Plugins

Totem Movie Player has many features which are present in the form of plugins — pieces of the software which are only loaded if necessary.

4.1. To Enable a Plugin

To view the list of installed plugins, choose Edit ▸ Plugins. The Configure Plugins dialog is displayed. On the left is a list of all the plugins you have installed, while on the right is a description of the currently selected plugin. Plugins which have options which can be changed will have a sensitive Configure button on the right.

To enable a plugin, simply select the checkbox to the left of its name in the plugin list, and the plugin will be loaded immediately. If there is any error loading the plugin, an error dialog will also be displayed immediately.

To disable a plugin again, deselect its checkbox. Plugins will remain enabled or disabled as set even when Totem Movie Player is closed.

4.2. Always on Top

When enabled, the Always on Top plugin will force the main Totem Movie Player window to be on top of all other windows while a movie is playing, but not while audio or visualizations are playing. To stop the window being on top, disable the plugin again.

4.3. Coherence DLNA/UPnP Client

The Coherence DLNA/UPnP Client plugin allows Totem Movie Player to play multimedia content from UPnP media servers (such as Coherence servers) on the local network.

With the Coherence DLNA/UPnP Client plugin enabled, choose View ▸ Sidebar (F9) or click on the Sidebar button to show the sidebar. Select Coherence DLNA/UPnP Client from the drop-down list at the top of the sidebar to display the Coherence DLNA/UPnP Client sidebar.

The tree view in the sidebar will list the available media servers. Clicking on one will expand it to show the types of media it can serve, and clicking on a media folder will expand it to list the media files available. Double-clicking on a media file will add it to Totem Movie Player's playlist and play it. You may alternatively right-click on a file and choose Play or Enqueue to play the file immediately or add it to the playlist, respectively.

If the media server allows it, choosing Delete from a file's context menu allows you to delete that file from the media server.

4.4. Gromit Annotations

The Gromit Annotations plugin allows you to draw on top of movies as they are played using Gromit. You must have Gromit installed before you can enable the plugin — consult your operating system documentation for information on how to do this.

With the plugin enabled, press Ctrl+D to toggle Gromit on or off. When Gromit is enabled, your pointer will change to a crosshair. To draw on the screen, hold down your mouse button and drag your pointer around, before releasing your mouse button. Press Ctrl+D again to toggle Gromit off.

To clear the screen of annotations, press Ctrl+E, or close Totem Movie Player.

4.5. Jamendo

The Jamendo plugin allows you to listen to the collection of Creative Commons-licensed music on the Jamendo service.

4.5.1. To Configure the Plugin

The Jamendo plugin can be configured. Click on the Configure button when enabling the plugin, and the Jamendo Plugin Configuration dialog will be displayed. Here, you can choose whether to download songs in Ogg or MP3 format (Ogg is preferred due to its open-source nature); and the number of albums to retrieve when doing a search (choose more albums if you have a faster Internet connection).

Once you're done, click OK.

4.5.2. To Display the Jamendo Sidebar

With the Jamendo plugin enabled, choose View ▸ Sidebar (F9) or click on the Sidebar button to show the sidebar. Select Jamendo from the drop-down list at the top of the sidebar to display the Jamendo sidebar.

4.5.3. To Search for Music

Enter your search terms in the search entry at the top of the Jamendo sidebar. You can search by either artist or by tags. Click on the search button to start your search.

Search results will be displayed in the tree view in the Search Results page of the sidebar, and can be browsed through using the arrow buttons at the bottom of the sidebar. Albums are listed, and if you click on an album, its tracks will be listed below it. Click again to hide the album's tracks.

With an artist selected, you can click on the Jamendo Album Page button to open that album's page on the Jamendo website. Double-clicking an album, or choosing Add to Playlist from the album's context menu, will replace your playlist with all the tracks on that album and begin streaming the first track from Jamendo's website. Double-clicking an individual track will replace your playlist with just that track.

4.5.4. Popular Albums and Latest Releases

Viewing the Popular page in the Jamendo sidebar will load a list of the most popular albums on Jamendo at the moment, which can be played as with search results. Viewing the Latest Releases page will likewise load a list of the latest albums released on Jamendo.

4.6. Local Search

The Local Search plugin allows you to search for playable movies and audio files on your computer from within Totem Movie Player. With the plugin enabled, choose View ▸ Sidebar (F9) or click on the Sidebar button to show the sidebar. Select Local Search from the drop-down list at the top of the sidebar to display the Local Search sidebar.

