Ubuntu – Videos not playing

firefoxgoogle-chromevideovirtualboxvirtualization

I recently installed Ubuntu in a VM on Windows 10 and have the problem that videos just don't want to play. Youtube and other websites don't work. Not even downloading the videos and playing them with the default player doesn't work. Installing VLC fixed the problem with downloaded videos but videos in Firefox / Chrome still don't work. I have another Ubuntu VM (which I currently can't access because it's encrypted) where everything seems to work just fine. There's no error or anything popping up when I try to watch a video just the first frame in a static picture.

Things I tried that didn't fix the problem:

  • Rebooting

  • Using the commandsudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras to install codecs

  • Rebooting after that

  • Installing Chrome

  • Rebooting again

  • Updating all software

  • And again rebooting

The only solution I can find is to install the restricted extras which doesn't fix the problem for me. Thanks in advance!

Best Answer

I found a solution for this a few weeks ago somewhere and it worked for me. I realized the videos don't play on the VM because of the audio settings (and not any video settings).

  1. Shut down the VM (in my case Ubuntu 16.04.1).
  2. In VirtualBox, click "Settings".
  3. Go to the "Audio" section and change the "Audio Controller" from the default to the other available option ("Intel HD Audio" controller was my 2nd option).
  4. Start the Virtual Machine and see if this work.
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