VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac …) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

It can also be used as a media converter or a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on networks.

Installing VLC on Ubuntu using PPAs

Let’s see how to install VLC on Ubuntu (Jaunty) using PPAs.

Add the following lines to your Software Sources Third-Party Software tab.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/c-korn/vlc/ubuntu jaunty main
 
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/c-korn/vlc/ubuntu jaunty main

Adding the Signing Key

We need to add the signing key. You can do it by simply typing the following command at the terminal.

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 7613768D

However, if you are behind a firewall (like me the keys are not added as http://keyserver.ubuntu.com is blocked ) you can go the signing key page and copy the key into gedit and save the file by the name vlc.

Import the saved file into your Software Sources Authentication tab.

Installing VLC

Drop to terminal and type the following commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-esd mozilla-plugin-vlc

Once installed, you can run VLC by going to Applications > Sound & Video > VLC Media Player

You can also make video files to open with VLC by default. All you have to do is to right click the video file, go to properties and select Open With tab and select VLC Media Player.

Links

VLC PPA page

https://launchpad.net/~c-korn/+archive/vlc

VLC Signing key page

http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xD739676F7613768D