I also use redhat linux, but I use the Fedora Core distro - FC6. Unless you need the enterprise features of linux, this distro is probably better for you. Ubuntu is also very good for personal use - it has all the video and audio codecs and applications already in the distro.

http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_4_installation_notes.html

Here are my notes from my install:

yum check-update
yum list available

To install Videolan
yum install videolan-client

How I installed mplayer plugin for firefox
yum install mplayerplug-in

Was getting following error after installing fc6
Cannot open/read repomd.xml file for repository: newrpms.sunsite.dk

Per: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?p=626335#post626335,
updated *.repo files and deleted file containing "newrpms.sunsite.dk" string

If getting a public key error,

How to import yum public key
Also, you will need to import their GPG-key's from the web. To make it faster to get them all, I always do this:
(1)google: livna gpg key
(2)when the results come up, copy the url that says *'gpg-key'* in it somewhere, or right click on the link and copy line location
(3) in terminal as root: rpm --import <shift>+<insert> //this will paste the url into the terminal, then hit enter
(4) go back to google, change 'livna' to 'freshrpms' or whater repo you need the next key for, but don't change the rest of the text, hit enter
(5) repeat 2,3,4 until finished

rpm --import http://rpm.livna.org/RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY
rpm --import http://freshrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY-freshrpms

List of rpm and yum how tos
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Fedora_fc5#How_to_install_Flash_Player_.28Macromedia_Flash.29_Plug-in_for_Mozilla_Firefox

Got following error:
warning: rpmts_HdrFromFdno: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 1aa78495
Public key for aalib-1.4.0-5.fc6.rf.i386.rpm is not installed

had to:
Okay, someone, somewhere forgot to include the key. You can check out the repository that it came from (maybe Dries) and temporarily modify your yum.repos.d for that repository from gpgcheck=1 to gpgcheck=0 which will allow you to install it. Then, go back and use gedit to change that gpgcheck back to 1. If you do a google search, you'll find your not alone in this one.


Installing applications after linux re-install
----------------------------------------------
yum --enablerepo=flash install flash-plugin
yum -y install firefox

yum localinstall *rpm

yum -y install mplayer-gui
yum -y install mplayerplug-in

yum -y remove totem

did not use this: yum install -y totem-mozplugin
yum install -y totem-xine

yum install libdvdcss libdvdread totem-xine xine-lib-extras-nonfree -y
yum install compat-libstdc++-33 -y

yum -y install xine xine-lib xine-skins