-----------
audio tools
-----------

+ k3b is good for ripping+converting cd audio to mp3 or other formats.

+ asunder is a great ripper for CDs and supports a lot of output formats.

+ for lossless music compression, the flac and shorten (shn) formats are
  very nice.  there are some canonical tools for each platform for these.

+ for converting from ogg and such to mp3 and m4a and such, use the
  gnome tool called 'soundconverter'.

+ musicbrainz provides a freedb style gateway for looking up albums, artists and songs...
  https://wiki.musicbrainz.org/History:FreeDB_Gateway
  use this instead of the old freedb URL:
    http://freedb.musicbrainz.org:80/~cddb/cddb.cgi
+ gnudb: works in apps that need exact old freedb format, had more success
    in asunder with gnudb
    => gnudb.gnudb.org 8880

--------------------------------
music library manager and player
--------------------------------

+ lollypop is our current choice for managing a large music library and
  playing back songs in it.

+ banshee used to be our app of choice for managing our music library, but it
  seems to no longer be updated.


---------------------------------
dvd burner and dvd player support
---------------------------------

+ k3b is a pretty great and versatile cd and dvd burner.

+ k3b is good for ripping+converting cd audio to mp3 or other formats.

+ for dvd processing, vobcopy is a must.

+ for dvd playing and ripping in general, decss is needed.
  it's available in the restricted packages on ubuntu.
  lots of articles describe how to set that up.

+ vlc is a good player for dvds.

-------------------------------
ripping music using a turntable 
-------------------------------

audacity is the go-to tool for ripping music from vinyl records
and many other audio toaster processes:
  http://www.audacityteam.org/

this article helps a lot to get the music off of vinyl records using a usb turntable:
  https://www.linux.com/news/using-usb-turntable-linux


----------------
movie processing
----------------

devede:
  super great dvd creator for playable dvds.

kdenlive:
  this is an awesome tool that lets you manage multiple tracks of audio and video, apply
  effects to both, edit and remove pieces, insert tracks, etc.  it's great.

avidemux:
  if you need to manipulate a video, for example to rotate it or transcode it to a different
  format, then avidemux works great.

openshot:
  if you need to jam a bunch of videos together, crossfade them, and that kind of stuff,
  then try openshot.  it also supports simple saving with different quality levels, which
  lets you drop a bunch of size at the expense of the picture.  sometimes needed.

---------------------------
music collection management
---------------------------

dupeguru:
  found this to be pretty helpful in finding my duplicate songs.  it is able to analyze
  when the files are the same, even if their names don't match.
  check: did it even compare by metadata?  not remembering currently.

fdupes:
  another useful tool for finding duplicate tracks in a music collection, but relies on exact
  matches in the names(?).  was not so powerful as dupeguru, but still useful.

-----------------------------
picture collection management
-----------------------------

shotwell:
  currently the top picture manipulation and manager tool i use at home.
  the imaginations folder is based on the date management in shotwell.