For the first time I clicked a link that downloaded a media file. However, I was unable to view it because my Suse Linux 10 Gnome desktop informed me that I needed Totem movie player decoder plug ins. I did a search of Totem movie player and discovered a host of web sites. Can someone please advise me on exactly where I need to go and exactly what I need to download? Thanks !!

Go to mplayer site.
You can find almost any codecs here.
I personally encourage you use mplayer since totme is just a frontend for xinelib

doesnt totem use gstreamer? if it does, whatever told you to get "totem movie player decoders" is just plain wrong, and is lying to you.

go install all the video codecs you can for gstreamer, however, mplayer (as noted) is the only movie player with the most video codecs available, it also has the most output options, so its recommended to install if you need to play a movie or sound others cant.

edit: it seems totem supports both gstreamer and xinelib ... but its still no mplayer (altho it probably has a better GUI).

My OS put onto my computer screen: " Error Totem movie player decoder plug-ins needed! "
This in turn is what caused me to post this thread. The totem movie player is the installed media within my OS and this is the first time I have tried to use it. Since there are a lot of users here at LinuxQuestions with a Suse Linux 10 distro I figured someone familiar with this could tell me exactly what I needed to do.

Look for a package called "win32codecs".

There may be a SuSe RPM available, else you can download from the mplayer site. I know you are not using mplayer, but that is where you get the codecs from

Are you still using the media players that came with Suse? If you are they need to be uninstalled and replaced with the ones from packman.
http://susewiki.apanela.com/goodlink..._for_suse_10.0
This link explains how to setup YAST if you haven't already done so.
Are you trying to use Totem in your browser? Can't be much help with that.
Packman also has the w32codecs

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

Thank You XavierP !! I am really confused now. Why would Novell include the Totem movie player within its OS if it could not be used?

Totem 1.2.0
Gstreamer version 0.8.11

You will need to install the correct codecs for the media you are trying to view.
http://www4.mplayerhq.hu./homepage/design7/dload.html
http://www4.mplayerhq.hu./homepage/design7/info.html

Either install the codecs or be unable to see or hear proprietary media streams or files. NOne of the distros come with the codecs installed. Copywrite issues.

If you have xine (gxine - comes with gnome), try them.

Thanks for the links, Teckk!!
What is clear to me right now is that I am not ready to deal with any media players until I learn a whole awful lot more about them.

I used Nero in windows XP and I have been advised that Nero makes a Linux version.
Has anyone at LinuxQuestions had any experiences with using Nero in Linux??

I went to the packman site and then to the Suse section. My computer has a 2800+AMD Athlon processor but the list at the site is for Pentium processors so I downloaded the source Mplayer-1.opre7-pm.3.src.rpm to my desktop. I do not know if this is the correct version; so before I attempt anything else, I figured I had better ask for further assistance.

.src.rpm will give you the source code, and then you need to compile that source code to install mplayer.
If you use redhat the code will be in /usr/src/SRPMS

The reviews available so far mostly favor K3b. Nero for linux will probably continue to improve but at the moment it's not worth the price imho.
The source mplayer rpm is not likely the right choice for you at the moment. The rpms at packman include a i586 and a i686. I'm not familiar with amd's so maybe someone else can tell you which of those is more suitable. In either case install the rpm with YAST.
In the long run you will find it easier to setup packman as a install source in YAST as I mentioned earlier. For now it may be simpler to download the rpms individually as you have done.

Thanks Everyone!! So far I have downloaded and installed w32codecs and libmp.3lame.so.o, I have downloaded MPlayer to my desktop but I can not install it yet because I also need to install libmad.so.o before doing so. Does anyone know where I can get the libmad.so.o file? I saw a mad file at packman is that the same thing?

Success!!!

MPlayer and three needed files are now downloaded into my computer and I still do not have a working Totem movie player. Such is Linux. Look for one thing and get something better.

Thanks Everyone!!