Developer(s) | Novell Inc. |
---|---|
Initial release | February 17, 2005 |
Stable release | |
Preview release | |
Repository | |
Written in | C# (Gtk#) |
Operating system | Linux, Mac OS X (beta), Windows (alpha) |
Type | Media player |
License | MIT |
Website | www |
Banshee was a cross-platform open-source media player, called Sonance until 2005. [3] Built upon Mono and Gtk#, it used the GStreamer multimedia platform for encoding, and decoding various media formats, including Ogg Vorbis, MP3 and FLAC. Banshee can play and import audio CDs and supports many portable media players, including Apple's iPod, Android devices and Creative's ZEN players. [4] Other features include Last.fm integration, album artwork fetching, smart playlists and podcast support. Banshee is released under the terms of the MIT License. Stable versions are available for many Linux distributions, as well as a beta preview for OS X and an alpha preview for Windows.
Banshee was the default music player for a year in Ubuntu and for some time in Linux Mint, but was later replaced by Rhythmbox in both distributions. [5] [6] [7]
Banshee uses the SQLite database library.
Banshee's plugin-capable architecture makes the software extensible and customizable. As of 2012 [update] stable plugins include:
Compared to the Linux builds, which have stable releases, the Mac OS X builds are considered beta quality, and Windows builds are alpha quality (and, as of April 2013, two versions behind the other platforms). During Google Summer of Code 2012 Banshee has seen substantial improvements to its OS X support [8]
The first alpha release of Banshee on Windows was Banshee 1.9.4, released on February 23, 2011. [9] [10] [11]
Helix Banshee was a version of Banshee, included in older versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and openSUSE. It was based upon the Banshee core, but with a plug-in to add support for the Helix framework for playback and transcoding, in addition to GStreamer.
A Linux distribution is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and often a package management system. They are often obtained from the website of each distribution, which are available for a wide variety of systems ranging from embedded devices and personal computers to servers and powerful supercomputers.
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GStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework that links together a wide variety of media processing systems to complete complex workflows. For instance, GStreamer can be used to build a system that reads files in one format, processes them, and exports them in another. The formats and processes can be changed in a plug and play fashion.
Rhythmbox is a free and open-source audio player software, tag editor and music organizer for digital audio files on Linux and Unix-like systems.
The following comparison of video players compares general and technical information for notable software media player programs.
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