# &app; Manual V&manrevision;

2003
Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller

&app; lets you configure parameters related to the hardware and multimedia

MATE Documentation Project

&legal;

Christian Fredrik
Kalager Schaller
mate.org

&app; Manual V&manrevision;
&date;

Marc-Andre Lureau

MATE Documentation Project

&app; Manual V2.4
December 2003

Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller

MATE Documentation Project

GStreamer Properties Manual V1.0
September 2003

Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller

MATE Documentation Project

This manual describes version &appversion; of &app;.

## Feedback

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the &app; application or this manual, follow the directions in the MATE Feedback Page.

## Introduction

The &app; application enables you to configure parameters related to the hardware and multimedia systems on your system.

Only advanced users should normally need this as your OS vendor should be shipping the system with the correct defaults.

## Getting Started

You can start &app; in the following ways:

Applications menu

  Choose Preferences Gstreamer Properties.

Command line

  Type `gstreamer-properties`, then press Return.

When you start &app;, the following window is displayed.

### &app; Window

Shows &app; main window. Contains menubar, toolbar, drop-down menus for the input and output audio options.

## Usage

The GStreamer properties applet offers four drop down menus spread over two tabs. There are two drop-menues for audio and two for video. These choices set the default for most MATE applications for output and input of Sound and Video.

### Understanding the menu options

Looking at the screen for setting audio options you notice that the two sections are called Default Sink and Default Source. These are terms used in the GStreamer framework that MATE uses to describe where data is sent and where it comes from. The Default sink is in other words where MATE apps should output their sound, while Default source is where the sound comes from.

The reason you might want to alter these settings is because under Unix there are many different audio systems and sound server which you might want to output to. For instance on Linux popular alternatives are the PulseAudio sound server or ALSA.

If you wish that your MATE applcations output their sound to the PulseAudio sound server you set the Default Sink to use PulseAudio. And if you wish that your MATE applications which has sound recording capabilities use the ALSA sound system, choose ALSA as the Default Source.

As mentioned elsewhere in this user guide. These setting are meant for as a tool for advanced users who have specialized need. As an ordinary user, you should not need to set these as the vendor of your distribution should have set them to sensible defaults for you.