To perform a search, enter your search terms in the search entry at the top of the sidebar and click Find. Your search terms may include wildcards such as *, which will match any character. For example, the search *.mpg will find all movies with the .mpg file extension.

Search results may be browsed using the Back and Forward buttons at the bottom of the sidebar, and you may jump to a specific results page by entering its number in the spin box.

4.7. Publish Playlist

The Publish Playlist plugin allows you to publish playlists on your local network to allow other computers to access and play them.

4.7.1. To Configure the Plugin

The Publish Playlist plugin can be configured. Click on the Configure button when enabling the plugin, and the configuration dialog will be displayed. Here, you can change the name which will appear for your playlist share. The following strings will be replaced when playlists are published:

%a

Replaced with the program's name: Totem Movie Player.

%h

Replaced with your computer's host name.

%u

Replaced with your username.

%U

Replaced with your real name.

%%

Replaced with a literal percent sign.

You can also select the Use encrypted transport protocol checkbox if you wish to encrypt the shared playlists when they're transmitted over the network.

Once you're done, click Close.

4.7.2. To Publish Playlists

With the plugin enabled, you do not need to explicitly publish playlists; they are automatically made available on the network as a Zeroconf website.

4.7.3. To Browse your Neighborhood

To view the shared playlists of others on your network, select Neighborhood from the drop-down list at the top of the sidebar. If any playlists have been published on the network, they will be listed here. Double-click on a playlist to load and play it on your computer.

4.8. Subtitle Downloader

The Subtitle Downloader plugin allows you to find and download subtitle files from the OpenSubtitles service.

Subtitles can only be downloaded for local movies; not audio files, DVDs, DVB streams, VCDs or HTTP streams. To search for subtitles for the currently playing movie, choose View ▸ Download Movie Subtitles (Ctrl+Shift+s), which will display the Download Movie Subtitles dialog.

Select the language in which you wish to have your subtitles from the drop-down list at the top of the dialog, then click on the Find button to search for subtitles for the current movie. Subtitles are found on the basis of the movie's content, rather than its filename or tags.

Search results are listed in the tree view in the middle of the dialog. Currently, subtitles can only be used with a movie by reloading the movie with the subtitles, so after selecting the subtitle file you wish to download, click on the Play with Subtitle button to download the subtitles and reload the movie.

Downloaded subtitle files are cached (in ~/.cache/totem/subtitles, by default) so that they do not need to be downloaded again when playing the movie again. When downloading new subtitles for a movie, any previously downloaded subtitles for that movie are deleted.

4.9. Thumbnail

The Thumbnail plugin sets Totem Movie Player's main window icon to a thumbnail of the current movie, and updates the icon when new movies are loaded.

If a thumbnail doesn't exist for the current movie (or if you're playing an audio file), the main window icon will be reset to the Totem Movie Player logo.

4.10. Video Disc Recorder

The Video Disc Recorder plugin allows you to burn the current playlist to a DVD or VCD using Brasero.

To burn the current playlist, choose Movie ▸ Create Video Disc. A Brasero dialog will be displayed, giving options for converting the movies to the appropriate format and burning them to disc. For more information, see the Brasero documentation.

4.11. YouTube Browser

The YouTube Browser plugin allows you to search and browse YouTube, and play YouTube videos directly in Totem Movie Player. With the plugin enabled, choose View ▸ Sidebar (F9) or click on the Sidebar button to show the sidebar. Select YouTube from the drop-down list at the top of the sidebar to display the YouTube sidebar.

To search for a YouTube video, enter your search terms in the entry at the top of the sidebar, then click Find. The search results will be listed in the tree view below. More results will be loaded automatically as you scroll down the list.

To play a video, double-click it in the results list, or choose Add to Playlist from its context menu. When a video is played, a list of related videos will automatically be loaded in the Related Videos page of the YouTube sidebar.

YouTube videos can be opened in a web browser by choosing Open in Web Browser from their context menu. This will open the video in its original location on the YouTube website.

4.12. D-Bus Service

The D-Bus Service plugin broadcasts notifications of which track is playing in Totem Movie Player on the D-Bus session bus. Applications such as Gajim can listen for such notifications and respond accordingly by, for example, updating your instant messaging status message to display the video currently being played in Totem Movie Player.