In the forums there is a step by step terminal based procedure for
this. It works perfectly. All you have to do is open terminal and
cut and paste the commands.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs

need to install the libdvdcss2 package as above

I am not sure what the problem is since both vlc and libdvdcvss2 should be
installable from the repositories. Have you tried that?

I am not sure what the problem is since both vlc and libdvdcvss2 should be
installable from the repositories. Have you tried that?

I installed VLC player under Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install vlc

I am also using youtube-dl to extract movies from Youtube and the extensions
of the files that I get downloaded is .flv. These can be played by Totem movie
player under Ubuntu, Kaffeine Player under Mandriva and VLC under Ubuntu and
Windows without trouble.

Installing the libdvdcss sorted it out straight away. thank you
so much!

Just another quickie... how do I make it so that VLC is my default
media player? I don't really get on with Totem - I hate to say it, but
I know how to do it in Windows, but can't figure it out in Linux. The
"Preferred applications" would be my guess, but I just don't know how to
do it.

For individual files try right clicking on a file name and choose properties at
the bottom of the drop down. Then choose the Open with tab and change the
association from the list of files by changing the radio buttons. For temporary
changing associations, right click on the file and choose Open With from the
drop down. If your program is not in the list go to the bottom and choose Open
With Other Application at the bottom. either choose it from the list or find it
manually at the bottom. For vlc you can just type vlc.

For all multimedia, try System| Preferences| Preferred Applications and choose
the Multimedia tab. Choose Custom and type vlc in the box.

I've done that but it still tries to open DVD's with Totem by default.

I remove totem through synaptic

I found this under bug reports and a solution posted there:
"Just done some testing today and come up with a working per-user method, which
I recommend now rather than my previous efforts. Sorry about the confusion, the
tests could have been better,

After following these instructions, you will have two alternate entries in your
context menu "Open with" list and the file properties "Open with" list, so that
you can open VLC with the standard command.

To change the default DVD player in Hardy to VLC, open the Terminal and copy and
paste this command into it:

gksudo gedit /etc/gnome/defaults.list

Press "ctrl+f" and search for "x-content/video", then change the "totem.desktop"
entries to "vlc.desktop". Close and save.

Next, right-click on "Applications" in the top panel and select "Edit Menus" to
open the default menu editor. Navage down to "Sound & Video" in the left pane,
select it, then right-click on "VLC media player" in the right pane, select
"Properties" and change the launch command from "wxvlc %F" to:

vlc --vout-filter deinterlace --deinterlace-mode blend --volume 512 --fullscreen
%m

Close the VLC properties dialog and exit the menu editor. Finally, navigate to
Places>Home>Edit>Preferences>Media>DVD Video and select VLC."

This worked for me and was not as hard as it sounds. The file editing is
straight forward text editing. The menu editor can be found in System |
Preferences| Main Menu. The last step is the most confusing. What you are doing
is going to Places | Home Folder. Then in Nautilus going to Edit | Preferences.
Media is the last tab.