Linux Multimedia Hacks - O'Reilly's Latest Release

For Immediate Release
For more information, a review copy, cover art, or an interview with
the author, contact:
Kathryn Barrett (707) 827-7094 or kathrynb@oreilly.com

Make Your Linux Computer Sing (and Play Videos)
O'Reilly Releases "Linux Multimedia Hacks"

Sebastopol, CA--When you think of computers with multimedia power you
probably don't immediately think of Linux. You may think of Apple's new
iMac with built in iSight camera, Front Row, and iLife, or you may think
of a Windows XP Multimedia Center. However using open source software
and a few simple tips you can easily turn a Linux box into a multimedia
powerhouse.

As Kyle Rankin, author of the new "Linux Multimedia Hacks" (O'Reilly, US
$29.95), puts it, "It seems like a person's computer is becoming the
multimedia hub more and more these days. Even if you have some sort of
portable device to listen to music or watch videos, most of the time you
end up doing your ripping, encoding, and storage on your home PC."
Linux has often been overlooked for these types of applications, but
multimedia programs under Linux are getting more and more mature. The
list of things you can't do with free open source tools under Linux
keeps getting shorter as the multimedia tools get easier to use and more
powerful.

Rankin's book, one of O'Reilly's popular "Hacks" series, contains a
hundred hacks to help readers get the best multimedia experience from
their computers. Topics covered include:

-Building a MythTV digital media hub that allows you to record
television, watch videos, listen to music, and even play classic arcade
games

- Editing audio, video, and images, using both command-line and GUI
tools, all of them free

-Managing your music collection by synchronizing your MP3 player and
desktop and using dynamic playlists

-Creating and burning your own DVDs and VCDs

-Streaming audio and video over the Internet

-Syncing your digital camera to your PC to organize, touch up, and
display your photographs

Rankin sums it up well: "I would like the reader to know that Linux
multimedia tools are as good and in some cases better, than their
counterparts on other platforms. In some situations all you need is a
little instruction and everything else will fall into place--that's the
sort of thing I'm trying to accomplish with the book.

"Linux can be a great multimedia platform, once you learn how to use
it," Rankin adds. "The problem is that documentation for these tools is
often scattered, incomplete, and in some cases overly complicated. Plus
there are plenty of great tools that few people have even heard of.
'Linux Multimedia Hacks' puts all of this information in one place
written in plain English."

Additional Resources:

Several sample hacks, including, "Get MP3 Libraries for Red-Hat Based
Distributions," "Watch TV on Your Computer," and "Watch Videos Within
Firefox," are available online at:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxmmhks/chapter/index.html

For more information about the book, including table of contents, index,
author bio, and samples, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxmmhks/

For a cover graphic in JPEG format, go to:
ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/0596100...

Linux Multimedia Hacks
Kyle Rankin
ISBN: 0-596-10076-0, 310 pages, $29.95 US, $41.95 CA
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000
http://www.oreilly.com
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Sebastopol, CA 95472

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