My Ubuntu OS doesnt play videos nd poor image

Hello,
I have one of those notebook acer laptops, i think its called Aspire 1. So I instaled linux and now I cant play movies- the images just kind of slide over each other, and picture quality for movies and my pictures is terrible- my photos look all wide and weird. When I had windows installed I could watch stuff, so im sure its the software. Is there anything I can download to help me out I have both vlc and movieplayer and both have the same problem