 3.2 will support gstreamer in JuK, the new music player for KDE. It will replace the slow and buggy noatun. Ive tried it, and its really quite good. Its one of the reasons why KDE 3.2 will rock.
anyone know how to get ACPI to turn down the fan
:(
speed on my linux desktop computer? it sounds like
an airplane! boot to windows and it goes almost
silent.
/proc/acpi/fan is empty
I reckon GStreamer is what Arts for KDE should have been , but !
... is somewhat funny.
.. anbd I hope it will saty so)
I think that if this GStreamer relies on gtk+ (even on gobject or glib), its chances to become the standard directX is nil.
Too bad, but having gtk+ as a dependency to install kde-multimedia
Could this prog be separated between UI dependant and toolkitn agnistic (yes, gtk+ is a freakin' X widget toolkit
Not saying Qt's better or GTK+ is (god forbid), but an audio underlying should NOIT have dependency on a widget toolkit if it has to be the standard.
Look at LADSPA (linux standard for audio plugins. Yes, both of them. just kidding), its dependency are very, very bare. And, that's a good thing. GStreamer doesn't even need to be based on gnome.
What's next, Postgresql replication having a dependency on a MySQL library ?
Besides, I think that the quality of the gstreamer is realy exciting, but I don't see it becoming the standard media infrastructure for KDE.
Moderated-down comments for news story # 5648
;)
Just take a look at the BeOS/Zeta MediaKit .. =)
By Assimil8or (IP: ---.dclient.hispeed.ch) - Posted on 2004-01-13 21:35:54 Unlike many other free software projects, GStreamer was not a simple re-implementation of something which had been done before.
I'm really very sorry to have to tell you so, but you didn't
By Eugenia (IP: ---.client.comcast.net) - Posted on 2004-01-13 21:38:52
The BeOS Media Kit is not "free software". Please reply correctly without plagariazing.
Innovation for innovation's sake is a waste of time.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Eugeina is a pro BeOS/anti Linux TROLL. She also is biased against KDE. Say something wrong about gnome and get moderatoted down. Critisize KDE and she will give you an "already reviewed" label and let the flames fly!
flaming skull heads
you must check out LADSPA they're beautiful
so beautiful
I die
All the coding effort and mindshare is going into the short-term solution of basic media players instead of the framework. And since the players are ahead, they get more volunteer help, so they get farther ahead... and the framework never gets done.
Your post is just trolling. You seem to have miss a lot of episodes and forget a lot of times where Eugenia took KDE's side (like in the UserLinux debate).
FYI, Eugenia does not use BeOS (or Zeta) at all anymore. She (says) mostly uses Mac OS X or XP and sometimes Slackware and FreeBSD.
As in pd.
I used to work as an open-source developer with the helix engine (still do, in fact), and didn't find the licensing to be that much of a turn-off. It's kinda like the NPL, or the GPL with the special rights for the Licensor outlined in section 3.
You can read the Helix license mentioned in the article here: RPSL
Check out Helix Player
..read the headline quickly and saw "G-Stringer?"
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Isn't this similar to JACK? From what I gather, GStreamer extends it to video, also.
Even that piece of shit known as Adobe Premiere -- which Cinelerra trys and fails to immitate -- is lightyears ahead. If you want to get into the billions of lightyears ahead, then compare to FinalCutPro or Vegas Video (which was recently bought from SoundForge by Sony Pictures).
Linux has a loooooooooooooooong way to come in this department, and that's no troll.
Then what else is a computer, to Joe Average Windows User?
And who in the hell was saying that "Linux is a viable multimedia platform" three years ago?
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Yeah. Lets all have this be like direct show on windows - its so flexible yet theres not a single app you can take friggin screen shots with.
xine for me thanks.
Sorry but GStreamer is far from being usable on either GNOME or KDE. While the idea of it is a nice one the development process on the otherhand is lagging behind.
