# Can't play movie files with Firfox in Ubuntu

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-play-movie-files-with-firfox-in-ubuntu/325633>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 10, 2005, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-play-movie-files-with-firfox-in-ubuntu/325633 "2005-10-10T21:23:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-play-movie-files-with-firfox-in-ubuntu/325633/1 "2005-10-10T21:23:28Z")

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OK, so when I try to load webpges that have embedded movie files (so far they have all been wmv files,) I get the following error:

"Totem could not load d://0

There were no decoders found to handle the stream, you might need to install the corresponding plugins"

When I right-click and select ‘about,’ I get:

"Totem Mozilla Plugin 1.2.0

Movie Player using GStreamer version 0.8.11  
Copyright © 2002-2005 Bastien Nocera"

I try to right click and select ‘preferences’ but nothing comes up.

I gathered that totem is the plugin that plays windows media files, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Is there a way to update/reinstall it? Bear in mind I know next to nothing about linux/ubuntu, so detailed instructions are needed.

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**Author:** ![larsenmtl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d78d45/32.png) [@larsenmtl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/larsenmtl)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-play-movie-files-with-firfox-in-ubuntu/325633/2 "2005-10-10T22:07:27Z")

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First let me preface by saying that I’m a debian user and I’m really not sure how ubuntu handles it’s apt-repositories. That out of the way:

Totem is a linux video player like windows media player for windows. In order to play specific files in needs a codec to tell it how to decode that file. In this case it sounds like Totem can’t handle (i.e. doesn’t have the codec for) wmv files. WMV is a windows video and has never played nice with linux.

This link might help, if you want to continue using Totem/Xine:

[http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-3450.html](http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-3450.html)

I’ve never had much luck with xine. If you really want a better solution install mplayer. Mplayer is “the” video player for linux and with the proper codecs it’ll play any file. I don’t believe debian/ubuntu provides an apt-source for mplayer (although they do for the mozilla plugin - strange.) It looks like this would be a very unofficial apt source for mplayer for debian sarge “deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ sarge main”

Also, I believe this might help: [http://ubuntuguide.org/#mplayer](http://ubuntuguide.org/#mplayer)

Alternate instructions if above doesn’t work to install mplayer:

[http://www.princessleia.com/MPlayer.html](http://www.princessleia.com/MPlayer.html)

I’m afraid, though, that getting streaming video playing in linux is not easy.

Apologies for not being more detailed I’m running out the door.