Linux is increasingly popular among computer enthusiasts of all types, and one of the applications where it is flourishing is multimedia. This book tells you how to program such popular devices as sound cards, CD-ROMs, and joysticks. It also describes the best free software packages that support manipulation of graphics, audio, and video and offers guidance on fitting the pieces together.

Linux is increasingly popular among computer enthusiasts of all types, and one of the applications where it is flourishing is multimedia. Take a low-cost hardware platform and add the Linux operating system, which really exploits its speed, and you have a great host for developing multimedia applications. These often can be ported to other UNIX systems, increasing their value. Another attraction comes in the form of a great variety of free software packages that support manipulation of graphics, audio, and video, the best of which are described in this book. But it's not simple to put multimedia together on Linux, and there are few packages that integrate everything for you. Instead, you are handed programming interfaces and stand-alone utilities that are each suited for a particular job. In this book, Jeff Tranter offers the guidance you need to fit the pieces together, concentrating on how to program each kind of device. Part of the book is aimed at C programmers. Handling sound cards and CD-ROMS is not too difficult if you understand the standard interfaces. The book also describes tools that nonprogrammers can use. Sample multimedia applications are also shown. Contents include:

• Introduction to multimedia and the devices that Linux supports
• Configuration and use of sound cards, CD-ROMs, and joysticks
• Applications for sound and music, graphics, video, and games
• Programming devices such as sound cards and CD-ROMs
• Overview of graphical toolkits and APIs