Totem/VLC/Mplayer?

[gerben1]

Actually I will not be able to download the cd addon to my computer at work as it is too big a file and I run the risk of getting into trouble.
I think I might understand the install but am still unclear of the commands. I did download the vlc package but have absolutely no idea how to install it once i have extracted it.
1. get the vlc debian package. How do I install this if I downloaded the package to my desktop and extracted it to /media/sda1 ?
2. install the package via a .deb file? Once again I have searched through the whole extracted folder and cannot seem to find a .deb file or .tar file. If I did see this file do I just double click it?
3. Download dependecies. Will these be .deb files as well? Same deal double click them?

.deb files are simply Debian package files, Ubuntu also uses this type of packages. If you double click on a .deb file in Ubuntu a package installer will start and will install the package.

So if you download a .deb file containing Vlc, you just need to copy that .deb file to you ubuntu computer and double click it. It is possible that Vlc will need programs or libraries that are in other .deb packages. These are called "dependencies for Vlc" as Vlc depends on them in order to work properly. So you will also need the .deb files that contain those dependencies.

[AndyCooll]

Actually I will not be able to download the cd addon to my computer at work as it is too big a file and I run the risk of getting into trouble.
I think I might understand the install but am still unclear of the commands. I did download the vlc package but have absolutely no idea how to install it once i have extracted it.
1. get the vlc debian package. How do I install this if I downloaded the package to my desktop and extracted it to /media/sda1 ?
2. install the package via a .deb file? Once again I have searched through the whole extracted folder and cannot seem to find a .deb file or .tar file. If I did see this file do I just double click it?
3. Download dependecies. Will these be .deb files as well? Same deal double click them?

It seems to me that what you have isn't a "Debian" file as talked about in previous replies. A Debian file is usually called something like vlc-0.8.6i.deb. It doesn't require extracting, you should just be able to double-click on it (as you used to do with an exe) and away you go.

However, I can understand your confusion because the vlc website doesn't only gives instructions for installation related to the official Ubuntu repos.

So ...what file have you downloaded? And where did you download it from?

[zipperback]

Install VLC, it will handled just about every format you could possibly want.

- zipperback

[anthonyglamis]

Ok maybe I did not download the correct file after all. Good to know I'm not completely going insane. I downloaded the file I have from vidoelan.org. I am not at my pc right now but it was something along the lines of vlc-0.8.6.tar or something like that. After extracted a folder was created named vlc-0.8.6h.
I guess I need to search for a vlc.deb on google huh? Any suggestions?

update it was vlc-0.8.6.tar.gz this was the file i downloaded. I cannot seem to find a .deb anywhere in it however.

[gerben1]

The tar.gz file contains the source code, you can extract it and than compile the program yourself.

[gerben1]

You can dowload the debian package from here:

http://packages.ubuntu.com/

looks a bit intimidating perhaps, but isn't really, just search ("Search the contents of packages") for VLC and you will get to this page:

http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?se...hardy&arch=any

in that page click on "Vlc" in column "packages"

you'll go to this page:

http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/vlc

on the very bottom of that page you can dowload a .deb packge of vlc, just choose the i386 link if you run normal Ubuntu or choose amd64 if you run the 64bit version.

[Vorian Grey]

Install VLC, it will handled just about every format you could possibly want.

+1 It's all you need.