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

[Uwe Geercken]

hi mike,

let me add one thing to it, that you might not have heard of by now. with the
next version of ubuntu - which will be out in april - there will be new
functionality available of how to install support for multimedia formats.

there was obviously a big discission about it (because it is partly proprietary
software) but fact is that there will be an easy one-klick way to install e.g.
codecs and other multimedia features.

hope that helps.

rgds,

uwe

Zitat von Mike Camden <mcamden at mountdechantal.org>:

> 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