Kaffeine

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Kaffeine is a very versatile KDE media player that, by default, utilizes Xine as its backend. It has a simple but intuitive interface (example screenshot) and is easy to setup. Amongst its list of supported formats are CDDA, VCD, DVD, .... and, since versions >0.5, it also provides full DVB support:

  • TV and Radio
  • Time Shifting
  • Recording -- including unattended recording
  • Network streaming (transmission and reception)
  • EPG, EPG-driven recording timers, OSD EPG now and next.
  • AC3
  • DVB subtitles
  • HDTV: Kaffeine will display HDTV delivered over DVB-S (e.g. BBC HD on Astra 2 at 28.8 degrees East). To use multithreaded ffmpeg decoding set the xine option video.processing.ffmpeg_thread_count equal to the number of CPUs, ie. 2 for a Dual-core or 4 for a Quad-core (in the GUI it is in Settings/Xine engine config/Video/Advanced). BBC HD and LUXE HD working. A patch (now in SVN) adding DVB-S2 support to Kaffeine (via S2API) is available here: http://linuxtv.org/pipermail/linux-dvb/2008-October/029839.html.
  • Remote control
  • Handles multiple devices of any type (DVB-{C,S,T} and ATSC1 ).... and even if you have only one DVB device, Kaffeine can simultaneously play and record different channels within a same transponder).
  • Handles mutiple frontends on a single device (for example a multi-standard card supporting say DVB-S and DVB-T).
  • Channel scanning on multiple devices/frontends, and multiple satellites.
  • Channel favourites lists.
  • DiSEqC 1.x switches, DiSEqC 1.2 rotors and USALS type goto longitude feature.
  • Supports both Low and High level CI.
  • KDE application style, rather than set top box (like MythTV or VDR)

Note 1: Scanning with ATSC hardware is supported since version 0.8.7. For older versions, to configure tuning support for ATSC devices, refer to the directions contained in this thread.

Available Flavours

Bleeding-edge KDE3 Version

To make use of the latest features (e.g. HDTV and S2API support) you might need to compile bleeding-edge versions of ffmpeg,xine-lib and kaffeine.

Remove old versions of ffmpeg,xine-lib and kaffeine first (but type 'ffmpeg' first to check what compilation options were used).

Get SVN ffmpeg, check what compilation options your old version used, compile and install

ffmpeg [shows old compilation options]
svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg
cd ffmpeg
./configure  [plus old options]
make
sudo make install

Get latest xine-lib, compile with --with-external-ffmpeg option, install

hg clone http://hg.debian.org/hg/xine-lib/xine-lib
cd xine-lib
./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/usr --with-external-ffmpeg
make
sudo make install

Get SVN kaffeine. Remove all projects (subdirs) you don't want to build. At least you need admin and kaffeine of course. Configure, making sure your current kernel includes are found (it needs linux/dvb/frontend.h) using --with-extra-includes if necessary. Compile and install.

svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/branches/extragear/kde3/multimedia
cd multimedia
rm -fr doc k3b kdetv klicker kmplayer kplayer
make -f Makefile.cvs
./configure --with-extra-includes=/lib/modules/`uname -r`/source/include  [for example]
make
cd kaffeine
sudo make install

KDE4 Version

The latest Kaffeine release is a KDE3 application although it can be made to run under KDE4. A KDE4 version (kaffeine4) is under development here http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/extragear/multimedia/kaffeine/ . As of February 2009 it is unfortunately only pre-alpha. It plays DVDs and videos but with a host of missing features. When you consider that KDE is already at version 4.2 and extremely good, it's a mystery why Kaffeine 4 development has lagged behind. So please do try it out and give feedback, give help and report bugs (http://bugs.kde.org). Get KDE4.2 (e.g. from http://kubuntu.org) and do the following:

svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/extragear/multimedia/kaffeine
mkdir kaffeine-build
cd kaffeine-build
cmake ../kaffeine
make
./src/kaffeine4

The authors claimed a while ago that they required new features in Phonon, although this was disputed by Aaron Seigo. See http://dot.kde.org/1166377123/1166385374/1166438293/ and http://hftom.free.fr/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=18.

KDE4 Version with OpenGL OSD

Some work has been done on a better on-screen display (OSD) using OpenGL. It is under development here http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/extragear/multimedia/kaffeinegl/. It looks like this repo is for testing the interface rather than a full Kaffeine program. Hopefully the result will be an improved OSD in Kaffeine4. Try it out and contribute: get KDE4.1 (http://kubuntu.org) and do the following:

svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/extragear/multimedia/kaffeinegl
mkdir kaffeinegl-build
cd kaffeinegl-build
cmake ../kaffeinegl
make
./src/kaffeinegl

External Links