gstreamer-launch ================ This is a tool that will construct pipelines based on a command-line syntax. The syntax is rather complex to enable all the features I want it to have, but should be easy to use for most people. Multi-pathed and feedback pipelines are the most complex. A simple commandline looks like: gstreamer-launch filesrc location=music.mp3 ! mad ! osssink This plays an mp3 music file music.mp3 using libmad, and: gstreamer-launch filesrc location=music.mp3 ! mp3parse ! mpg123 ! osssink Plays and mp3 music file using mpg123 You can also stream files over http: gstreamer-launch httpsrc location=http://domain.com/music.mp3 ! mad ! osssink And using gnome-vfs you can do the same with: gstreamer-launch gnomevfssrc location=music.mp3 ! mad ! osssink gstreamer-launch gnomevfssrc location=http://domain.com/music.mp3 ! mad ! osssink And too play the same song with gnome-vfs via smb: gstreamer-launch gnomevfssrc location=smb://computer/music.mp3 ! mad ! osssink Here we convert a Mp3 file into an Ogg Vorbis file: gstreamer-launch filesrc location=music.mp3 ! mad ! vorbisenc ! disksink location=music.ogg And then we can play that file with: gstreamer-launch filesrc location=music.ogg ! vorbisdec ! osssink Some other useful pipelines are.. Plays wav files (currently there are no wav encoders): gstreamer-launch filesrc location=music.wav ! parsewav ! osssink Converts wav files into mp3 and ogg files: gstreamer-launch filesrc location=music.wav ! parsewav ! vorbisenc ! disksink location=music.ogg gstreamer-launch filesrc location=music.wav ! parsewav ! mpegaudio ! disksink location=music.mp3 You can also use lame for mp3 encoding if you have it installed, it does a much better job than mpegaudio. Rips all songs from cd and saves them into a mp3 file: gstreamer-launch cdparanoia ! mpegaudio ! disksink location=cd.mp3 You can toy around with gstreamer-inspect to discover the settings for cdparanoia to rip individual tracks Record sound from your sound input and encode it into an ogg file: gstreamer-launch osssrc ! vorbisenc ! disksink location=input.ogg gstreamer-launch not only handles audio but video as well: For mpeg1 files (video and audio streams respectively): gstreamer-launch filesrc location=video.mpg ! mpegdemux video_00! { queue ! mpeg2dec ! sdlvideosink } gstreamer-launch filesrc location=video.mpg ! mpegdemux audio_00! { queue ! mad ! osssink } for mpeg1 with both audio and video (for glib2): gstreamer-launch filesrc location=video.mpg ! mpegdemux name=demux video_00! { queue ! mpeg2dec ! sdlvideosink } demux.audio_00! { queue ! mad ! osssink } for mpeg1 with both audio and video (for gtk1.2, the shim doesn't handle the 'name' property yet): gstreamer-launch filesrc location=video.mpg ! mpegdemux video_00! { queue ! mpeg2dec ! sdlvideosink } mpegdemux0.audio_00! { queue ! mad ! osssink } For mpeg2 files (video and audio streams respectively): gstreamer-launch filesrc location=video.mpeg ! mpegdemux video_00! { queue ! mpeg2dec ! sdlvideosink } gstreamer-launch filesrc location=video.mpeg ! mpegdemux private_stream_1.0! { queue ! a52dec ! osssink } for mpeg2 with both audio and video (glib2): gstreamer-launch filesrc location=video.mpg ! mpegdemux name=demux video_00! { queue ! mpeg2dec ! sdlvideosink } demux.private_stream_1.0! { queue ! a52dec ! osssink } Note: The types of audio streams in the mpeg files can vary! For an avi file (DivX, mjpeg,...) gstreamer-launch filesrc location=video.avi ! avidecoder video_00! { queue ! sdlvideosink } avidecoder0.audio_00! { queue ! osssink } gstreamer-complete ================== This is a simple utility which provides custom bash completion when typing gstreamer-launch commands. Simply run "gstreamer-compprep" as root to build the registry of completions, and then put, in your .bashrc, "complete -C gstreamer-complete gstreamer-launch" (ensuring that gstreamer-complete is on your path). You can then enjoy context sensitive tab-completion of gstreamer-launch commands. gstreamer-register ================== This tool will perform an introspection on all available plugins and will create a registry file in /etc/gstreamer/reg.xml. Startup time will be much faster since the gstreamer core doesn't have to bring all the plugins files into memory at startup. As with gstreamer-compprep you need to run this as root for it too work correctly. gstreamer-inspect ================= Allows you to check the properties of plugins and elements. ./gstreamer-inspect will show all the plugins available and the elements they contain. ./gstreamer-inspect shows more info about the plugin/element.