Enabling GStreamer in Songbird 0.7
Starting with Songbird's 0.7 release, GStreamer support is bundled with Songbird on all platforms. Since we're still testing it out, GStreamer is disabled for playback of all file types except FLAC. If you would like to configure GStreamer as the default media core for all audio files, you'll just need to set one environment variable before launching Songbird. Check out the platform-specific instructions for your OS at the bottom of this article.
We've built in this functionality specifically because we'd like community feedback. If you do end up switching to GStreamer entirely, let us know how it goes! To return back to the standard VLC media core, quit Songbird, unset the variable (or change its setting to "minimal" from "all"), and restart the application. This will work for the 0.7pre 2008071401 nightly build and all newer 0.7 nightlies.
If you'd rather not set an environment variable, no worries; GStreamer will be the default media core (and, in fact, the only media core) in subsequent releases of Songbird post 0.7.
UPDATE (7/24/08): There’s a new add-on that will tell you which media core Songbird is using. Grab it here: http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addons/1271. You’ll get a new item in your Tools menu titled “Show Current Core”. Thanks to MikeS for whipping this one up!
UPDATE (8/18/08): Windows users, you'll need another add-on to work with GStreamer -- it needs the Direct Show codecs. Grab that one here: http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/1282.
Windows-Specific Instructions:
Open a command window, then run:
set SB_GST_ENABLE=all C:\Program Files\Songbird_<nightly-date>\songbird.exe
Mac-Specific Instructions:
Open a Terminal, then run:
export SB_GST_ENABLE=all /Applications/Songbird.app/Contents/MacOS/songbird
Linux-Specific Instructions (assumes a bash shell):
export SB_GST_BUNDLED=true <path-to-Songbird>/songbird
