Software for audio, video as well as iPod sync?

**Kajal_V** · October 5th, 2014

I am fairly new to Ubuntu. I'm running Ubuntu 14.04 on my laptop and I need software that can play music (.mp3), music videos (.mp4, .flv etc) as well as be able to sync my iPod - basically a software similar to iTunes. I also need it to change songs on pressing the 'f6' and 'f8' keys, which VLC Media Player does not do. I have tried Rhythmbox but it cannot play my music videos.
If the software can automatically load songs from a particular directory that I specify (and I keep adding new songs to that directory itself), that would be great.
Please suggest some software for this.

**Vladlenin5000** · October 5th, 2014

Right now you need codecs more than anything therefore I suggest you to install the ubuntu-restricted-extras. After that any software should be able to play anything (music players will only play audio files though).
Rythmbox has a library feature therefore it can update itself with the new contents of any directory it has been told to keep an eye on.
Regarding F6/F8 (why F6 and F8???) some programs might allow key assignment but I'm not sure, never use it.
You can't sync your iPod in Linux and you can thank Apple for that. Do not even try to install iTunes (for Windows) with WINE because you'll end up with a glorified music player and not so good at that which can't even connect to the store let alone sync...

**Kajal_V** · October 5th, 2014

Hello, thanks for your reply.
I have already installed ubuntu-restricted-extras while trying to make Rhythmbox work. My problem is that it cannot play my songs as well as music videos. I switched to VLC, but it doesn't automatically detect changes in the directory.

F6 and F8 are the labelled << and >> keys and I have always used them, so I was just wondering if it was possible to use these as shortkeys to switch between songs while working on something else.. It is a matter of convenience, but it doesn't matter so much. I just don't really want to have to keep going back to the application manually.

So if there is no way I can sync my iPod, is the only solution to dual-boot it with Windows and use iTunes? (which sort of kills the point of wanting to switch to Ubuntu completely) Or I can probably forget about syncing it and just keep using it as it is..

I should keep using Rhythmbox for music/VLC for music videos then? It seems a little inconvenient. But if that is the only option, I'll go ahead with it.
Thank you!

**Vladlenin5000** · October 5th, 2014

If your hardware is powerful enough you can also have a Win7 virtual machine with iTunes installed thus avoiding a dual-boot scenario for that purpose only (if you like some Windows games that have no native version for Linux you can use Windows7 for those as well; a Windows VM won't be enough for demanding games).

The multimedia keys usually work system wide for all apps except VLC (sometimes it can be configured; sometimes it can't).
There are many alternatives you can install concurrently and use what better suits your needs. Perhaps overkill but a brilliant piece of software nevertheless, is the KODI Entertainment Center (former XBMC). It plays video, audio, images and gives you the weather!! It has also lots of extensions providing many other features including video/audio streaming from many sources. And it usually recognizes those multimedia keys eluding VLC.