A strange issue has been identified in Ubuntu where video takes on a blue colored tint. Other descriptions of the problem include inverted colors, blue skin tones, or distorted video hues. The problems have been reproduced with Totem (Gstreamer), Totem (Xine), Mplayer, as well as VLC and other players.

The common theme with this bug seems to be the use of the Nvidia closed source drivers.

Here is an example showing the blue tint problem.

Here are the specific steps to fix the issue for the Totem (Gstreamer) player. There may be similar methods for other players.

The first thing you need to do is make a change to gstreamer-properties.

Open gstreamer-properties from within a terminal.

$ gstreamer-properties

Now click on the Video tab. From the Plugin dropdown box select Custom. Finally add the following line to the Pipeline box.

videobalance hue=-1 ! autovideosink

The window should look like this.

Restart Totem for these changes to take effect.

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