Totem Video Player playes youtube's videos in low quality only

If VLC or Totem doesn't work, and you want to watch the downloaded flv video files or dvd movies in Ubuntu,
Google for "flv flash Totem internal data stream vlc undf"
... it's better to install everything in 32 bit, even if you have a 64 bit machine, as there are something missing in 64 bit depository like drivers, codecs,...

Play mp3 and dvd under Ubuntu install skype googleearth acroread and other stuffs using Medibuntu

First please install https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

You need to have extra repositories enabled..

Please first enable the universe and multiverse repository:

Open System → Administration → Software sources → [ Tab Ubuntu software ]

enable "Community-maintained Open Source software ( universe )"
enable "Proprietary drivers for devices ( restricted )"
enable "Software restrictecd by copyright or legal issue ( multiverse )"

Close and confirm the repository reload.

Then open a Terminal from the menu Applications→Accessories→Terminal

Tip: right click with mouse on the terminal title caption and select the item "Always on Top" doing this you will force the terminal window to stay on top of the other windows and you will find very easy to copy single row from this web page into the terminal...
Something more about using the terminal https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal

Then type or better copy and paste a row a time then press enter:
(Tip: select the single row to copy then right click into the terminal and to quick paste click with middle button of mouse )

and type or better copy and paste:

sudo aptitude install vlc smplayer mplayer

To get better dvd playback and optional packages here the medibuntu available software list http://packages.medibuntu.org/
you need to add the medibuntu http://www.medibuntu.org/ repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:
( here the medibuntu howto https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu but see below )

In short please open a Terminal from the menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal and type or copy and paste:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list; sudo apt-get -q update; sudo apt-get --yes -q --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring; sudo apt-get -q update

-- give your user password when requested, you don't see nothing when you type it, then press enter

Now to install, type:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras libxine1-ffmpeg non-free-codecs
sudo aptitude install libdvdread3 libdvdnav4 libdvdcss2 regionset gnome-mplayer
sudo aptitude install gstreamer0.10-pitfdll gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
sudo aptitude install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse

Then to install the codecs if you are using:
-- a Ubuntu 32 bits:
sudo aptitude install w32codecs
-- a Ubuntu 32 bits:
sudo apt-get install w64codecs

give your user password when requested, you don't see nothing when you type it, then press enter.

Then to play encrypted dvd please read: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/playing-encrypted-dvds-in-ubuntu.html

You can also install other Medibuntu repository provided optional software http://packages.medibuntu.org/ :

sudo apt-get install skype
sudo apt-get install googleearth
sudo apt-get install acroread

Hope this helps

Thanks Gord Allott, that solved my question.

Hi Marcobar,

you fully misunderstood my question. As I can play low quality videos, mp4 _and_ flv, it has nothing to do with codecs.

I was pretty sure I posted this as a bug. Perhaps someone converted it into a question? Anyway, I will do so again as Gord Allott suggested.

@gear:
I don't think it's a good idea to mix up 32 and 64bit packages or to go back. amd64 works great for me for several years now. We have official java beta support, official flash-plugin alpha support.