Many video formats can be played in Kubuntu using free codecs found in the repositories. This includes formats such as MPEG and other common video formats. To install further codec support see the section called “Multimedia Codecs”.
In Kubuntu, videos can be played with the Kaffeine Media Player. Some features of Kaffeine include custom playlists, DVD playback and more. You can start Kaffeine by clicking: ->->.
The legal status of this library is not fully clear. In some countries it is possible that the use of this library to play or copy DVDs is not permitted by law. Verify that you are within your rights in using it.
The movie players provided in Kubuntu are capable of reading DVDs that are not encrypted. However, most commercial DVDs are encrypted with CSS (Content Scrambling System) and currently, for legal reasons, it is not possible to include support for these DVDs in Kubuntu. However it is possible to enable support as follows:
Install the libdvdread3 package (see the section called “Managing Repositories”).
You will need to use Adept Package Manager to install this package
Type the following command into a terminal prompt:
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh
Install the libstdc++5 package (see Chapter 3, Adding, Removing and Updating Applications).
You will need to use Adept Package Manager to install this package
Download the Realplayer package from here only if you have a i386 machine. Debian packages are not available for PowerPC or AMD64 architectures. However, you can try to see if a player is available on the Helix Player Community Site.
Install the package you have downloaded (see the section called “Install/Uninstall .deb files”).
To run Real Player 10, choose ->->.
Kino is an advanced video editor. It features excellent integration with IEEE-1394 (Firewire) for capture, VTR control, and recording back of the camera. It captures video to disk in Raw DV and AVI format, in both type-1 DV and type-2 DV (separate audio stream) encoding. For more information, see the Kino website. To use it:
Install the kino package (see Chapter 3, Adding, Removing and Updating Applications).
To run Kino, choose ->->.