Help! Any SIMPLE instructions for a Ubuntu DVD player intallation?

[Canuckistanian]

I'm a complete Ubuntu newbie. I just got my install disc today.

How do I install the GSTREAM codecs I need to make DVD's play?

I just want to download and install them on a non-internet machine (my son's).

I've googled it already and I can't make heads or tails out of the gobbledygook.

[RoyGBiv]

1. It's a non-Internet machine?

Is there any way you could temporarily hook it up to the Internet?

Doing that manually is going to be a pain in the butt.

It's fairly simple if you're connected to a network.

[Canuckistanian]

2. Yeah, I guess I could do it

But we're on dial-up here, so I'd have to get a modem going.

I was just hoping for a simple DL/file transfer procedure.

[RoyGBiv]

3. Urk ...

Were you intending to download what you need somewhere else,
put it on a disc, and transfer it over?

Here's your basic problem.  You need several files to get this
working.  That's what all the gobbledygook was all about. 
There are pre-compiled binaries for all of them, and getting
them with the package manager (Synaptic or apt-get) is fairly
trivial.  If you're not using that, you're going to have to
make sure you know what they all are and go find them
individually, download them, then install them.  It can be
done, but it's not going to be "simple" as you mean
it.

If the machine is hooked up to a network, you can open a
terminal program and enter the following command:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list
-O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list && sudo
apt-get update && sudo apt-get install
medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update &&
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 w32codecs gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse

You can just cut and paste that into the command line area and
hit enter.  That will take care of everything.

Otherwise, you'll have find download sites for all those
packages.

Yes, this is the point where you may start to question your
choice of Linux.  :)  

It's really easy if you're network connected, not so much if
you aren't.

[Canuckistanian]

4. OK, thanks

Like I said, this is just my first day. I have some experience with Unix (not much) and I'm a veteran of of DOS from the REALLY old days.

So, off I go into the world of Linux command lines, I guess.

[RoyGBiv]

5. You shouldn't have a problem ...

With that background, it's not gonna be like walking into an alien universe.

And you don't really have to use the command line for this. It's just easier that way. With the GUI you have to search through the available packages for the ones you need. It doesn't take that much time, but when you can cut and paste a command with all its arguments and hit enter to do the same thing, that's the way to go.

If you're wondering why it isn't simpler than it is (as in, ready to go out of the box) it's due to the nature of DVDs and other proprietary formats and all the legalities involved and the nature of the licensing.

Once you've added the correct repository for it (and the command I gave you will do that) you can also add things like acroread (Adobe's official PDF viewer for Linux), a plugin so you can view windows media, mpgs, etc. in your web browser, and Flash.