Codecs For Multimedia Playback
Due to various legal and philosophical issues, Ubuntu does not come pre-installed with some of the codecs needed for playback of popular multimedia file types. When trying to play back a multimedia file in Firefox or a media player, prompts will appear that guide you through the process of installing any necessary codecs as you need them, just like in Windows.
If you want to grab most of the essential plug-ins all at once, open Add/Remove Applications from theApplicationsmenu.
Change the Show field from "Canonical-maintained applications" to "All available applications."
Type “restricted” in the Search box and check the box next to "Ubuntu restricted extras." A dialog box will appear asking if you want to enable the restricted extras. Click Enable and then click Apply Changes.
Another dialog box will appear asking if you are sure you want to apply the changes, then click Apply.
When the software has been installed successfully a final dialog box will appear asking if you want to Add/Remove More Software or Close. Click Close.