Linux Multimedia Player

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

Linux

Supported releases

Ubuntu 13.10 “Saucy Salamander”
Ubuntu 13.04 “Raring Ringtail”
Ubuntu 12.10 “Quantal Quetzal”
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS “Precise Pangolin”

Installation the Graphical way

Open Synaptic application (click on System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager).

Search for vlc and install it. You may also want to install browser-plugin-vlc.

If you are interested in streaming or transcoding, you should additionally install libavcodec-extra-53.

Installation the Command line way

% sudo apt-get update % sudo apt-get install vlc browser-plugin-vlc

Nota Bene

Ubuntu includes whichever VLC version was the latest at the time the Ubuntu release was frozen (typically about two months before the official Ubuntu upgrade).
Afterward, you can still get security and critical bug fixes, but no further major VLC version updates until the next Ubuntu release.