Media player for Ubuntu Intrepid

Playing media files in Linux is quite troublesome. In windows, you can download all-in-one player like KMPlayer or codec-packs like K-Lite Mega Codec Pack. This will enable you to play all media types from internet such as WMV, XVID, MP4, etc. However, in Ubuntu, you need to install correct codecs to enable this feature. Normally, Ubuntu comes with totem movie player and it will ask you to download codecs (Gstreamer) when it encounters files that cannot be played. This default behavior is quite good for new user. But, I, personally, like VLC and MPlayer to be my default player. This post will tell you how to do that.

smplayer - gui for mplayer playing Firefly with Thai subtitle.

First, you need to setup Medibuntu as one of your repositories because you can get most update from it. Installation and setup note^[1] should be available in their website. After, add it to sources.list file, do the following command in Terminal. (you can use other GUI players instead of smplayer)

sudo apt-get install vlc mplayer mozilla-mplayer smplayer w32codecs

I, also, recommend uninstalling totem.

sudo apt-get remove totem totem-common
totem-gstreamer totem-mozilla totem-plugin

After finishing install, Smplayer can play a movie mediately, but it requires a little configuration for Firefox. Finding some video test page, I google and use this page^[2]. In my computer video doesn't show up, I have to change video output to x11 by right click on grey background -> configure -> x11 from Video Output drop down list. Done, you have nearly perfect movie player with Ubuntu Intrepid.

mplayer playing in firefox with video output setup to x11.

Resources:
^[1] - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
^[2] - http://home.att.net/~cherokee68/wmvtest.html