How can I play video file with .vmw extension?

Question

I tried VLC and mplayer, but both failed to play video file with .vmw extension. I have given the following message

Required plugin could not be found

Python (v2.7) requires to install plugins to play media files of the following type: video/x-asf-unknown decoder

Solution

There is no .VMW video file extension. After a detailed research I found what you meant is .WMV extension. This is simply a video compression format launched by Microsoft just for market competition. To see all the available video encapsulation formats click here.

For the above reason, this type of files is proprietary and Windows didn't allow open source software, such as Ubuntu, to read this codecs until recently. Follow this link to get full information on what these files are and how to open them inside Ubuntu.

The steps comprise of installing VLC, which I understand you have, and unlocking the "Restricted Extras" package from Ubuntu to unlock WMV files.

For the purpose of clarity, see the encapsulation formats we have in VLC in this screenshot.

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I hope this clarifies and takes out all your doubts in the Q&A. Success!

Comments

[Csabi Vidó]

Note: Below answers suggesting to install w32codecs from medibuntu.org will not work anymore. See Any new way to install w32codecs / w64codecs through apt-get? regarding this package.

[thomasrutter]

Are you sure you don't mean .wmv instead of .vmw?

[arnavpanwar99]

thanks for help ... but when i typed the first command i got an error (ERROR: certificate common name mail.pocentek.net' doesn't match requested host name www.medibuntu.org'. To connect to www.medibuntu.org insecurely, use `--no-check-certificate')

[arnavpanwar99]

thanks for help ... but when i typed the first command i got an error (ERROR: certificate common name mail.pocentek.net' doesn't match requested host name www.medibuntu.org'. To connect to www.medibuntu.org insecurely, use `--no-check-certificate')

[lcollado]

Maybe just try installing Ubuntu restricted extras that might work for what ya need. I am not sure why you got an error message, but I am sure the ubuntu restricted extras should work you can find it in the software center

[lcollado]

you can copy and paste the command into a terminal, cause when we type commands in the terminal sometimes we mistype something

[blade19899]

@azaer try this sudo apt-get install -f it might! work.

[Thomas Ward]

Medibuntu no longer exists; this is now obsolete.