GStreamer exists for over 4 years now and it still doesn't have a stable API nor is it working properly in GNOME. Not to say that it's just half implemented. Things like Sound-Juicer do not work seriously, Rhythmbox tendency to crash every now and then, Totem still prefers libXine, the new mixer which recently made its way into gnome-media still doesn't work even when using GStreamer as backend.
While Gstreamer is configured to run alsa9 sink and do work whenever it wants, the shitty mixer tool has problems accessing the mixer since it only uses the OSS backend of the Alsa sink.
Well GStreamer needs another 4 years to be usable. It's to early to talk about it.
btw, Can anybody comment on wether Gstreamer uses the glib event loop, or does it just use G_object?
Your friendly OSNEWS summary service.
-- Bryan
OK, I'm going to take advantage of your post to inquire about this stuff. My question is only sorta on-topic for this story, but it is inspired by it (and by this sub-thread).
I'm a Linux audio user, not a programmer. I use JACK primarily because JACK is required to use Rosegarden4 (MIDI sequencer), which I use with my soundcard's onboard synth as a composition tool, to play with tunes before trying them out with the band I'm in. And I understand that it's necessary to use Ardour effectively, which I'd like to do when I can afford a soundcard that makes it worthwhile, like the RME Hammerfall or whatever.
But I don't really know what I'm doing with JACK -- when I run it, it's by typing in a command that I know works, but which I don't really understand -- and your response here highlighted for me some of my confusion. So here I go.
1. What the hell is a signal graph (re: your response above)? Of what I've read about JACK, that's the first time I've seen that expression? Or by "signal graph" do you simply mean "a graphical environment for stringing together a sequence of signal processing modules into an overall application"?
2. You say that JACK is for communications between different processes. My understanding was that JACK was for communication between different sources/sinks of audio signal. Those could be processes, but they could also be hardware devices. For instance, when I start jackd prior to running rosegarden4, I tell it to use the ALSA driver for output. In fact, I thought that it could really be anything that could provide or accept an audio signal (even files, network URLs, etc.), since some sort of "virtual device" could be specified for them. Is that not correct? And if it is correct, how is that different from Gstreamer then?
3. What do you mean by "with Gstreamer the whole graph is in-process"? Are you saying that you use the graphical signal path editor to create an application out of modules, but when you're done it links (in the post-compilation sense) the modules together into a single executable which has the capability described by the network? Because otherwise -- if the modules do their work independently and pass data between each other -- that sounds like processes talking to processes, just like with JACK. What am I missing?
4. My understanding of the whole point of JACK is that it's for low-latency audio work. But it sits between processes, or between devices and processes, or whatever; how can that be lower-latency than if JACK wasn't there at all. For example, rosegarden4 uses JACK to pass data to the ALSA driver for my soundcard. How can that be lower-latency than if rosegarden4 just talked to the ALSA driver directly?
I guess another "point" to JACK is to provide a common interface . . .that way, applications and modules don't have to know how to talk to all the possible other apps/modules out there someone might wanna combine them with; rather, they just all have to know how to talk to jackd. And that makes sense, and sounds like it'd be a good thing, for inter-process communication. But why is that a good thing for output? Isn't the whole point (or, a whole point, anyway) of having sound drivers to have a unifirm output interface? How does outputting to jackd to output to the ALSA driver any better than just outputting directly to the ALSA driver?
Well, that's enough to start with. If you (or anyone else) can provide insight, much thanks. I've read online docs about JACK and ALSA, and the Gstreamer summary linked to in this article, but am obviously still quite confused.
how much before someone comes up with something akin to VST instruments? would it belong here? I do think so...
VST 2.0 instruments ROCK (pun not intended)
13-4=54/6
I am JACK's primary author. I hope I can explain some of the basics to you.
1. What the hell is a signal graph (re: your response above)? Of what I've read about JACK, that's the first time I've seen that expression? Or by "signal graph" do you simply mean "a graphical environment for stringing together a sequence of signal processing modules into an overall application"?
