Multimedia Packages for Ubuntu

Audio and Video Playback

Playing a Video (XVid, DivX etc.) or Audio (MP3) file has become pretty easy. Just double click the file you want and allow Totem to automatically download the needed codecs. But you could also do this by yourself very easily by installing a package which contains all the needed codecs and more. Just look above at Ubuntu Restricted Extras.

DVD Playback

To play encrypted DVDs you must install libdvdcss2. In Ubuntu 10.04 there is no need to manually configure the Medibuntu repository. If you have previously installed Ubuntu Restricted Extras skip the following command. If you haven’t open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install libdvdread4
Next type:

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

MPlayer/SMPlayer

Mplayer and smplayer (mplayer’s GUI) are best for handle video playback. It supports almost any video type, external subtitles as well as DVD playback as long as you have the needed codecs installed as shown previously. To install it type:

sudo apt-get install mplayer smplayer

You will find it under Applications -> Video & Sound -> SMPlayer

VLC Media Player

Many users prefer the Video Lan Client (VLC) as their multimedia player. VLC supports all formats without need for additional codecs. The universal player that plays anything you want .Simply install it by typing:

sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-pulse

K9copy

K9copy is a free open source DVD backup, copying, compression, and authoring utility that requires libdvdcss. For other info, see this or this guide. You can easily create MPEG-2. MPEG-4, or DVD videos with this utility. To install it type:

sudo apt-get install k9copy

DVD::Rip

DVD::Rip is a DVD backup/copy program, written in GTK-based perl, that uses the transcode video/audio processing and conversion tools. To install it type:

sudo apt-get install dvdrip