Sep 22
Purchase Non-Free (MP3, DVD) Media Codecs For Ubuntu Linux
In this week’s Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, there’s a link to an article on the Canonical Blog about their new offering of proprietary media codecs available for purchase. Canonical has partnered with Fluendo and Cyberlink to give Ubuntu users a legal option for viewing and listening to their media. This is similar to those who purchased a computer with Ubuntu preinstalled– generally there is a small premium factored in to have the media codecs pre-bundled.
This is a wise move by Canonical. Giving their users a legal option for playing their media will encourage more software and companies to also invest in Ubuntu and all Linux media alike. The announcement doesn’t quite make it clear, but it sounds like the Medibuntu repository will still be available with instructions for Ubuntu users to download similar codecs for free– illegally in many countries. The adoption of the legal, non-free software will depend largely on how it is marketed inside Ubuntu. That is, when you try to play an MP3 for the first time, will a dialog prompt you to purchase MP3 support, or offer an easier link to Medibuntu and the ubuntu-restricted-extras package?
One of the reasons that I moved to Ubuntu in the first place was so I could have software I wanted, free and legally. It’s nice to finally have the option of legal media codecs as well. What do you think of the announcement? Will you pay the $40 for most non-free media codecs, or the additional $50 for DVD support?
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Very cool. I am willing to pay for it frankly. I have fought a losing battle with getting my DVDs to play back reliably. It makes for a prett lame movie night! Unfortunately I’m on 64bit but hopefully Cyberlink corrects the 32bit only deficiency soon.
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Hi Josh, good to hear from ya!
We are in a similar situation, and I have yet to decide if it’ll be worth it or not. I still have a few questions, which I hope will be answered as this draws more publicity:
– The DVD software is entitled “PowerDVD Linux”, which sounds like it will be a completely new video player; will the DVD codecs be available to use within existing players, such as Totem or VLC?
– Will the codec downloads come as an extra repository, in a way that updates will be installed automatically?
– What are the terms of the licensing? Specifically, can I install the software on another OS for a dual boot or virtual machine? What about on my laptop? And if I upgrade to Intrepid down the road?
Can’t wait to hear more about this as things progress.
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:09 am
Price is too high. They’d make more money if they got together and sold both for $40. The companies would benefit too by using the same marketing people for a combined project. From a quick look at the websites, it looks like Fluendo’s marketing could use the help.
IMHO: Given the choice between $90 and legal vs. free and not-so-legal, most people would go for the latter if they felt they wouldn’t get in trouble. Keep it under $50, and a good portion would pay. Of course some won’t pay anyway.
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:20 am
Yeah, I think the prices are a bit steep. What would be cool is if Cyberlink would give a discount in return for the (license for the) Windows version of the player, which is included with many laptops/desktops, motherboards, and DVD transports.
I’d be willing to pay the prices they charge if a significant amount of it goes to Canonical (and thus to GNU/Linux/freedesktop development). That’s similar to how I feel about Wordpress – they charge rather high prices for services like custom domain-names – but it’s sponsoring the development of a free platform.
What I’d prefer for the codecs, is that they’d offer the open-source equivalents and then charge us for a license (so e.g. offering LAME with a license from Fraunhofer/Thompson/whoever)… it would be nice to at least have open-source software, as the next-best thing to free software. That should be feasible as long as there’s no DRM involved… (do the Fluendo codecs handle files with DRM, by the way?).
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:21 am
I agree 100%– it would be so nice to *legally* use to open-source codecs. This has the added benefit that most applications already use LAME and other free codecs. Will Rhythmbox use Fluendo’s MP3 plugin? Will VLC use Cyberlink’s DVD reader? I kinda doubt it, which is unfortunate.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
[...] distros of Linux that come with a price tag have the codecs because you’re paying for them. Scott Wegner reminded me of a link in this week’s Ubuntu Weekly News that I had missed. Canonical, [...]
October 31st, 2008 at 12:15 pm
MP3 playback is no longer patent encumbered, so that isn’t a problem in any case. The application for DVD playback, is Cyberlink’s Linux version of Power DVD and is entirely their own product. I am not particularly familiar with it’s Linux integration or stability, but I am under the impression this should allow Bluray video as well (and if not now then some time in the future). I usually play DVDs in VLC personally, under all operating systems.
December 9th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
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February 18th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
i think free song are never die.
March 21st, 2009 at 1:39 pm
I dont usually comment, but after reading through so much info I had to say thanks