Having Googled this problem, there are several discussions but no resolutions that I could find.

If I download an WMV9 file, I get video but no audio - this is regardless of whether I play the file in Totem, MPlayer or VLC. VLC's error message helpfully tells me "unfortunately, there is no way for you to fix this"!

If I get the same problem with all three players, surely it is because I do not have the correct codecs on my machine. But I must already have some kind of WMV9 codec, or video playback would not be possible.

Does anyone have any advice? Or are there hordes of Ubuntu users out there, also unable to hear WMV9 audio?

Steve

First, try running alsamixer in the terminal. Be sure to unmute everything (using the "m" key. Then raise the volume levels with the arrow keys, then hit Esc key twice to exit from alsamixer.
For the install everything including the kitchen sink approach to installing all multimedia codecs and non-free stuff including flash, java and other stuff, install the ubuntu-restricted-extras package:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/ubu...tricted-extras
If you prefer a more fine tuned (as I do) approach to get just what you need, then normally downloading a media file and opening it with Totem will open up a graphical installer and tell you what codecs you need and offer to install them.

I carried out your instructions, but still no improvement. Totem still gave me the message "No packages with the requested plugins found". Perhaps WMV9 audio is just not supported by any Linux distro, or audio player, whatsoever. Is that a possibility? WMV is a proprietary format, after all.

Steve

What exactly did you do? Did you install the ubuntu-restricted-extras package? Or did you just try opening the video in Totem? Have you run alsamixer? Do you have sound in other video files?
Do you have a link to this WMV9 video so I can try it?
Have you enabled the medibuntu repository?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
Enable the medibuntu repository by using the terminal command shown there. Then install thew32codecs if you are running 32bit Ubuntu, or the w64codecs if you are running 64bit Ubuntu. Then download your video and open it with Totem. It should offer to install any codecs you may need. It always does for me.

It could be DRM'd, in which case this might be useful:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeme2/files/

Already had it.

And the other media players I mentioned.

Yep.

Always.

No, I never heard about that before. So I went to the link you provided and following their instructions too. The upshot of it is, these videos do not play with sound in Totem or VLC (they actually offer to search for a codec, but always come up empty), but the same videos do play successfully with sound in Mplayer, and only MPlayer.

So it appears those extra Medibuntu codecs have worked - I will just have to use Mplayer as my default player for WMV files. No great problem, and at least it all works now - so thanks very much for the info.

Steve

This is why MPlayer is the one media player I must have, no matter what distro I am using. MPlayer will always play anything you throw at it. I play all my music and video files using MPlayer straight from the terminal. No need even for the MPlayer GUI, although I do use that occasionally.
FYI: If you want a more user friendly GUI for MPlayer, install smplayer from the Ubuntu reops.
Glad the medibuntu link worked for you. I should have thought of that earlier. I forgot that the ubuntu-restricted-extras meta package does not add in the medibuntu repo, since I don't usually install ubuntu-restricted-extras. I just install the specific stuff that I need.

Thanks, I have just installed smplayer then. I'll give it a stab next time I am watching a video or movie - see if it is any more user-friendly than VLC.

Perhaps you would be able to glance at my other media-related query at http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...5/#post4008767 which also concerns mplayer and its fps facility.

Thanks for the help.

Steve