new to ubuntu

Ubuntu comes standard with the Totem Movie player. An alternative is vlc media player. (To install: applications> add/remove> show: all available applications> search: vlc)

I have played mp4, flv, and mov files on both. Vlc includes a chart of supported formats which includes DVD, divx, wmv and more. Like audio files, ubuntu will prompt you to install codecs for videos.

Mplayer is another video player and an article at ubuntugeek describes how to install it and media codecs. Supported formats include DVD, divx, wmv, wma, realaudio, realvideo, quicktime, and others.

DVD playback

Because of legal gray areas, Ubuntu does not include the codec, libdvdcss, to play DVD’s. If you use libdvdcss to play a DVD that you own, this is legal. But it can also be used to rip the DVD and share it illegally. “Because Canonical cannot know in advance what you intend to do with libdvdcss, it has decided not to include it in the regular Ubuntu repositories.”

An article at PC World explains how to install the codec to play DVD’s. The article is easy to follow and with a few commands at the terminal you can watch DVD’s.

Flash

In Firefox, when you visit a website that uses flash, a prompt will ask if you want to install the plug-in. (screenshot) You can choose between Adobe’s flash plugin and an open source version called gnash. Tombuntu tested gnash and found that it doesn’t work as well as the official flash plugin. Psychocats has a step-by-step guide to install the adobe flash player.

Related Article: Flash Update 9,0,115,0