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Is it possible to watch imm4 codec encoded videos in Ubuntu?

Jorge Castro
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A Cuervo
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1 Answers1

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The imm4 codec is a restricted codec - covered by patents, so for some countries you should check if you are covered to run this decoder.

note I've tested this on 11.10

Install the restricted Medibuntu repository:

sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get --quiet update

Now install mplayer and w32codecs

sudo apt-get install mplayer w32codecs

Now the important part - mplayer is coded to look for the windows DLL VCMIMM4.dll, however, medibuntu installs a lowercase version that mplayer would not recognised out-of-the-box. Thus to fix this, create a VCMIMM4.dll file in the codecs folder.

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/codecs/vcmimm4.dll /usr/lib/codecs/VCMIMM4.dll

Now play your video - e.g. 

mplayer http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/V-codecs/IMM4/200707170736151.avi

enter image description here

fossfreedom
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  • Will this work on a 64bit install or only 32bit? – A Cuervo Oct 24 '11 at 20:54
  • I've only tested this on 32bit. I think there is "w64codecs" package - give it a try if you have 64bit ubuntu. – fossfreedom Oct 24 '11 at 20:57
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    I can confrim that fossfreedom solution it works on 32bit. It does NOT on 64 bit because w64codecs only contains a handful of realplayer codecs and does not fully replace w32codecs. If you need to play a format only supported by w32codecs, you will need to install w32codecs to /usr/lib32 and use a 32-bit version of mplayer (or an alternate method for running 32-bit apps, such as a chroot or virtualbox) https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AMD64 – A Cuervo Oct 24 '11 at 21:42