Short Version

Install vlc (version should be >= 1.1.1): apt-get install vlc Install ﻿phonon-backend-vlc: apt-get install phonon-backend-vlc Change backend selection in Phonon: Go to System Settings → Multimedia → Backend

Choose VLC and click Prefer. Your screen should look like:



Long Version

KDE uses the Phonon framework to play media. Its architecture allows to switch audio backend. This small fact can change the sound quality immensely. Until now, under Linux there was official support for a single backend, namely Xine (and partly official support for GStreamer). About a week ago, the first stable version of VLC backend hit Debian testing and Ubuntu 10.10. If you don’t know VLC, it’s a very popular media player. Check out their website for details: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

The backend is the piece of code that does all the playing. It gets the data to play (from file, stream etc.), runs it through codecs, apply equalizer and sends it to the audio server. No wander that the backend effects the quality of the sound. Turns out that VLC does a better job at channel mixing, gain control and more. Practically it just sounds better!

There’s only one thing that I miss at the moment is equalizer support. But even without an equalizer the sound quality is terrific.

A note about stability: After using this backend since April, I can say it is fast and stable, at occasions even better than Xine. Nevertheless remember this is still Beta software, still under development.