Playing MP3 Files
Since MP3 is one of the most widely-used audio formats, you probably will come across a few MP3 files in your computer usage - if you don't already have a large collection of them. You have two options for dealing with your MP3's under Ubuntu:
Install some extra, restricted plugins
Converting to open unrestricted formats, like Ogg-Vorbis
With Restricted Plug-ins
Below are instructions for installing plug-ins necessary for playing MP3s, depending on the version of Ubuntu that you are using.
Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)
Install the gstreamer0.10-fluendo-plugins-mp3-partner gstreamer plugin from the partner repository.
Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)
- To play some mp3 files open one in rhythmbox or totem (Movie Player) and it will propose the proper restricted packages needed to read mp3. You may want to download ubuntu-restricted-extras to make sure you installed packages necessary for most media formats.
To encode to MP3, you can download the lame package for back end MP3 support.
To encode to MP3 graphically you can use soundconverter or vlc. Sound Converter is probably easier to use.
To encode to MP3 graphically using VLC, install vlc and libavcodec-extra-52 (available from multiverse). Then open VLC and select "File > Convert/Save"
Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)
- To play some mp3 files in rhythmbox you need to install the w32codecs package from the Medibuntu repository. If you are using the 64 bit version of Ubuntu you will need the w64codecs package instead.
Some gstreamer players (like Listen) require gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly