I've warmed up to Totem

[Mateo]

I used to not like Totem. I thought it was too simplistic, too little features.

At that time I was using VLC. But I eventually got tired of its unituitive GUI and the odd way that it handled volume control. VLC was the opposite of Totem, it has too many features, and too many features that you absolutely had to deal with.

Then I switched to mplayer. Like many, I loved mplayer for the longest time. It was both feature rich (at least as many features as VLC), but it didn't force me to mess with all of the features. The user interface was simplistic.....

There's where I eventually went running back to Totem. Mplayer's UI is simplistic... too simplistic. At first I liked not having the clutter on the screen, but eventually I got tired of having to use keyboard shortcuts for everything. I hated having to press O twice to see how much time was left on the movie, I got tired of not having a status bar. I got tired of using keyboards to control volume and simple things like that. I, quite frankly, got tired of mplayer's minimalist.

So I went back to Totem and haven't looked back since. Totem is similar to Epiphany, in that it's simplistic while still having most of the essential features that it's application type needs.

My only problem with Totem is this:

totem-xine works great with DVDs, but doesn't play from TV tuner cards located at /dev/video0

totem-gstreamer will play the /dev/video0 but it won't play DVDs (from the menu).

Besides that, I'm loving it. Think I'm going to try and make the switch to the Totem browser plugin as well.

[n3tfury]

vlc - too many features that you have to deal with? are you kidding me?

[alwiap]

i hate the fact that in totem, my mouse always drags the song or movie when i don't want it to, i've looked for a fix to this but no avail.

[Thyme]

Hi Mateo,

I've been using totem since installing Ubuntu - it looks stylish and integrates well into Gnome. All my videos are encoded in either of 3 popular formats, so I don't have any problems. However, having MPlayer tucked away is always reassuring ;)

[Dr Small]

I used to use Totem until I found VLC player, and absolutely love it because it plays my DVDs properly, most everything worked out of the box, it had more features than totem and I could change skins, of which I could not do in Totem..

But, it is all user's choice, and I don't force anything down your throat.
I just though VLC was much better than totem :\

Dr Small

[FG123]

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned the SMPlayer GUI for mplayer. It's my saviour. :)

Now I only use VLC for DVDs and Totem for testing purposes.

[yatt]

I use Totem for everything. Once you get all the gstreamer plugins installed properry everything is fine and dandy. I don't like how VLC handles DVDs. I can never figure out where I am from VLCs menu structure. MPlayer I just cannot use.

[-grubby]

I give totem a 5/10. so-so. I love Kaffeine!

[banjobacon]

Now I only use VLC for DVDs and Totem for testing purposes.

I dislike VLC because it makes me ask this stupid question: How do I play a DVD in VLC?

[FG123]

I dislike VLC because it makes me ask this stupid question: How do I play a DVD in VLC?

Assuming you have the Medibuntu repository added (if you haven't, http://www.medibuntu.org):

sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

[Phil Airtime]

I like Totem for videos. I can sit at the other side of the room with my cheap wireless keyboard (nothing fancy) as a "remote control" and use the play/pause, volume up/down and rewind/FF buttons with ease. I also love the way it will get rid of the menu bars and things if you press "F", leaving you with just the TV programme on-screen.

[pelle.k]

I love totem, but it's much better now than it used to be. I use kaffeine in kde though.
mplayer-nogui is my backup, since totem is gstreamer, and mplayer uses w32 codecs, and i *hate* the mplayer GUI ;)

[Polygon]

totem-gstreamer doesnt have support for dvd menus because the developer refuses to add support for it, as of course dvd playback is a legal grey spot. (or something along these lines)

but i like totem, its nice. It has the best full screen gui that ive seen.

[Pekkalainen]

My gripes with Totem is that there is no 16:10 aspect ratio and there is no way to make any other aspect ratio the default. So every time I start something up I need to change the aspect ratio wich is really annoying.

Secondly I would like Totem to not stop the screensaver anymore after the video has finished playing. I always watch some tv-show to help me fall asleep and I dont want to seriously reduce the lifespan of my monitor doing so.

I tried VLC and sure its great but it seems to have a few bugs. Going fullscreen by pressing F only works one way for example. To make the video fullscreen I have to use the mouse, F only works to disable fullscreen.

All in all Totem is the least worst player I have encountered so far so its what Im using :)

[FuturePilot]

I haven't really played around with Totem because for some reason videos play back really slow/choppy. They work great in any other player.:confused:

[mikeize]

I've been using vlc from xp to gutsy (several years), and I like it the best. It ain't the prettiest, but it plays any given format more reliably than any other media player I've tried. Having said that... sometimes it doesn't play something, and I need to use another player (totem, mplayer, etc). So I need (like most people I guess), several media players just to cover different vid files, dvds or vcds I have. *sigh* one day, there will be one to rule them all, lol. still, for me, vlc is the most well-rounded.

-mike

[banjobacon]

Assuming you have the Medibuntu repository added (if you haven't, http://www.medibuntu.org):

sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

The package is installed. I launch VLC, go to File > Open Disc, click the DVD (menus) button, press okay, and get an error: Unable to open 'dvd:///dev/hdc'

I'm guessing the problem has something to do with the /dev/hdc part, but I really don't feel like figuring this kind of stuff out anymore.

[FuturePilot]

I haven't really played around with Totem because for some reason videos play back really slow/choppy. They work great in any other player.:confused:

Ah, I have fixed it. Swapped out totem-gstreamer with totem-xine and now it works much better.:)

[Nano Geek]

Ah, I have fixed it. Swapped out totem-gstreamer with totem-xine and now it works much better.:)I experienced that to. For me it started with Gutsy. I thought it was just me.

[FuturePilot]

I experienced that to. For me it started with Gutsy. I thought it was just me.

Yeah, that's interesting. I don't remember that either with previous versions.

[FG123]

The package is installed. I launch VLC, go to File > Open Disc, click the DVD (menus) button, press okay, and get an error: Unable to open 'dvd:///dev/hdc'

I'm guessing the problem has something to do with the /dev/hdc part, but I really don't feel like figuring this kind of stuff out anymore.
Bah! And you call yourself a geek!

Or maybe you don't, I dunno. :)

Anyways, yeah, VLC is trying to open a device that isn't your DVD drive. Mine for example is hda, not hdc. Just for kicks, try running this in a terminal:

cat /etc/fstab | grep cdrom

You'll get a /dev/something at the beginning of the line. Change what VLC uses when you Open Disc, hopefully it works.

[capink]

I love totem simple and clean interface. I love mplayer powerful features. My dream player would be totem-mplayer

[bruce89]

Totem all the way apart from VLC for DVDs.

[Pekkalainen]

The screensaver problem I mentioned earlier is gone, did the developers hear me? Am I just insane? Or is there a god? :D

[blastfm]

Ah, I have fixed it. Swapped out totem-gstreamer with totem-xine and now it works much better.:)

I experience choppines on video/DVD playback with Totem as well.

Sorry for being such a noob, but how do I do this? How do I know which of these is used by Totem and how do i change them?:confused:

[boast]

and i *hate* the mplayer GUI ;)

I thought SMPlayer looked awesome. *shrug*

[tehkain]

i dislike the browser plugin as it seems to never work as expected(I use the mplayer plugin). Also I am a vlc freak and watch alot of video so I need to modify them to my needs. (like 16:10 scaling and crop)