Ubuntu Linux: Watch and Play BBC / YouTube Videos With Totem Movie Player

The Totem Movie Player application is a movie player for the GNOME desktop (default on Ubuntu Linux) based on GStreamer framework and xine library, and enables you to play movies or songs. You can watch Youtube video or listen BBC streams (podcasts) with this player without installing anything else such as Flash.

Totem Movie Player is simple and easy to use player. It provides the following features:

1. Support a variety of video and audio files.
2. Provide a variety of zoom levels and aspect ratios, and a fullscreen view.
3. Seek and Volume controls.
4. A playlist.
5. Complete keyboard navigation and much more

How to watch / listen BBC videos in the Linux?

Start Totem by visiting Applications > Sound & Video > Movie Player

Make sure Youtube and BBC content enabled. Click on Edit > Plugins:

Fig.01: The Totem Movie Player Plugins

Make sure you place a check in the box labeled ‘YouTube browser‘ and ‘BBC content viewer‘ > Click Close to save changes.

How do I view BBC content under Ubuntu Linux?

To see all BBC content, select BBC from the box located in upper right side of Totem. A list will be fetched for you. Double click a podcast to listen:

Fig.02: BBC Content Under Linux

How do I view YouTube Video under Ubuntu Linux?

Simply select YouTube from the box located in upper right side of Totem. Type a search such as “Quantum of Solace James Bond” and hit [Enter] key. Totem will search YouTube.com for your keywords. It will load results in sidebar. Simply double-click a video to watch it:

Fig.03: Watching Youtube Video Using Totem

Important keyboard shortcuts for For Totem:

Command line options

To view other command line options that are available, type totem –help or read man page:
$ totem --help
OR
$ man totem