Comment by close04

I think Media Player is there just to have a built in option. Can’t say I’ve ever seen anyone use it, even non-techies install some other player in my experience.

The lack of codecs takes us back 20 years when everyone was installing codec packs. Both the Dolby and HEVC extensions now come from alternative codec packs. Not a real problem but does signal a degradation of the experience to the level that was usually considered the “downside” for Linux.

Always a good idea to run alternatives to every software that might pull the rug from under you. Always be ready to switch when the experience starts to stink.