Totem (media player)

Infobox Software
name = Totem



caption = Screenshot of Totem 2.22.1
developer = Totem Team
released = ?
frequently_updated = yes
programming language = C
operating system = Unix-like
platform = GNOME
language = multilingual
genre = Media player
license = GNU General Public License
website = [http://www.gnome.org/projects/totem/ www.gnome.org/projects/totem/]

Totem is a free software media player (audio and video) for the GNOME computer desktop environment which runs on Linux, Solaris, BSD and other Unix and Unix-like systems. It is officially included in GNOME starting from version 2.10 (released in March 2005), but "de facto" it was already included in most GNOME environments. The default backend is GStreamer framework but Totem can also use xine libraries. Totem is included as the default media player in many desktop Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Mandriva Linux and others.

Features

There are two distinct versions of Totem, though the difference is not visible at the user interface level. One of them is based on GStreamer, which is a plugin-based multimedia framework. This version has superior extensibility and supports a larger variety of media formats. The other one is based on xine, which is a regular multimedia library. Currently it has better encrypted DVD playback support and can play some files the GStreamer version can't handle. An outstanding feature of Totem is its close integration with the GNOME desktop environment and its file manager, Nautilus. This includes generating thumbnails of video files when browsing in Nautilus and a video plugin for Netscape-compatible browsers (i.e. Firefox).

Thanks to a large number of plugins developed for GStreamer, Totem is able to play all mainstream media formats, both open and proprietary ones. It also understands numerous playlist formats, including SHOUTcast, M3U, XML Shareable Playlist Format (XSPF), SMIL, Windows Media Player playlists and RealAudio playlists. Playlists are easily manageable using drag-and-drop features.

Full-screen video playback is supported on nearly all X configurations, including multi-head Xinerama setups, and on displays connected to the TV-Out. Brightness, contrast and saturation of the video can be dynamically adjusted during playback. 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, 5.1 and stereo sound is supported. On computers with an infrared port, Totem can be remotely controlled via LIRC. Stills can be easily captured without resorting to external programs. There is also a plugin for telestrator-like functionality using Gromit ( [http://www.home.unix-ag.org/simon/gromit/] ). The loading of external SubRip subtitles, both automatic and manual (via the command-line), is also supported.

See also

*List of media players
*Comparison of media players

External links

* [http://www.gnome.org/projects/totem/ Totem home page]