HOWTO: Win32 Video Codecs

[tseliot]

This HOWTO is aimed at all the users of Ubuntu (both 32 and 64bit although wmv9 files don't work in Ubuntu 64bit) and it is useful because win32 codecs aren't available anymore in the repositories for legal reasons.

This guide is a revised version of a guide of mine specifically aimed at 64bit users. I decided to post this new one in order to avoid misunderstandings.

If you want to watch your movies (avi and wmv) or listen to your music files (wma) which require Win32 codecs this is what you need:

1)You have to OWN A LEGAL COPY of Windows, because these are proprietary codecs (somebody correct me if I'm wrong)

2)Install “xine-ui” and “totem-xine” in Synaptic or type in the command line:
sudo apt-get install xine-ui ; totem-xine

3) Launch Xine (or Totem) and try to play a video (this will create a .config file)

4) Download the codecs from this website:
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html
(just download the “essential codecs package”)

if the link above is temporarily down try this mirror:
http://www4.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html

5) Open the command line(“Konsole” if you are using KDE, “Terminal” if you are using GNOME) and follow these steps:

a) Get to the directory where you have downloaded the file (/home/alberto/downloads in my case)

cd /home/alberto/downloads

b) Create the directory in which you are going to put the codecs (/usr/lib/win32)

sudo mkdir /usr/lib/win32

c) Now, assuming the file you downloaded is “essential-20050412.tar.bz2”:

tar -xjvf essential-20050412.tar.bz2 (this will extract the file)

sudo mv essential-20050412/* /usr/lib/win32 (this command will move the files to the desired folder)

d) Now restart xine (if you were using it)

Congratulations, now you can open wma, wmv, and avi files by using Totem and Xine!


NOTE: It seems wmv9 don't work with my HOWTO if you use Ubuntu 64bit.

Alberto

[emendelson]

I've got Gxine playing audio .wma files very nicely, following these instructions, but I can't get those .wma files to play in Totem. When I looked at your instructions, I neglected to run Totem before installing the w32 codecs, and I wonder if that was the problem. Do you know where the config file is so that I could try deleting it and starting over???

EDIT: Found the answer: needed to install gstreamer0.8-ffmpeg from universe.

[Drakx]

or add

deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ sarge main

to your sources.list

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install w32codecs

[fortytwo]

When I try to do an update with that repository added, I get:

W: GPG error: ftp://ftp.nerim.net sarge Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 07DC563D1F41B907

[Stealth-X]

Grrr http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html is down!

[jarrett.wold]

Mirror

http://ftp5.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/rel...050412.tar.bz2

[BLTicklemonster]

Mirror

http://ftp5.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/rel...050412.tar.bz2

Thank you, I came in here to ask if someone would get a mirror for that.

[BLTicklemonster]

Well, I got them in /usr/lib/win32 but neither totem nor xine will play a dvd

[stateq2]

you need libdvdcss2
ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/...ibd/libdvdcss/

[51mmz0rz]

Both the first set of directions and the download from the repo didn't do it for me. Weird because I installed lame and couldn't play mp3 files. My solution was to install and then uninstall VLC player.

Now it seems like I can play everything in totem fine, except DVDs. With libdvdcss DVD playback is a little choppy in totem, watchable but distracting. In VLC, DVD playback is smooth.