Despite the fact that we are well into summer and the temperature here in Barcelona has been routinely exceeding 35ºC, the Moovida team has been far from siesta mode (siestas are only a Spanish myth). The latest release of Moovida (2.0.0.15.) is now available for download and includes important new features and performance tweaks, which might just help ease your World Cup comedown.

New Features

• DVD Disc Support
• Partial support for Audio CD playback and ripping

User Interface

• Drag & drop to add files to playlist
• Error messages appear in case GStreamer fails
• New widget for audio stream switching in the main UI: select from various audio tracks imbedded in your video file (as seen in top right of screenshot below)

Tweaks

• Optimized run time (quicker start)
• Resolved issues for video playback on Windows XP
• Support for .NET 2.0

Beat the heat and cure your World Cup hangover with Moovida and these football documentary DVDs.

So this feature has been requested quite a bit, and now it’s possible with Moovida Core: Bookmarking.

So what’s the use of Bookmarking you say? It allows you to save a specific moment in your film or track, so you can pick up from where you left off when reopening Moovida. The feature is specially useful for saving the end of your movie for another day.

As for me, I love bookmarking my favourite movie scenes for whenever I’m in the mood to revisit them, instead of rummaging through a YouTube search. You’ll probably recognize a few of these scenes which I love having just a click (or two) away.

• Office Space – 53:20 – Print machine payback
• The Hangover – 24:30 – Wolf pack speech
• Trainspotting – 8:30 – Travis goes swimming (viewer discretion advised)
• Taxi Driver – 1:03:00 – “You talkin’ to me?”
• Napoleon Dynamite – 7:00 – “Can you bring me my chapstick?”

Do you have any bookmarks worth sharing?

One of the limitations with currently available players is that they can only reproduce a few file formats, a real source of frustration when you want to play all your mpeg, mp4, mov, avi, ogg, divx movie files from a simple app that neatly organizes your media library.

Moovida Core does all this and more. It will play most file formats, with the exception of DRM protected files that are impossible for us to support. If you’re annoyed that you can’t play DRM files with Moovida, check out this site which promotes a DRM-free lifestyle. You’ll get all the tips to avoid DRM media, giving you more power over your music downloads. It’s a bit tricky to find as many resources for free and legal video, however the Entertainment Magazine has a good selection of classics that are now part of the public domain.

Here are some other noteworthy sources you should check out to load Moovida up with free and legal downloads:

• Mashable lists a bunch of different free and legal download sites
• Sitepoint goes over a long list of creative common sources for media, including Jamendo
• Creative Commons is also a great place to find the latest CC-licensed films

Playing all your DRM-free formats has never been easier with Moovida.

Our mother company Fluendo will be at Computex, happening June 1st to 5th 2010 in Taiwan, to present Moovida Immersed, the media center interface we’ve been talking so much about.

To arrange a meeting and experience the Immersed interface before anyone else, contact Fluendo at sales@fluendo.com.

The goods are in just in time for the weekend, Moovida 2.0 is available for download. Remember, we have a new concept for Moovida 2.0, you can read all about it here.

Here’s the run down on the newest features:

• Create playlists or shuffle at random
• Import the exact folders you want in your media library
• Hook up with your Last.fm account
• Moovida’s interface is available in 20 + languages

Moovida still allows you to play music and video in nearly any format – if there’s a format you can’t play, we want to know about it!

Coming soon is our media center extension called Moovida Immersed, ideal for tv navigation with a remote control. The extension will appear with a simple software update from Moovida Core, so hang tight. We’re very excited to introduce you to this innovative, more visually engaging way to connect with your media.

The best way to discover Moovida 2.0 is by downloading it, so what are you waiting for?

Don’t forget to give us your feedback:

• on our Forum
• by email: info@moovida.com
• in the comments below.

Some pertinent questions have emerged following Moovida 2.0’s announcement, enough to dedicate a whole post explaining in more detail Moovida 2.0’s stance on open source and licensing.

The Moovida Core UI is basically Banshee with some tweaks and arrangements. It will use the same license as Banshee, however it is important to understand that Banshee is not only a UI, but also a framework with a lot of extensions. Each extension can have its own license. So it is correct to say that the Moovida Core UI will use the MIT licenses, and some extensions and services inside it will be proprietary.

Extensions, services and the whole Banshee framework is made accessible to the Moovida Immersed UI through XML-RPC data exchange. So MIT or Proprietary extensions in the Moovida Core UI will be available to the 3D UI through that communication channel.

The whole project can be contributed to by either writing Moovida/Banshee extensions or by adding LUA code to extend the 3D UI, accessing the services through XML-RPC.

Just consider the Diesel engine as a rendering platform, like a web browser, and you develop the UI with the LUA language and the artwork we are providing.

The Diesel engine will support OpenGL ES on some platforms. We are not going to maintain Moovida 1.0’s Python framework for long, but hey it’s free software, if someone wants to make something out of it, help yourself!

As the release of Moovida 2.0 draws near, we decided it was time to share the details of what’s to come with our community.

The next Moovida release is a completely innovative concept, and actually consists in 2 applications in one.

When first running the software, you’ll get Moovida Core, the flexible application ideal for desktop use. Most of you will be familiar with its features, which are based on the popular open source project Banshee. When ready to access your media via tv, the Moovida Immersed media center extension can be opened from the Core app, introducing a more visually engaging experience, optimized for HDTV navigation with remote control. In other words, Moovida Immersed will be the substitute for Moovida 1.0.

The software is still free to download and intends to provide users with a full scope media solution, bridging the gap between desktop and connected tvs. As we transition from project to commercial software with Moovida 2.0, our desktop app will be ad supported and initially compatible under Windows, with a Linux and Mac version to follow shortly. We also plan to offer a variety of premium content through the Moovida Immersed media center.

Moovida Core 2.0 is now being distributed under limited release for testing, and the complete solution will be available publicly this summer.

Moovida’s next phase of development focusses on working closely with Banshee, upon which our backend is now based. We highly encourage those who want to contribute to Moovida Core to participate in the Banshee project. We also plan to open our UI to encourage developers to keep playing with the software and adding new features.

Got questions or comments? Check out this FAQ page, or contact us any of the following ways:

• post a comment below
• email us: info@moovida.com
• post on our Forum

We’re very excited about this next release, and we very much look forward to presenting you with the finished product.

Moovida’s team is growing, and we’re always on the look out for fresh new talent. We now have an opening for the web developer position.

Moovida Web Developer – Job Description

If this is a position that interests you, please send your credentials to hr@fluendo.com.

In relation to my recent post about piracy, I just HAD to comment on the shocker that was just announced about the latest James Bond film being suspended indefinitely. This is the first real tell-tale sign of Hollywood running out of steam after the digital revolution in film. What hasn’t helped is the fact that MGM has been slow keeping up with the times, and now the latest Bond Film is paying for it dearly.

I just had to point out that this is probably the first blatant illustration of the vicious circle that is piracy, and how some movie goers (Bond fans in this case) are finally paying for this vice. I, for one, won’t be crying over it, especially since I had the misfortune of paying to see Quantum of Solace in theaters.

I’m curious to see what lessons the Hollywood industry will take away from this, and whether the next owners of MGM’s film library will embrace the online VOD model. Can we hope to see some MGM films on Moovida any time soon, or more specifically the next Bond?