(The following was inserted as the new chapter 9 in Debian: Try It; You’ll Like It.)
Debian comes with most of what you need by default. We need to add just a few items for the common media playback.
Past releases of Debian didn’t include a full range of codecs for playing even some of the more common file types. However, that changed with Wheezy. By default, the XFCE desktop comes with VLC, a media player that can handle just about anything in terms of file format. However it is just a bit cranky with removable media, such as audio CDs and video DVDs. There is an optional package normally offered for XFCE called Parole. It’s just a well made front-end for something already installed on your system by default: GStreamer. If you plan to play any CDs or DVDs, the package name is parole.
Of course, that won’t be quite enough with most DVDs. You’ll also need LibDVD-CSS. You may recall a controversy over this little bit of code that unlocks DVDs so that folks can play them on computers that don’t fully cooperate with the wishes of the major media companies. The simplest answer is to obtain the package from this FTP site. Look at the collection of files there and select the latest version of “libdvdcss2” for your computer (i386). You don’t need the one marked “dev” unless you plan on building applications that use this little package directly. Once downloaded, it’s easy to install with gdebi.
You can read more here on the Debian Wiki. There was a time when using the external Debian Multimedia Project was the only way to get the really good stuff, but it’s no longer recommended, especially since the mainstream of Debian development covers pretty much the same ground. You’ll notice on the wiki page that if your system is missing anything you actually use, you can always add the libavcodec-extra-53 package, which replaces some of the normal stuff you already have. As a general security practice, don’t install anything that you don’t actually use.
