HOWTO INSTALL ALL THE TOOLS YOU NEED TO CONVERT AND PLAY MOST FORMATS

Follow this guide and you'll be able to play close to everything on your box, and you can convert most formats.

First - remove all of the following installed from repositories:

sudo apt-get remove ffmpeg x264 libx264-dev mplayer mencoder libxvidcore-dev libxvidcore4 libtheora-dev libvorbis-dev libmp3lame-dev libfaac-dev libogg-dev 
sudo apt-get update

Install the dependencies:

sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool-bin checkinstall git cvs subversion libjack-jackd2-dev libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev libsdl1.2-dev libva-dev libvdpau-dev libx11-dev libxfixes-dev texi2html yasm zlib1g-dev original-awk libgtk2.0-dev mercurial cmake cmake-curses-gui gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi g++-arm-linux-gnueabi

Download x264, xvid, ffmpeg and mplayer with git and svn, compile and install:

cd~
git clone git://git.videolan.org/x264
cd x264
./configure --enable-static --disable-asm --disable-opencl && make
sudo make install
make distclean

cd~
svn checkout http://svn.xvid.org/trunk --username anonymous
cd xvid/xvidcore/build/generic
./bootstrap.sh && ./configure && make
sudo make install
make distclean

cd~
git clone https://git.xiph.org/ogg.git
cd ogg
./autogen.sh && make
sudo make install
make distclean

cd~
git clone https://git.xiph.org/theora.git
cd theora
./autogen.sh && make
sudo make install
make distclean

cd~
git clone https://git.xiph.org/vorbis.git
cd vorbis
./autogen.sh && make
sudo make install
make distclean

cd~
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@lame.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/lame checkout -P lame 
cd lame
./configure && make
sudo make install
make distclean

cd~
git clone https://github.com/mstorsjo/fdk-aac.git
cd fdk-aac
./autogen.sh
./configure --enable-shared --enable-static
make
sudo make install
make distclean

cd~
git clone https://git.xiph.org/flac.git
cd flac
./autogen.sh && make
sudo make install
make distclean

cd~
hg clone https://bitbucket.org/multicoreware/x265
cd x265/build/linux
cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="/usr/local" -DENABLE_SHARED:bool=off ../../source
make
sudo make install
make distclean

cd~
git clone https://git.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.git ffmpeg
cd ffmpeg
./configure --pkg-config-flags="--static" --enable-gpl --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-version3 --enable-x11grab --enable-libx265
make
sudo make install
make distclean

And, if you use a gui-based environment (like gnome og kde), you can install mediaplayer:

cd~
svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk mplayer
cd mplayer
./configure --enable-gui && make
sudo make install
make distclean

Finally, run ldconfig to update local directory cache:

sudo ldconfig

To update git repositories enter the source folder:

git pull

To update svn repositories enter the source folder:

svn update

To updatecvs repositories enter the source folder:

cvs update

If you want to uninstall applications you have compiled yourself, enter the source folder:

sudo make uninstall