Happy New Years from the LC!

From Around The Web: The ffmpeg libav Situation

Quite a nice little perspective on what the situation looked and looks like recently between the ffmpeg and libav camps.  libav was created as a fork aside from ffmpeg, and has met both opposition and praise from some.  It really depends on how you came across either.  For me, I have always known ffmpeg since I heard about it around 2006, and it serves me well.  However, some developers prefer otherwise.  Be sure to hit up the source link for more.

Source: 
http://blog.pkh.me/p/13-the-ffmpeg-libav-situation.html

Video Reel – Getting To Know Puddletag For Linux

A quick overview of Puddletag for Linux. This video is also a part of the software featurette for Puddletag located here.

-mikeyd

Software Spotlight – Organize Your Music With PuddleTag For Linux

A long while back in June, I finally settled on a tagging software that could adequately handle my music organizational needs.  Back in the XP hey-days, I found a neat little program called Mp3Tag, which let me accurately and quickly tag music.  Batch tagging, auto numbering, file to tag, tag to file, you name it!  When I fully cut over to Linux, this was one component I had sorely missed.  After several months of using Puddletag, I can safely say its the best music tagging software for Linux at the moment.  Just how good?  Read on … 

Linux Game Review: AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome

Yes, that is the real name of this game.  AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome, is literally one of the freshest games I have come across on Steam lately.  I was sceptical to hit the buy button, but with a current price of 4.49 USD for the Steam Holiday Sale, I couldn’t resist.  So, how did it stack up?  Read on for more

Featured – The SteamOS Beginners Guide

Gave Half Life 2 a try this morning on SteamOS, and wanted to give a quick nod to Valve for making HL2 playable with a gamepad (even if not recently with SteamOS).  But Mr. Gabe Newell!  Make The original games support it too!  Now, you can lambaste me all you want for “you should use a mouse and keyboard,” but I am getting quite used to sitting in the living room and gaming all “lounge like.”  Anyway…enough banter, here is what to expect when browsing for and installing games on SteamOS:

In The Year 2015 – Star Citzen

Someday, someday I hope to see Star Citizen released. As a backer/benefactor of the project, if it does, it will be a long time coming. JoyStiq has a decent rundown over at their site for now.  But dang, those visuals and atmosphere!

-mikeyd

Managing A Programs’ CPU and Memory Utilization With cgroups

There are many days, especially days I have off from work, that I want to do a little ripping/encoding of my movie collection (still have a ways to go).  While MakeMKV will not tax my i5 2600k Intel processor, handbrake will, of course.  If you wish to still work on various average tasks on your system without a large amount of slowdown, you will want to setup cgroups to handle either handbrake or MakeMKV’s CPU/Memory constraints.  I will also go through an alternative universal method.  Read on for more

SteamOS – Turning On The FPS Counter For Metro Last Light

Here’s a quick tip for you playing Metro: Last Light under SteamOS, and you want to guage how many FPS you are getting by using these new fangled “video quality sliders.”  While I like the ease of adjusting the graphics, you won’t really get a feel for the effects under you can see the frames per second during gameplay.  Personally, even on an Nvidia GTX 560ti, I have moved the slider all the way up at times, and even with FPS as low as 17-24, have not noticed such horrible gameplay.  I think on SteamOS some of it can be subjective of course.  Anyway, if you are interested in seeing the FPS, there is a quick way to do this.  Read on for more.

SteamOS Troubleshooting – No Audio With HDMI or On Board

Thanks to a great fellow over at GitHub, I recently resolved some sound issues with SteamOS after I swapped graphics car.  Maybe these steps will help you as well.  This will be linked to the main SteamOS workarounds launch page.

Caution:  Please try this method at your own risk.  If you wish to be safe about this backup the pulse folders before removing them.  All steps below should be reversible.  If you remove the file configured below, restore the pulse folders.  and regenerate your initramfs, you should be back to the state you were in.  I have tested this for onboard Intel audio, as well as AMD/Nvidia HDMI output.  You may find the easiest method to be using Ye Olde SteamOSe, detailed at the bottom of this article.