Help for a Linux Newbie With Video (Edubuntu - Edgy Edge)

[Simon Ruiz]

Hello, Mike!
 
First, let me say: Welcome to the Community!
 
Second, let me point you to the answer to your problems: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
 
We've got United Streaming here as well, and the way we suggest our teachers use it is to DOWNLOAD the QuickTime file (rather than streaming it), and run it using Mplayer (p.s. if you hit "f", it goes fullscreen).
 
I'm not completely clear on all the legal issues, though. I know it's not kosher for Ubuntu to distribute their CDs with all the codecs, at least not in the U.S. and I think it might even be illegal to use the windows 32 bit codecs (in the U.S.) unless you have a license for Windows for each machine that's running it. We don't install the Windows Media codecs, anyhow, just the ones present in the official repositories.
 
This is why I recommend using the QuickTime version of the videos.
 
HTH,
 
Simón

________________________________

From: edubuntu-users-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com on behalf of Mike Camden
Sent: Wed 3/7/2007 1:13 PM
To: edubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
Subject: Help for a Linux Newbie With Video (Edubuntu - Edgy Edge)


Hi,
I am testing Edubuntu for use in individual classrooms at our school.  We have some older computers tasked for use in individual classrooms (Cel and P3 500 - 700 w/ 192 - 256 MB) that I think this would be a perfect solution for.  I really like the interface and features for classroom use; however, I am running into a problem that is beyond my very limited knowledge of how Linux works.  I aim to get smarter about using Linux this summer (the file system, compiling, etc), but for right now, I just need to get this working before the end of the week.  
 
We use Discovery's United Streaming in our school.  United Streaming allows for the viewing of its many videos in either Windows Media .asf format or Quicktime format.  I have used United Streaming without issue on Windows machines (using IE, Firefox 2, and Opera).  I have also used it on a student's Mac laptop (not sure of the browser) without issue.  
 
Using edubuntu, I cannot get  the videos to play correctly -- either in Quicktime or Windows Media player advanced streaming (.asf) format.  I have played around with pretty much all of the packages available in add/remove programs option and the synaptics package manager.  
 
 
I have tried installing the mplayer and its associated Mozilla plug-in to no avail.
 
If I use the default GStreamer, I can't get any videos to play.  Without using the "ugly" plug-in, I get an error that Totem can't play the Windows Media 9 files without the proper plug-in.  If I apply the gstreamer "ugly" codec, the movie will appear to play, and I get audio, but I can't get video.  Quicktime files also do not work when using gstreamer.
 
If I install Xine (as well as the Xine media codec plug-in), my Firefox defaults to using Totem with Xine.  If I do this some.asf videos will play, but they have a ton of corruption in the playback.  Some Quicktime videos will also play, but they too have corruption  (negative colors, embossing, a lot of severe tearing, what appears to be pretty bad compression errors).  
 
I have tried this on three separate computers (a Dell Inspiron laptop w/ a dual core 2.0 GHz CPU and 1 GB of memory, a desktop with a P4 2 and 512MB of memory, and a P3 700 with 256MB of memory), and I can't make it work on any of them.
 
This is the first time I've dipped my toe in the Linux waters; it's been a while since something computer-related has left me feeling this ignorant.  I've selected so many different options within the Add/Remove and Synaptics package managers, that I'm wondering if I've caused some kind of corruption (although the system prompts me that it will remove conflicting packages as necessary).  If someone can tell me exactly which packages to install from the get-go to get the video working, I'd be happy to wipe the partition that I have edubuntu on and start from scratch to get it working.  
 
I'm also having trouble getting the wireless to work and changing the Grub so it defaults to booting to Windows instead of linux if I don't make a choice in time (both on the Dell), but the issue of being able to seamlessly play the videos in the browser are much more pressing.
 
Thanks for any help that folks can provide!
 
Mike
 
Mike Camden
Technology Director
Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy
304-233-3771
mcamden at mountdechantal.org
http://www.mountdechantal.org <http://www.mountdechantal.org/>