ubuntu_demon
October 4th, 2007, 05:06 PM
I'm posting this as a forum user and not as a staff member. This is all on your own risk.
Legal Notice : Patent and copyright laws operate differently depending on which country you are in. Please obtain legal advice if you are unsure whether a particular patent or restriction applies to a media format you wish to use in your country.
This HOWTO focuses on the most common customizations (including multimedia playback) suitable for average users.
There is a good reason why Ubuntu doesn't include better multimedia support on default.
Some file formats are proprietary, which means that they are owned by a company or other organisation. Sometimes, the owners of such formats charge licensing fees or impose legal restrictions on the use of their formats. This means that people may be unable to use or distribute these formats without first paying a fee or applying for a license.
A Free or open format is one which can be used by anyone, free of legal restrictions on how they use the format. Free formats are very popular - the World Wide Web is based on the open HTML standard. Ubuntu supports many free formats and the open-source community as a whole encorages their wider use.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FreeFormats
First you might want to install the following packages to make most multimedia work by entering the following command. Explanation about the packages : ubuntu-restricted-extras contains most non-free formats you will ever need. vlc is a videoplayer you can try if some video won't play with the default video player (totem). gstreamer0.10-pitfdll is another codec (which gets installed by ubuntu-restricted-extras in Hardy). Kubuntu users should use kubuntu-restricted-extras instead. Xubuntu users should use xubuntu-restricted-extras instead.
sudo aptitude install vlc ubuntu-restricted-extras gstreamer0.10-pitfdll
If you have problems with flash and sound (for example sound problems with youtube) try restarting your browser. If that doesn't work you might want to try to remove or install the package libflash-mozplugin and restart your browser once again.
If watching streaming (non-flash) video's on a website doesn't work you could try the MediaPlayerConnectivity plugin to watch the video with an external application (vlc) :
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/446
(you might need to remove the package totem-mozilla)
If you want newer versions of certain software you can optionally enable backports in system->administration->software sources or by editting your /etc/apt/sources.list :
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
Uncomment the line which looks somewhat like this :
#deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
For more information about backports :
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=47
If you are not satisfied with totem and vlc then you might want to use mplayer (sudo aptitude install mplayer) with w32codecs ( or ppccodecs or w64codecs if you use one of those architectures) but these packages come from Medibuntu which is an unofficial repository which is less safe so only do this if you understand what you are doing and if you really really need it. More information : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
If you need dvd playback you need libdvdcss2 from Medibuntu which is an unofficial repository which is less safe so only do this if you understand what you are doing and if you really really need it. More information : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
Here's more information about using multimedia :
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FreeFormats
Here's a guide which is a little bit similar to this one. I didn't try it.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=301499
Here's more Ubuntu documentation :
https://help.ubuntu.com/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToGetHelp
https://help.ubuntu.com/community
Some more links for beginners in here (information is a bit old) :
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=232059
I'm posting this as a forum user and not as a staff member. This is all on your own risk.
Legal Notice : Patent and copyright laws operate differently depending on which country you are in. Please obtain legal advice if you are unsure whether a particular patent or restriction applies to a media format you wish to use in your country.
This HOWTO focuses on the most common customizations (including multimedia playback) suitable for average users.
There is a good reason why Ubuntu doesn't include better multimedia support on default.
Some file formats are proprietary, which means that they are owned by a company or other organisation. Sometimes, the owners of such formats charge licensing fees or impose legal restrictions on the use of their formats. This means that people may be unable to use or distribute these formats without first paying a fee or applying for a license.
A Free or open format is one which can be used by anyone, free of legal restrictions on how they use the format. Free formats are very popular - the World Wide Web is based on the open HTML standard. Ubuntu supports many free formats and the open-source community as a whole encorages their wider use.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FreeFormats
First you might want to install the following packages to make most multimedia work by entering the following command. Explanation about the packages : ubuntu-restricted-extras contains most non-free formats you will ever need. vlc is a videoplayer you can try if some video won't play with the default video player (totem). gstreamer0.10-pitfdll is another codec (which gets installed by ubuntu-restricted-extras in Hardy). Kubuntu users should use kubuntu-restricted-extras instead. Xubuntu users should use xubuntu-restricted-extras instead.
sudo aptitude install vlc ubuntu-restricted-extras gstreamer0.10-pitfdll
If you have problems with flash and sound (for example sound problems with youtube) try restarting your browser. If that doesn't work you might want to try to remove or install the package libflash-mozplugin and restart your browser once again.
If watching streaming (non-flash) video's on a website doesn't work you could try the MediaPlayerConnectivity plugin to watch the video with an external application (vlc) :
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/446
(you might need to remove the package totem-mozilla)
If you want newer versions of certain software you can optionally enable backports in system->administration->software sources or by editting your /etc/apt/sources.list :
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
Uncomment the line which looks somewhat like this :
#deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
For more information about backports :
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=47
If you are not satisfied with totem and vlc then you might want to use mplayer (sudo aptitude install mplayer) with w32codecs ( or ppccodecs or w64codecs if you use one of those architectures) but these packages come from Medibuntu which is an unofficial repository which is less safe so only do this if you understand what you are doing and if you really really need it. More information : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
If you need dvd playback you need libdvdcss2 from Medibuntu which is an unofficial repository which is less safe so only do this if you understand what you are doing and if you really really need it. More information : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
Here's more information about using multimedia :
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FreeFormats
Here's a guide which is a little bit similar to this one. I didn't try it.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=301499
Here's more Ubuntu documentation :
https://help.ubuntu.com/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToGetHelp
https://help.ubuntu.com/community
Some more links for beginners in here (information is a bit old) :
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=232059
I'm posting this as a forum user and not as a staff member. This is all on your own risk.