Is there any Linux Distro with Multimedia Capabilities
 

Friends,
Is there any Linux Distro which by default can play my Audio CDs, Video, MP3 and DVDs without my downloading anything from the net after installation because I don't have net connection on my computer and the dependency problems are lot.

Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/

CD from here: https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

Brief info about the desktop software: http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop

Actually all the main distros have the software you want on their CDs, but Ubuntu is good at working "out of the box", without the need to download fixes. Other posters will disagree with this :)

Already installed Ubuntu
 

I already installed ubuntu and it has some problem playing my encrypted DVDs (Drapper & Edgy)

Right, you need libdvdcss. But most distributions won't ship it because of (misplaced) fear of prosecution. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libdvdcss

So you'll have to download it yourself. It's not very big, so you can put it on a CD, or even a floppy. If you're sticking with Ubuntu, then get it from http://download.videolan.org/pub/lib...2.9-1_i386.deb
and install with dpkg -i libdvdcss2_1.2.9-1_i386.deb

Linux MintComes with all that stuff already installed if you want to give it a try. I hear it is good. Based on Kubuntu but with all the "dirty" codecs.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux - Newbie and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

--jeremy

I do believe that one of the only distros that will do all the multimedia stuff out of the box is Linspire. It'll cost you $50, but that's the price of all that (legal) multimedia goodness.

http://www.linspire.com

Although, as timdsmith states - I have heard the same things about Linux Mint but I haven't tried it.

LinuxMint would be my suggestion, I've never used it, but my understanding of it, is exactly as timdsmith posted, I seem to recall needing to add libdvdcss to Linspire also (or it may have been Freespire, which would make sense)...

Linux is a major pain when you don't have Internet Access.

Just curious, what problem are you having configuring your Internet Access?

IGF

IIRC Zenwalk should have also the codecs installed straight out-of-box.

No problem
 

i cannot keep internet on my system which has winXP and Linux side by side becaz Im not allowed to do this, nothing other major problem related to software or hardware, the problem is related to other than software and hardware.

Dirty Codecs means
 

Can u clarify Dirty codecs means???????

Heh..."dirty codecs" generally refers to the fact that the installation of them is not legal in most jurisdictions.

Surprisingly few people realize that most (all?) of the common multimedia codecs (WMV, WAV, MP3, etc) are proprietary software. They have to be licensed and paid for which is why distros like Linspire that come bundled with all of those codecs charge money. Free Linux distros that come with the codecs are either footing the licensing costs themselves on behalf of their users (not bloody likely) or distributing them illegally.

I'm not a lawyer, nor am I American, so I can't speak to whether it's the distribution or the use of unlicensed codecs which is illegal, but many distros prefer to simply not take the chance and don't distribute the codecs with the distro itself. Some don't even make them available, some put them in repositories and make the end user install them themselves.

The Linux Mint maintainers recognize this. Here's a paragraph right off of the About page at Linux Mint:

Pretty much sums it up :)

Thank U
 

@Jonwatson Thank U sir for clarifying Dirty Codecs, if that is the case then we would not be able to play any of the format of music in free versions of Linux (Legally).

You're welcome.

No all music and video requires proprietary formats. OGG Vorbis is a Free audio format that can be used in place of MP3 and OGG Theora is a Free video format which can be used in place of...well...the video formats.

The trouble is that these Free formats aren't really supported by mainstream manufacturers so not a lot of audio and video comes in these formats. Still, whenever I am given the option, I pick the Free formats to try to support them.

I agree that Linspire is about as close as it gets legally. It is a paid-for distribution that handles MP3s and so forth right out of the box. The only thing you need to add is a DVD player for encrypted movie/TV DVDs, which is legal and licensed, but is an additional cost through Linspire's CNR warehouse. (Let me add that it is based on xine, but in my opinion works better than the "hacked" ones based on xine and libdvdcss.)