Why doesn't .mkv files play properly with ubuntu-restricted-extra?

Question

I am running Ubuntu 10.04 with ubuntu-resticted-extra installed. When I play .mkv with the default player, totem it causes the player to stop suddenly without any warning after a random amount of time!

Anybody else is having this problem? Is there any workaround other than installing vlc??

What I want to know is, Is it a bug in gstreamer? or I'm the only one facing this issue!

Solution

Its a BUG....in the meantime...

Install VLC

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols.

Open Synaptic application

Click on System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager. In Settings -> Repositories, make sure you have an universe repository activated.

Search for vlc and install it, as well as vlc-plugin-pulse. You may also want to install mozilla-plugin-vlc.

If you are interested in streaming or transcoding, you should additionnally install libavcodec-extra-52 from a multiverse repository. Command line way

You need to check that a universe mirror is listed in your /etc/apt/sources.list file.

% sudo apt-get update
% sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-pulse mozilla-plugin-vlc

Comments

[abhishek]

Try VLC media player. It plays almost every video format flawlessly.

[Vineet Menon]

ubuntu-restricted-extra contains ffmpeg packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/ubuntu-restricted-extras... So, it will not help!!!

[Jason Southwell]

@VineetMenon oh my mistake. I did an install for someone recently (but this was 11.10) and I had to install it manually. Try another player.