When audio programmers talk about a signal graph, they are using the term to refer to a rather abstract conceptualization of what is happening in software (sometimes in hardware). The model is of a series of "nodes" each of which processes a signal in some way. Each node is connected to one or more other nodes, for input and/or output. You can build a very simple graph, such as some kind of node that reads from a disk file and sends output to another node that delivers it to an audio interface. Or you can build incredibly complex graphs in which the signal is routed all over the place, possibly even including through feedback loops.
JACK is merely one of many systems that use the model of a signal graph internally; GStreamer is another.
2. You say that JACK is for communications between different processes. My understanding was that JACK was for communication between different sources/sinks of audio signal. Those could be processes, but they could also be hardware devices. For instance, when I start jackd prior to running rosegarden4, I tell it to use the ALSA driver for output. In fact, I thought that it could really be anything that could provide or accept an audio signal (even files, network URLs, etc.), since some sort of "virtual device" could be specified for them. Is that not correct? And if it is correct, how is that different from Gstreamer then?
Gstreamer is really a toolbox to be used by a SINGLE program to construct processing pathways (aka "signal graphs"). It offers no facilities (other than connections to JACK) that allow MULTIPLE processes to route data among themselves.
As to what a JACK client does with the data it receives - that is entirely up to the client. We have some clients that stream to an icecast server, other people are working on UDP and RTP-based networking, others write data to disk etc. But JACK knows nothing about this, its entirely internally to each JACK client.
3. What do you mean by "with Gstreamer the whole graph is in-process"? Are you saying that you use the graphical signal path editor to create an application out of modules, but when you're done it links (in the post-compilation sense) the modules together into a single executable which has the capability described by the network? Because otherwise -- if the modules do their work independently and pass data between each other -- that sounds like processes talking to processes, just like with JACK. What am I missing?
As I mentioned above, Gstreamer is used by a SINGLE application to build processing pathways. It is of no use whatsoever in building multiprocess pathways, other than its connection to JACK.
4. My understanding of the whole point of JACK is that it's for low-latency audio work. But it sits between processes, or between devices and processes, or whatever; how can that be lower-latency than if JACK wasn't there at all. For example, rosegarden4 uses JACK to pass data to the ALSA driver for my soundcard. How can that be lower-latency than if rosegarden4 just talked to the ALSA driver directly?
For a situation involving only one process (such as rosegarden), its certainly possible for direct access to provide marginally lower latencies than with JACK. But when I say "marginal", I really mean it. On a modern CPU, and with the right kernel, you can basically JACK as low as your audio interface can handle. The reason that JACK's design matters for latency is 2-fold. First of all, it imposes the correct model of int
"GStreamer is that of a pipeline system which your media streams through"
;)?
Linux programs are filters in pipelines with data streaming through them. GStreamer is a special case for media. "Programming" GStreamer is executed through a pipeline viewer, a flowchart for GStreamer components. How about a general purpose flowchart programing tool for Linux?
Perl, for example, is internally compiled into a graph of primitives. How about a program that parses Perl into graphs, enforces Perl graph grammar in a GUI, and reconstitutes Perl code for saving? The three tier form has Perl code for data, Perl graphs in the "business", and flowcharts as presentation. Is there such a thing? For Python? Ruby (hint
--
make install -not war
Just a few things to add to Paul's post.
.so that the JACK server would load at runtime. I don't know if this ever materialized. These would make JACK resemble Gstreamer a bit more.
2. You say that JACK is for communications between different processes. My understanding was that JACK was for communication between different sources/sinks of audio signal. Those could be processes, but they could also be hardware devices. For instance, when I start jackd prior to running rosegarden4, I tell it to use the ALSA driver for output. In fact, I thought that it could really be anything that could provide or accept an audio signal (even files, network URLs, etc.), since some sort of "virtual device" could be specified for them. Is that not correct? And if it is correct, how is that different from Gstreamer then?
