.omega

The default media player in Ubuntu is Totem - not a bad choice. Its primary usefulness, I’ve found, is in lower-end computers, where it makes it possible to watch videos that choke both VLC and, in some cases, even the workhorse that is Mplayer. It’s possible, though, that I just haven’t masterted mplayer yet. I mean, who has? Anyways, Mplayer and VLC seem, to me, like they offer both support for more formats and codecs, and are slightly more stable. In recent months, I’ve found myself relying more and more on mplayer-based solutions rather than my old VLC favorite. VLC still rules supreme for video on the Windows platform, I think, but mplayer is my new bestest Linux friend (and mencoder is… heavenly).

Anyways, here’s a quick tip list if you’re planning on using Mplayer as the default media player for streaming media in Firefox:

• Uninstall totem-mozilla and mozilla-plugin-vlc if you’ve got them. Possibly also mozplugger.
• Don’t install mozilla-mplayer. Couldn’t get it to work, or at least not work with any kind of useful interface (perhaps I’m strange, but I like being able to pause…)
• Instead, install gnome-mplayer and gecko-mediaplayer.

Gnome-mplayer is, surprisingly, mplayer for gnome, with a good interface - and gecko-mediaplayer enables Firefox and other gecko-based browsers to use gnome-mplayer.