What is caffeine
Like other KDE products, Kaffeine is a multimedia player specially developed for Linux. It is based on the VLC Media Framework, which supports a variety of formats for media codecs. Kaffeine is known for its easy-to-use interface and is packed with features that enable it to perform all of the basic multimedia tasks a media player can.
With Kaffeine, not only can you play video and audio files, but you can also access running files from DVDs and VCDs. Unlike regular media players, Kaffeine also has a button to run live digital television on your systems, so users don’t have to download their favorite shows and just stream them live. All of these properties and more make caffeine a worthwhile product.
Install caffeine
Ubuntu offers two primary methods that you can use to install Kaffeine on your system. These methods are explored in the following sections:
Method # 1: Install Kaffeine with Snap
Kaffeine can be easily installed with a snap of the program, an application developed by the folks at Canonical that contains the complete package with all of its dependencies. This form of installation has become very popular lately as you can install Snaps on any Linux distribution.
To install Kaffeine from the Snap Store, first open the terminal via the Ctrl + Alt + T Shortcut or by searching for ‘Terminal’ in the Ubuntu Dash. Then type the following command into the terminal:
Method # 2: Install Kaffeine Using the Official Ubuntu Repository
However, Snaps are not quite as stable and seem a bit buggy in terms of performance. An alternative method is to use Ubuntu’s official repository to install Kaffeine, which has been all the rage for years. Since Kaffeine appears to be in Ubuntu’s official repository, it can be easily installed using the apt command.
Before installing Kaffeine, the apt cache must first be updated to prevent problems later during the installation. To refresh the apt cache, enter the following command in the terminal:
Now enter the following command in the terminal to install Kaffeine:
Using the Kaffeine Media Player
Kaffeine has a pretty easy to use and user friendly interface. When you open Kaffeine you will be presented with several options for what you want to do.
As mentioned above, Kaffeine allows you to play video and audio files from multiple sources. To play a file, just click on Play filewhich then asks you to select the file to be played. Kaffeine supports all formats that the VLC Media Player supports, as this program is based on the LibVLC framework.
Kaffeine also allows users to open multiple playlists at the same time. click on the Playlist Tab in the sidebar, and this will open the following window:
As shown above, Kaffeine allows you to create new playlists, rename the playlists, remove existing ones and even save them to your system. You can also add multiple files to your playlists. Users can loop files and playlists, shuffle them, remove a file they are not interested in, and even delete the entire playlist.
Kaffeine also offers support for digital live TV, which not only allows you to watch TV, but also to record. This is only possible if you have a tuner card installed in your system, as Kaffeine will first recognize this card and use it as a source to scan for channels. click on the TV Tab in the sidebar, then press Start scan Button.
Next, select the channel you want to watch:
To pre-set up a recording session for a specific channel, open the TV Menu item and click Recording session. Then click New, and you can set the session as you want
to like.
To play around with the currently running file, you can use the Playback optionsas shown in the picture below:
Why use caffeine?
Kaffeine is a solid media player that supports multiple video and audio formats, as well as playing files from DVD and CD devices. A unique feature that sets Kaffeine apart from other media players is the ability to operate digital live TV. Caffeine is certainly an application worth using.
