[wellylug] Multimedia Nightmares

[Rimu Atkinson]

Hi Jeff

First. Get off dialup. I don't know how many hundreds of megabytes I 
downloaded to get all the codecs set up, because I have real internet, 
and how big files is doesn't really occur to me. I just get em. If they 
don't make the video work, I get more.

You're trying to fight with both hands tied.

I didn't do anything special, beyond googling for 'set up video in 
ubuntu 9.04' and following my nose and not caring about what is legal. 
I'm pretty sure importing the mediabuntu repos played a big part.

Rimu

Jeff Hunt wrote:
> Help. The multimedia aspects of Linux are driving me mad.
>
> I have supplied a lot of computers to families that now use Ubuntu
> regularly and like it. Especially over the last 6 months or so there
> are a lot of people out there that have heard of, and are prepared to
> try a free alternative.
>
> The problem is the kids typically aged between 10 and 14 who actually
> expect their computer to do something when they want multimedia. They
> want to play dvds, play embedded video and play sound and video that
> is sent to them on emails.
>
> Certainly Linux does all these things and over the years I've got most
> of these formats running but always running blind and just typing in
> instructions got off sites like funnestra, medibuntu, the Ubuntu
> multimedia pages (but never it seems from those messages that come up
> saying I am trying to run an unsupported file type and all I have to
> do is click here to download the codec - I click here, wait an hour on
> my dial-up and am no further along at the end of it) etc.
>
> So the question is - how do I find out what minimum set of codecs I
> need, where I get them from, which will conflict with others and  how
> to find any obscure commands I need to issue. In other words how do I
> just get video and sound to work, both streamed and stored?
>
> I know there can be long debates on legalities and  VLC, xine and
> gstreamer, but the public just want one recommendation and set of
> instructions that will do the work. They can experiment later. For
> instance I still don't know whether I need a vast quantity of w32
> codecs to run a home computer doing ordinary things.
>
> The sad reality is that although I am not the brightest star in the
> universe, most people know much less about this than I do, and if I
> can't get it sorted after 5 or so years then Linux is going to
> deservedly remain a poor relation to OSes that work out of the box.
> (You know who I mean).
>
> In case I sound too negative, I am rapped at how Ubuntu installs,
> networks, runs pictures and documents, upgrades, installs new
> software, resists viruses etc. This is all brilliant. Now we need
> proper help files and intelligent guidance with restricted file
> formats.
>
> Any takers?
>
>
>   

-- 
Phone (04) 381 4827 or 021 823 129
Skype rimu123
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http://rimu.geek.nz/

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