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Whenever I try to play a movie on default Ubuntu movie player it asks me to install some codecs, but when I click "install" it doesn't do anything, and when I try to play it again the action just repeats itself. Whenever I try to play the movie with VLC player (which under Windows can play all the .wmv movies without any problem) it just gets messy. The movie is being played but there are some major issues with sound and pictures (green surface, large pictures, freezing black screens). Any way to fix it on ubuntu 16?

Gnu is the future
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  • Without a sample of your problem file no good answer. For vlc maybe try opening vlc > Tools > Preferences > Input/Codecs & set Hardware-accelerated decoding to Disable. It also maybe useful to specify the Output under the Video tab, the default is Automatic, try XVideo or OpenGL GLX. The later is better if it works on your hardware. Make sure to click Save – doug Jul 13 '16 at 15:51
  • You should place this comment as an answer because it just worked! Problem solved with just changing that Hardware accelerated decoding in VLC. Thank you! – Gnu is the future Jul 13 '16 at 22:02

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I don't know how universal it is, but using a suggestion by doug I went to vlc > Tools > Preferences > Input/Codecs & set Hardware-accelerated decoding and then selected VDPAU video decoder. Under this option all my .wmv files work just perfectly, are very smooth and in general all the video files load faster.

Gnu is the future
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  • Good job relating to your hw. Each hardware setup is a bit different but what seems to be consistent is that vlc does a poor job when those settings are at Automatic. It just doesn't seem to get them correct. – doug Jul 13 '16 at 23:29
  • Thx. BTW this issue is one of many reasons to hate Microsoft. Anything related to Windows is just so unapologetically bad, even the file formats. Every single video and audio format (even the rarest ones that I've never heard of before) was playing perfectly fine under my Ubuntu on ANY media player... of course except for WMV and WMA... – Gnu is the future Jul 14 '16 at 07:12