noob- ubuntu 12.04- mp4 playback problem?

[blowa fuse]

hi guys i am new to linux and did my first install of ubuntu 12.04 on a laptop that has a broken dvd drive that was going down to the bin , i installed via my phone as a bootable usb drive , worked flawless even the wifi worked straight after install which suprised me it was always intermitent in windows??

so software centre then updated 91 updates lol
and i installed vlc player through the software centre and tryed to play a mp4
all i got was black screen no audio, i tryed xine and mplayer same result then i downloaded unbuntu resticted package that i apparantley needed to fix this but no good am i missing some thing?

 

[blowa fuse]

I would also check hardware acceleration in VLC (Preferences>Input&Codecs); it is at experimental stage atm for some GPU/driver/codec combinations, and may break. Toggle it on/off, to see if it makes any difference in your case.

i did download ffmeg but it made no difference to video the audio still came through, i thought about installing a third party package but the stoner side in me decided against it and i was randomly playing with some preferences in vlc player tryed the same mp4 file and it worked

cheers