Ubuntu Wiki

Can't Play MP3, DVD, Flash etc

Ubuntu only ship free software. This means it is not possible to include codecs for all multimedia formats.

Luckily most of them can be easily installed. See RestrictedFormats

No Sound or Distorted sound

Sometimes Ubuntu does not configure the sound levels very well by default.

Right click on the volume control in the Gnome panel, and choose Open Volume Control.

Now Select Preferences from the Edit menu. You will be shown a list of all the options from your sound card, each with a check box. Enable them all and click ok.

Now adjust the volume sliders untill you get good sound.

DVD drop frames, skip

You may need to enable DMA, this improves communications speed between the computer and the disk drive. see DMA