While applications like VLC, Totem and Mplayer are second to none on any platform the video plugins alternatives to QT and Win Media are far from cutting it.

This is my number one problem with the general usability of Ubuntu. (Better basic video editing is also high on th list.)

Support for video playback in Firefox 3 beta 3 is a huge improvement over past versions but it's still lacking essential features necessary to bring it on par with Firefox on other OS's.

This is an extremely technical problem because it involves not just codec support but addrecing caching and streamins issues.

The number one problem is these plugins show NO download status as of yet and half the time you can't even be sure if they're working at all. We need better status, better codec support, and better streaming and auto playing support to improve the web based experience.

I'd put this right up there with continued efforts on flash support and making ff speedier, especially on older computers.

It takes too many steps/need too many windows open to quickly find and view video files.

Build in DVD codec with every Ubuntu distribution!

YouTube plugin for Totem is great but it would like to see a button or menu item for save the video on the local disk.

Change the Totem icon.

From:
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/7535/schermafdruk1fs3.png

To:
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/1568/testzi8.png

This is a huge one I think. I dual boot windows and ubuntu only because no player can play MMS:// streams which are password protected. I tried with totem and the mms:// streams play but it doesn't show a box in which I can type up a password instead of that it shows me a box which says access denied or something like this. I don't really think that a box in which users like me can enter their accounts for the protected stream is so much of a big deal just someone has to try to do it. I made a little bit of research and I read that mms:// is not a windows extention which means that nothing can stop you from doing this little upgrade. Thank you in advice..

When I add files to a playlist, in the dialogue shown, I cannot delete files, or create new folders etc. This is consistent across all Ubuntu programs, so not a problem, but it might be handy to be able to organise files in the "open" dialogue.

My TV card is supported, but Totem doesn't have a "channel list" or kind of that and the help site directs me to other tools like the CLI app wscan.

TV and non-Internet Radio in Totem must be much easier to configure.

It should be like this:
(Click on TV/Radio)
Looking for TV card (found blah... is that right?...)
What kind of connection do you have (analogue, digital)
Antenna, Cable, Satellite?
Scanning for channels...

Also IPTV would be nice, but that was proposed already I think.

Once we get a good Video manager, I think it'd be nice to have Rhythmbox / Exaile / etc. auto-arrange music like Amarok, according to defined places, and have the Video manager do the same (only in the Video folder).

Then, When Rhythmbox detects a video of the same name, have a "View Music Video" menu option of button, and have it switch to the Video manager.

And vice-versa, have the video player have a Listen button which switches to the Music player.

I've gone through many video players as my "choice" application for that purpose. Initially it was Xine, then VLC, then back to Xine. I have always said that if mplayer would just have a nice robust front-end that wouldn't crash/freeze/jack up like all these other apps tend to do, I would use it.

Since the release of Hardy I've been using SMplayer and so far it's been flawless.

I can NOT say as much for Totem, ever. Ever since I used Fedora, Gentoo, and even SUSE as a main desktop, Totem has just failed. Whether it be codec issues, or crashing, freezing. When I try to fast forward on WMV or AVI or ASF files, it still will often freeze or lock up my system to where I have to go to tty1 and kill it.

In all, Totem in literally ALL of my experience on different systems whether they be systems for work, friends, acquaintances, family, myself; suffers from:
-> crashing and burning
-> freezing my system
-> just simply not working with some files
-> no obvious way to use subtitles
-> no obvious way to easily change the video deinterlace mode
-> an annoying side panel

SMplayer and VLC just put Totem to rest.

When I try to get my parents to use Linux over Windows, simply because all they do is check email and browse www, Totem was the bane of that effort. I would change the default app for files to something else, but EVERY time my mother had an issue playing some video file she got in email, Totem would be sitting there staring at me, unable to play. Even though I configured the codecs correctly, and other players would play it without a hitch. It just seems that *Some* files don't work, while others do. The WMV's that I find work, but the ones that she receives in emails don't for some reason. But in mplayer it works perfectly. In VLC perfectly.


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