StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I need two things to get my Trek reviews fully under Ubuntu; any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

1) A DVD playing program that also permits image capturing
2) A video editing program with a small learning curve.

Thanks in advance.

AviDemux is basically VirtualDub for Ubuntu. It's in the repositories. You can even theoretically use this to capture DVD stills, though it's via a clumsy detour through the DVD's file structure.

For screencaps, Mplayer can do those if you start it with the -vf screenshot parameter. Once you start your DVD, just make sure the window's focused and press "s".

Totem has the screencap feature built into the GUI, if I recall correctly.

To play DVDs, you'll also need libdvdcss2, located in the packages.medibuntu.org repositories. This will allow you to play DVDs on most media players, although I prefer Totem or VLC due to better menu support. See here for more details.

For DVD playing, I recommend Kaffeine. It's easy to use, and screenshots are just a matter of hitting Ctrl-S.