Can't play movies on Totem movie player
 

I have Ubuntu Linux 5.10. My Totem movie player won't play movies. I believe I need a video codec but I don't know where to get it and how to get it. I think this is the problem because I just to have windows 2000 in this computer and it couldn't play movies either then I upgraded to windows Xp and I had the same problem. But I installed some other movie player and it worked because all it needed was the video codec. But I don't know of any video players for linux but if I already have one Id just like it to work. Can anybody help me? thanks.

what's the extension on the movie you're trying to play? (ie. *.avi, *.dvi, *.mpg, etc...)

I don't know its just a regular dvd, can't I play that?

libdecss is missing.it's an encrypted dvd you're trying to playback.windows dosen't play them either as you noted,thus the installation of a third party dvd player worked.
i don't have a debian box at the moment,but decss,dvdplay,and dvdnav should be the packages to look for.

Okay Ill try to get one of those packes which was just mentioned, but where do I get it and how do I properly install it. I'm new to Linux and obviously a dummy with it so I need all the help I can get to do things rigth

http://ubuntuguide.org/

The link above is your friend. It's a starter guide for Ubuntu 5.04, but the instructions are the same for 5.10, I think.

Read the General Notes section and then follow the instructions under the section How to install DVD playback capability?

Other handy info on the topic can be found on the restricted formats page of the Ubuntu wiki. Generally, I go there first for Ubuntu questions