Probably the easiest way to fix the problem is to open nautilus. find
one of you video files and right click on it then choose the open with
tab and select the player you want to use with that type of audio or
video. This will set this player as the default for all files of this
type.

I have tried this and Totem still opens for streaming video. I have
also tried to delete Totem, but the machine won't let me. I get a
notice that other applications rely on Totem.

How are you trying to delete totem? If I go into synaptic package
manager and mark totem and totem gstreamer (I'm using gstreamer
instead of xine) for removal no other packages are marked for
removal.

What other packages is it indicating depends on totem?

I've also tried to remove Totem through Synaptic and am told that the
Ubuntu Desktop will be removed as well if I do.

Did you install mplayer for mozilla? It should take over totem as a default
player. YOu should be able to remove totem using synaptic.

Yes, I have Mplayer installed and set as default, with the Mozilla
plug-in as well, which is why I tried to remove Totem and got the
message from Synaptic that the Ubuntu Desktop would also be removed if I
continued.

Thanks to all who tried to help me to get rid of Totem,

I got Totem working with Easy Ubuntu.
http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/index.html
I no longer need to get rid of it.

It may not be everybody's cup of tea and is probably not the proper
fix, but it worked well enough for me to get my media straightened
out. I never did get MPlayer set up as my default for streaming
media, but at least Totem will now play embedded streaming media.

Also in Ubuntu if you click on system>preferences>removable drives and
media click on the multimedia tab and you can change what program
opens up when putting in a dvd, or cd and whatever else you would like
to change.

This can ver simple. Please go into synaptic and type in Totem in your seach.
Once you find totem. Select uninstall or complete remove. I would just do
uninstall. That should fix that little problem.

I use VLC for videos. It just works, so I have not thought much about Totem.
However, after installing 8.10 and looking at Totem. I see that there are two
versions of Totem. Totem as installed uses gstreamer, but if you want you can
install Totem-xine which will replace gstreamer as the engine used by Totem with
xine. This reputedly gives better performance. Perhaps others who use Totem can
confirm or deny this. As I say I use VLC. But it may explain why some users
report problems with Totem while others don't.