Ubuntu how-to => Audio/Video

I hope this How-to helps and encourages more and more people to go for Linux. I will attempt to describe the most common packages that you need to play your music and movies after a fresh install of Linux.

Since Ubuntu is increasingly becoming the favourite Linux distro for newbies, I will write this how-to from Ubuntu's point of view. However, with some modifications, you can use this guide for most of the distros.

So you've finally managed to install Linux, and want to listen to some music after all the hard work. Well, you will have to install the proprietary codecs (for mp3, avi, flv, dat, rm, etc) before you can do that.

STEP I) Enable extra repositories.

For Ubuntu, go to "Software Sources" located under the "System" menu. Make sure the following repos are enabled :

1. Main
2. Universe
3. Restricted
4. Multiverse

Close the window, ubuntu will update the repositories now. You need to add one more repository, the Medibuntu repository (Note that this is only available for ubuntu and its derivative distros).

Open a terminal window and type/copy & paste the following commands (in the exact same order):

sudo wget https://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/jaunty.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring
sudo apt-get update

Note that the first command has the word "jaunty", after "...org/sources.list.d/". This represents your distro release and stands for 9.04 in this case.
Change it with the appropriate name:

intrepid for 8.10
hardy for 8.04
gutsy for 7.10
dapper for 6.06

We're ready to install the softwares now.

STEP II) Install Vlc

Type :

sudo apt-get install vlc

STEP III) Install codecs

Type:

sudo apt-get install mpeg2dec a52dec mpg321 lame lame-extras flac faac faad ffmpeg flac mpegdemux totem-gstreamer gstreamer0.10-pitfdll gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gxine libxine-main1 libxine-extracodecs ogle ogle-gui libdvdcss2

Good codecs are tried and tested, bad may have some problems and the ugly set might be, well, UGLY!!

STEP IV) Install win32 codecs

The codecs that we have installed will not play certain formats(like .dat, .rm, .rmvb, etc). In order to play those codecs, you'll need to install the w32codecs. Again, open the Synaptic package manager and look for w32codecs (w64codecs in case of 64-bit Ubuntu).

That's it. You're all set to play your favourite numbers on your favourite distro!!

EASY WAY --> If you're not the adventurous type, I suggest you go in for, ubuntu-restricted-extras package. You will need to enable the universe and multiverse repositories though. Read more about this here:

RestrictedFormats - Community Help Wiki

Replies

durga ch

nice infromation Maddie 😁 I remember we had one CEan who was facing issues with running Audio/ Vedio

but whats with windows codecs?
Kaustubh Katdare

Wow, great! Thanks for the post, maddy!

[PS: We're soon going to add thank you button]
Aashish Joshi

durga
but whats with windows codecs?
I don't use Windows any more , that is why no info on windows codecs.

If you need a good codec pack, go to this website and have a look. These codecs will play almost all the formats.

Download K-Lite Codec Pack

@biggie
Glad to be of help. This is part one of the many how-tos I hope to write.

Next - Java, Flash, et all
nk.krishnak

hi everyone .could anyone let me know where i can get the stabe version of wine like wine 1.0.1...... i am using ubuntu 9.04 and the i find only development versions on its reference website... like #-Link-Snipped-# -i am new to linux...plz help.....

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Ubuntu how-to => Audio/Video

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