[SOVLED] Plays some DVDs, Won't Play others.

[muskratmx]

I have a strange problem. But it's not confined to LinuxMint, or VectorLinux.

My Laptop triple boots into WinXP, LinuxMint, and VectorLinux. When I play DVDs most will play no problem, but there are a few that won't play. Those that won't play won't even mount I get an error no media found. This is uniform accross the board with all three installs. None of them will see the disk in the drive.

Not even winxp, the drive just appears empty.

When these same disks are placed in a DVD player they work.

I'm wondering if anybody has any ideas?

[Fred]

muskratmx,

Greetings sir,

My first guess would be an unsupported disk type. My second guess would be some kind of DRM problem.

Not much help I know but the best I could do on short notice.

Enjoy,

Fred

[muskratmx]

By unsupported disk type, what would that mean? For example I have two disk, both made by the same studio company both zone 1, yet one plays in all three distros XP, Mint, and Vector. The other won't even get recognised, all three say no media found. Yet they both play in a TV DVD player.

[Fred]

I am not sure exactly what I mean. I remember a year or two ago my daughter had some few dvds that she couldn't get to work on the computer. but worked fine on her dvd player hooked to the tv. Looking at them close, they were just slightly thicker than the others and had a more rounded edge. I don't know what that means. Out of tolerance, more layers, strange format that the computer didn't support? I really couldn't tell you. I never did go to the trouble to get to the bottom of the problem.

Sorry, that's as much as I know.

Good luck,

Fred

[muskratmx]

I discovered it's the optical drive is failing, the other day I played a two movie disk, playing the first movie, then removed the disk and later replaced the disk to play the second movie, no such luck, it wouldn't play in LinuxMint, WinXP, or VectorLinux.

I knew the disk was compatible, because it played movie one fine. So I pulled the big No No. Using my finger I wiggled the optical head and presto, it played the second movie.

So I guess the lesson here is don't always blame software, hardware can act just as funky.

[Fred]

muskratmx,

Point taken my friend. Thanks

Now that you mention it, I do remember replacing that cd drive some few months after that incident. I just didn't associate the two.

We live and learn.

Fred