Some Feisty, VLC player problems
 

I can tell the internet connection is good, the hardware seems in order, but I can't seem to use the vlc player. I supposedly got the package from synaptic, but my streaming experience is more like a small puddle...
I would also love to see my favorite anime on these DVD's of mine, even though they're in 'data format'...
In fact, I can't seem to get the internal or external cd drives to be recognized either. but that's probably better for a different thread, so yeah, streaming and/or watching bit torrents would be dandy.
Thank you,
~Anthony~

So what's the problem you're having exactly? Files don't open? Running too slowly? Any error messages?

the problem
 

Nothing plays. Streaming never displays, not even stuff I've downloaded. I've tried to left-click to "open with" vlc player, but I can't find it. I also have some dvds in data format, but I can't get the computer to even acknowledge the disc drive...
THanKS fOr thE heLp,

Can you try running it from a terminal and post the output? If the program is output from a terminal, messages about what the program's doing and any errors that occur should be output to the terminal. That might shed some light on what's going on.

Out of interest, do the files open alright in other media players, e.g. xine or mplayer?

I don't want to be nitpicking, I just want to make sure that you understand that you can't stream torrents (at least that I know of) You have to open the torrent file with a bittorrent client to download them.

Ok, so I guess you knew that - just want want to eliminate some possibilities :)

What distribution are you using. Getting dvd's to play is a bit tricky - more or less depending which you use.

media madness
 

I had decided to use Feisty Fawn, the newest version of Ubuntu, figured it would be most compatable in general, and with a newb like me.
I can't seem to get anything to play, except for U-tube...
Is there a patch or imitation software that would at least let me play real player, or can anyone tell me why the VLC player isn't doing anything? I don't think it was installed or something, I "added" it.
Furthermore, how does one open something like a video in the terminal?
I really look forward to hearing from you guys, thank you,
~Anthony~

If you installed it through synaptic it should work. Take a look at www.ubuntuguide.org. All the answers should be there.

I thought I'd seen that guide before...
 

The guide gave me a bunch of 'plugins', for realplayer, and all kinds of other formats... yet even after restarting, it cannot seem to play that media. The viewing window says: "no picture". I Also can't seem to stream. Do you think there's something wrong with my video card? I can view U tube videos... H.E.L.P. P.L.E.A.S.E.
~Anthony~

You don't have to restart.

Did you follow every step - adding the extra repositories... ?

To stream videos I use the mplayer mozilla plugin. There are others too, but I prefer the mplayer plugin.

If you don't get videos playing with totem or vlc, use gmplayer, or try kaffeine. You can also try different engines - per default you have totem-gstreamer - if you install the gstreamer extra and ugly plugins, you should be able to play virtually anything with totem (as described on ubuntuguide.org). If that didn't work for you, you can try to install totem-xine. Note that you still need the Universe repository activated. After you add a new repository you need to refresh, but I'm pretty sure that's all in the howto.

If you still have problems - and you don't have put too much work in this install you can go ahead and install Ubuntu Gutsy. It should take care of all that automatically.
You can also upgrade, but that could cause some trouble that you want to avoid.

Brought my eyes to tears
 

I tried adding repositories nut my terminal 'bashed' the commands: System, and System-->Administration-->Software Sources.
Honestly, I don't even know what repositories do, Wiki wouldn't say either.
I also am completely baffled as to why the pluggins the official fiesty guide offered for the terminal -it included one for real player- didn't work... I think My Totem isn't up to date...
ALso, when I try to stream, my computer just says: no picture.
I am beyond confused,
~Q~

A repository is just a public ftp server that hosts packages that are already compiled for a distributions, so you don't have to scan the internet to find them. All big distributions tend to be cautious when it comes to codecs, because in many parts of the world you have to pay the patent holders (microsoft, fraunhofer institut, apple,...) to be allowed to play them. So they are not in the repository that is enabled by default.

If you think you did everything right, just try another distribution and see if it works for you. I have no idea what the problem could possibly be.
You could Ubuntu Gutsy, or PClinuxOS, or something.

A simple approach to this problem is https://www.help.ubuntu.com/community/medibuntu

I have used this and have no problems playing dvds, etc. Check it out

Duffis

There's a typo in that link.
This should work:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

repository problems
 

I see that a number of the 'codecs' necessary for viewing various formats cannot be distributed 'free'ly, but every link that link had to offer didn't work. I tried to add feisty's medibuntu repository:

"sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/feisty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list" gave me:

"Wget: invalid option -- 0
Usage: wget [OPTION]... [URL]..."

Furthermore, the Medibuntu site said that once you have the repository, you should type in "sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2"
I got this: "Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Package libdvdcss2 is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package libdvdcss2 has no installation candidate"
I'm more lost than I previously thought possible,
~Anthony~