I think your confusion here is that you are confusing drivers with clients. A driver is an integral part of the JACK server that is responsible for providing a time source (so that the whole JACK system can run exactly in sync with a sound card). It can also provide ports like a client, but unlike a client it runs in-process, as part of the JACK server. There can only be one driver per JACK server process. Clients, on the other hand, are separate processes that talk to the JACK server using pipes and shared memory, and there can be many of them.
There was talk at one point of making it possible to create in-process clients. They would exist as an
3. What do you mean by "with Gstreamer the whole graph is in-process"?
Imagine you are drawing a picture of sources and sinks and connections between them. With Gstreamer that whole picture, the whole network of data all lives inside one single application (one process). With JACK, each node of the network is a separate process, except the driver.
My understanding of the whole point of JACK is that it's for low-latency audio work. But it sits between processes, or between devices and processes, or whatever; how can that be lower-latency than if JACK wasn't there at all. For example, rosegarden4 uses JACK to pass data to the ALSA driver for my soundcard. How can that be lower-latency than if rosegarden4 just talked to the ALSA driver directly?
If the only goal was low-latency for a single application talking to a sound card, then indeed JACK would not be necessary. But an even more fundamental goal of JACK is that applications be able to work together. JACK aims to provide the lowest possible latency, while also providing sample-accurate synchronization, for this inter-application communication.
Yes, it is exciting to hear that people would start working on a non-linear video editor.
I don't expect their student project to be anything useable, but if they get excited about it and continue work for a few years after their studies, who knows? Maybe a competition to Avid and Final Cut Pro could emerge?
Of course, this has only a chance if they complement their programmer team with a few professional editors and have a very serious look at the 2 current NLEs (and at Pro Tools, the sound editor).
Paul, I would like to use this thread to ask your opinion on a subject : would you think jack is suitable for processing video ?
I know, they are two completely different subjects, but as I think Ardour does video, how hard/useful would you think extending LADSPA / Jack to video could be ?
So, basically... Gstreamer + Jack elements = World Domination(TM)?
What about MAS the Media Application Server for X, which is on track to be a standard part of X?
OH MY GOD!
They suspended goatse.cx!!!
Run for your tinfoil hats, the world is coming to an end..!
Sorry, wrong.
MAS makes JACK irrelevant.
MAS is the official X11 sound server and it supports network transparency. JACK has slightly better latency but the vast majority of users don't require that. JACK's huge down fall are two fold; no network support, no major partner affiliation.
Don't underestimate the power of being an X11R6 standard. MAS will be on every Linux distro (and possibly other UNIX's?) within a year. It'll be good riddance to esound and aRts!
Yes.
MAS is the offical X11 sound server. It is network transparent and it should be multi platform. Cool stuff.
It would be fairly easy to extend Jack to work on video. It would just require someone writing a new data type.
I don't know what the basic data type of video work is. In audio, it's unsigned long numbers. LADSPA works on those. If someone changed it to work on whatever video uses, then LADSPA could be used too. Someone would have to get the video editors to support Jack and LADSPA though.
Ardour doesn't support video yet. It does has a feature to support animatics, which is almost video, but not what you're thinking of.
The following may b true - we
thought of developing an algorithm stronger
than the today's encryption algorithm in the
final year and ended with
more paper work as needed for the prj
submission and an algorithm almost very
easy to be decrypted by 2 systems(that was not
bad, but our aim was to come up with one
that cant be entered into by using atleast
10 computers). Reason - we had less time besides
our exam and other college fun schedules.
Hope these French students come up their
obstacles and give us the ripe fruit of success !
all the best students !!
I wouldn't get too excited about final-year student projects.
They are usually evaluated according to their adherence to software development methodologies, rather than the actual quality of the end product. To that end, students spend more time making the paperwork good rather than the code good. Whilst this is a necessary part of building really big projects, it's not an optimal method of building small projects by inexperienced part-timers who often have only a very partial understanding of the problem domain.
regards,
karthik bala guru