Linux Mangaka Mou - An interesting distribution for Anime & Manga fans

Despite only having a share between one and two percent in the desktop and laptop OS market there are Linux distributions to chose from. This huge variety includes also versions customized for special topics like the 'Mangaka' Linux - especially for fans of Japans famous anime and manga.

The 2,2 GB DVD iso image was released this September 2015 and the distribution itself named 'Mou' is based on Ubuntu. It includes an interesting amount of software especially for graphics, audio, video and Japanese learning software.

After a flawless installation process you'll face an inviting desktop background with the picture of a rice field before you have to get through the already included software.

It delivers a great package of software including LibreOffice, Python programming or HandBrake (to convert DVDs to video files). 

Basic browsers are Firefox and Chrome and messenger like Pidgin and Thunderbird as a mail client are also part of the package. 

Definitely check that one out!

How to change thumbnails of mp4 files

Usually the thumbnails of video files are chosen randomly from the first few seconds of the clip. But there is a way to choose which picture you want to see as the thumbnail...

The solution is to use the tool Tag&Rename. This shareware was actually made to manage and edit your mp3 music collection but it has also the feature to change the cover art of mp4 and wmv files - other types like avi are unfortunately not even readable.

The edit overview

As you can see in the screenshot above the handling of this tool is quite easy. Just go through the folders to select the mp4 file where you want to change the thumbnail and 'right-click' to select 'Edit File Tag'.

Now you need a file for the cover art where I would recommend to use the snapshot feature of the VLC media player (in case you want to use a screenshot from the video clip...) .

After you have chosen the picture for the thumbnail drag & drop it into the space for the cover art (as seen in the screenshot). Finally you only have to confirm it with "Save" and it's done.

Create subtitles with srt-files

Subtitles are quite useful when you're watching a movie in a foreign language. Of course you can create your own *.srt-files to include them into your video. Let's see how that works.

At first, you simply need an editor. You can use the in Windows-included Notepad or something better like Notepad++.
In the latter it's much easier, because the important things are colored (if you chose XML as the language) and you can also see the line numbers.

To create one subtitle line you need three rows: The first is always the counter, so start with '1'. The second contains the time from the begin of the sub until it disappears.

You have to use the following syntax: hh:mm:ss,000 ==> hh:mm:sss,000

In the last line you have to write the text. With HTML codes you change font color, size and so on. As you can see in this example:

1
00:01:03.030 ==> 00:01:06.078
<font size="32px" color="white">This is a test subtitle!</font>
In the following you can see how helpful Notepad++ is:

Example for srt file opened in Notepad++

To make some adjustments it could be very useful to test the file within the VLC media player. Just open the suited video, right-click in the video, select 'subtitle' and then 'Open File'.

How to open a subtitle file in VLC media player

Then just chose the file you've previously created and watch if everything matches fine. Else, you can always make some adaptions - maybe you have to change a line for a tenth of a second up or down.

If everything matches fine you can create mkv-files. In these files you can include subtitles into the video file. All you need is the application 'mkvmerge':

How to add sub titles into mkv files

Mkvmerge can create new mkv-files with additional audio dubs and subs. To begin you just need to press the 'add' button to select your video file and your srt file. 

In the segment with 'track, chapters and tags' you can see then the video file, the audio file from the video and your imported srt file. If you click at the srt-file (usually named as 'SubRip/SRT ... ) you can give the subtitle line a 'track name' and also chose a language in the 'general track options'.

Finally you just need to select the destination and press 'Start muxing'.

Of course there are also other and easier ways to create subtitles but that's another story...