This HOWTO is mainly aimed at all the users of Ubuntu 64bit (although it would work also on a 32bit system) who can't (obviously) install these codecs using the repositories.
If you want to watch your movies (avi and wmv) or listen to your music files (wma) which require Win32 codecs this is what you need:
1)You have to OWN A LEGAL COPY of Windows, because these are proprietary codecs (somebody correct me if I'm wrong)
2)Install “xine-ui” and “totem-xine” in Synaptic or type in the command line:
sudo apt-get install xine-ui ; totem-xine
3) Download the codecs from this website:
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html
(just download the “essential codecs package”)
4)Open the command line(“Konsole” if you are using KDE, “Terminal” if you are using GNOME) and follow these steps:
a) Get to the directory where you have downloaded the file (/home/alberto/downloads in my case)
cd /home/alberto/downloads
b) Create the directory in which you are going to put the codecs (/usr/lib/win32 in my case)
sudo mkdir /usr/lib/win32
c) Now, assuming the file you downloaded is “essential-20050412.tar.bz2”:
sudo tar jxvf essential-20050412.tar.bz2 /usr/lib/win32
d) Then, if you are using KDE type: (alberto is my username and the name of my folder, so remember to put YOURS)
kate /home/alberto/.xine/config
Otherwise if you are using GNOME type:
gedit /home/alberto/.xine/config
(please don't forget to put the dot “.” before the word “xine”)
e) Get to the end of the document and add the following line:
decoder.external.win32_codecs_path:/usr/lib/win32
Here's an example (part of my config file):
# percentage of skipped frames to tolerate
# numeric, default: 10
#engine.performance.warn_skipped_threshold:10
# allow implicit changes to the configuration (e.g. by MRL)
# bool, default: 0
#misc.implicit_config:0
decoder.external.win32_codecs_path:/usr/lib/win32
f) Save the file (yes, overwrite it) and exit.
g) Now restart xine (if you were using it)
Congratulations, now you can open wma, wmv, and avi files by using Totem and Xine!
P.S.:Unfortunately I didn't get Amarok to play wma files although I installed its xine engine and I set it as its default engine.
Well, better than nothing!
Alberto
UPDATE: It seems wmv9 don't work with my HOWTO. I promise to find a way to make them work as soon as I have my computer back from Compaq.
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