Google extended the deadline for summer of code applications by a week today. This means that if you just returned from an easter vacation thinking f**k I just missed the application deadline, you can relax as the doomsday bell did not ring just yet.

We got some sweet applications for GStreamer SoC projects, but more would of course be welcome. Check out our student information page for how to apply. If you need ideas for project to do then you find some nifty ideas at the GStreamer SoC ideas page.

And for the harder than hardcore of you there are still opportunities for also submitting Dirac SoC proposals.

So get yourself a bankable checkpoint on your CV and do a GStreamer Summer of Code project this summer.

This is your chance to one day be able to say: Remember The Summer Of Code that I was a part of, We had so many dreams, And even a few of them came true it seems.

So Google has now opened the floodgates to this years Google Summer of Code with GStreamer and Dirac Schrodinger as happy participants.

So this is the year where you can get inspired by our wondrous GStreamer project ideas or Schrodinger ideas and join the elite world of multimedia hackery!

Not only that, but you can even come up with an idea all of your own :)

So ask yourself this; If not this year, then when? If not you, then who? If not our generation, then which generation?

So stop wasting time and start enrolling here.

Do not linger because Google close the gates on 31st of March!

So I am very happy to see that GStreamer this year is a Google Summer of Code organisation. And not only did GStreamer get approved, but Schrodinger also got its approval. A big thanks to Google and Leslie for this. There is a proposed task list both for GStreamer and for Schrodinger-Dirac. On a related note David Schleef got the new Schrodinger website up and running, and while it is still a bit bare on content we will start to migrate over any useful content left on the old site and at the same time have it re-direct to this new one.

So I hope to see a lot of student proposals for both GStreamer and Dirac/Schrodinger projects. And if you have an idea not on the current list of ideas do not let that discourage you from proposing something.

For people wanting to do GNOME or KDE applications using GStreamer I suggest you propose the project to both us and them, but make a note in the application that you have done so. Also note if you feel your primary need for mentorship will be on the GStreamer or GUI side of things. That way we can talk between ourselves on the mentoring organisations side of things and figure out what we can do.

So we have managed to put together a preliminary set of webpages for trying to get into this year’s Google Summer of Code. We already have a list of proposed
projects, but the list needs more work. Both in terms of details for the existing items and in terms of number.

Since we are doing this in our Wiki any who is interested in helping out with organizing Soc this year is welcome to join
in by editing the pages, adding information and suggestions.

Current GStreamer developers are especially recommended to check the list to sign up as mentors. Students can also mark their interest by adding a note with their name to the various proposals.

With the team lead by Thomas Davies at the BBC working hard for many years now on creating Dirac it is great to see the specification out. It was equally great to see David Schleef announce Schrodinger 1.0.0 at the end of last Month. Schrodinger is as most of you know a high performance implementation of Dirac in ANSI C. It is meant as a tool for people to be able to easily integrate Dirac support into their applications and systems. Which is also why it is available under very liberal licensing terms in the form of a GPL/LGPL/MPL/MIT quadruple license.

Anyway to celebrate the release of both the specification and the implementation we managed to put together and send out a press release for the Schrodinger project.

So once again congratulations to everyone involved, lets all work to get Dirac widely adopted. Personally I am hoping to that combination of Dirac video, FLAC audio in a Matroska container could be a killer combination to get started on mainstream adoption.

I bought myself a TT-Connect C-1200 USB card from DVB-Shop. Last evening and today I been testing and trying to get it to work with Zaheer‘s help. With a few patches from Zaheer it now works in Totem as the screenshot show. Still a few issues that needs sorting out, like not requiring a pre-generated dvb-channels.conf file and better deinterlacing, but all in all things are looking fine.

So with upcoming versions of Totem+GStreamer you should be able to receive the Freeview channels over Virgin Media. Could open the way for an alternative to the noisy, slow and
unstable V+ box.

Also in case its useful for anyone. To generate the dvb-channels.conf file we needed this information put into a file called ‘uk-Virgin’ under /usr/share/dvb-apps/dvb-c

# scan config for Virgin Media cable provider
# freq sr fec mod
C 643000000 6887000 NONE QAM64

So Mikael Hallendal reported last week about SyncTV using GStreamer across Linux, MacOSX and Windows for their multimedia support. Well Songbird‘s Georges Auberger reports in his blog how they are now going to be using GStreamer as their multimedia engine on all platforms going forward. This has been brewing for some time now and the DirectShow/Windows and Quicktime/MacOSX integration plugins in GStreamer CVS are there thanks to Songbird. Another group using GStreamer on multiple platforms who I found thanks to the Songbird comments are Chameleo who are creating a video player/platform.

Songbird has been using GStreamer for a good while now on Linux of course so for those interested in testing it out I recommend heading over to the homepage and grab the latest build.