I am very knew to Linux and am now running Ubuntu on my laptop. I used to be able to download movies using Realplayer and windows XP -- Is there a good program that will do the same job for Ubuntu.?

I think that KMplayer which has a windows version as well will play all the files. Check them out in google then see if it is in the Ubuntu repo.

vlc is the only media player you will ever need, for linux or windows. i have yet to find a format that it doesn't have a plugin for.

k

i should add you can also do file format conversions and rip streams with it as well. why have 3 different programs to do 3 different tasks, when you can have one that does it all!

To save streaming content (e.g., YouTube videos) to your computer, have a look at UnPlug or Video DownloadHelper. Both are great Firefox add-ons.

For general playback, I recommend SMPlayer, a GUI frontend for MPlayer. It can playback just about every format you throw at it, and is very good at handling HD content (720p/1080p) as well as subtitles.

vlc is the only media player you will ever need, for linux or windows. i have yet to find a format that it doesn't have a plugin for.

k

i should add you can also do file format conversions and rip streams with it as well. why have 3 different programs to do 3 different tasks, when you can have one that does it all!

Agreed - just can't beat it for media playback.

Conversions are a little complicated and unreliable though.

I love VLC, but find myself setting most of the files I watch to associate with mplayer. While there is 'support' for VDPAU in VLC, it's not been stable for me yet; being able to use mplayer and still get other work done is rather nice...

Realplayer is available for linux

http://www.real.com/realplayer/download

Click on the DEB download button

I dont think mplayer or vlc handle realplayer encoded files.