Comment 11 for bug 539196

Agreed. How does one acquire the latest? It's very confusing where things come from.

System >> Administration >> Hardware Drivers
 * Shows that nvidia proprietary driver is in use. OK. (which version?? ... useless)

Actually running nvidia-settings shows:
 * Version = 96.43.13

Running Ubuntu 9.10:
{{{
$ dpkg --list | grep nvidia-settings
ii nvidia-settings 256.29-0ubuntu1~nvidiavdpauppa1 Tool of configuring the NVIDIA graphics driv
rc nvidia-settings-190 190.42-0ubuntu1~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa1 Tool of configuring the NVIDIA graphics driv
}}}

{{{
$ dpkg --list | grep nvidia
ii libvdpau1 0.4-2~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa4 Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix (
ii libxine1 1.1.16.3-vdpau-0ubuntu2~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa1 the xine video/media player library, meta-pa
ii libxine1-bin 1.1.16.3-vdpau-0ubuntu2~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa1 the xine video/media player library, binary
ii libxine1-console 1.1.16.3-vdpau-0ubuntu2~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa1 libaa/libcaca/framebuffer/directfb related p
ii libxine1-ffmpeg 1.1.16.3-vdpau-0ubuntu2~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa1 MPEG-related plugins for libxine1
ii libxine1-misc-plugins 1.1.16.3-vdpau-0ubuntu2~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa1 Input, audio output and post plugins for lib
ii libxine1-x 1.1.16.3-vdpau-0ubuntu2~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa1 X desktop video output plugins for libxine1
ii mplayer 2:1.0~rc3+svn20091207-0ubuntu1~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa11 movie player for Unix-like systems
ii mplayer-nogui 2:1.0~rc3+svn20091207-0ubuntu1~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa11 movie player for Unix-like systems
ii nvidia-173-modaliases 173.14.20-0ubuntu5 Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org drive
rc nvidia-190-libvdpau 190.42-0ubuntu1~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa4 Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix
ii nvidia-190-modaliases 190.53-0ubuntu1~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa14 Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org drive
ii nvidia-96-kernel-source 96.43.13-0ubuntu6 NVIDIA binary kernel module source
ii nvidia-96-modaliases 96.43.13-0ubuntu6 Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org drive
rc nvidia-common 0.2.15.1-1~nvidiavdpauppa1 Find obsolete NVIDIA drivers
rc nvidia-glx-190 190.53-0ubuntu1~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa14 NVIDIA binary Xorg driver
ii nvidia-glx-96 96.43.13-0ubuntu6 NVIDIA binary Xorg driver
ii nvidia-settings 256.29-0ubuntu1~nvidiavdpauppa1 Tool of configuring the NVIDIA graphics driv
rc nvidia-settings-190 190.42-0ubuntu1~karmic~nvidiavdpauppa1 Tool of configuring the NVIDIA graphics driv
}}}

This is how (I believe) the nvidia drivers are acquired:
{{{
$ pwd
/etc/apt/sources.list.d
$ cat nvidia-vdpau-ppa-karmic.list
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/nvidia-vdpau/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
}}}