LibDVDcss inconsistently working

[alun_sundry]

I hope I've remembered the name of that DVD codec right, but you know what I mean. The codec for using encrypted DVDs.

I watched a DVD yesterday using the Xine movie player, and it played fine throughout the actual film (Blades of Glory, if you're wondering...) but then cut off later during some extras, with the same message you get with other codec-lacking Linuxes, or Linux Mint Light at least.

I'm mostly using my Vista partition to watch DVDs anyway, but I'd like to get the Mint player sorted - is it just that the 'reverse engineering' is imperfect and/or maybe the DVD producers are evolving reisistence to that free codec, or is Mint still in need of updates in this area? (Didn't the free codec's makers ought to re-work it? also to cure the problem with choppy sidewards motion in a film.)

Anything I can do about this?

(My reason for going with Mint rather than Ubuntu etc is that it worked with my laptop first time, my mobile Broadband worked straight away, and the codecs were all present. I've had a few crashes and hangs but I'm going to be patient for now.)

Apparently there are pay-to-use codecs dfor Linux which I may consider, but ideally I won't bother.

Thanks.

[psych1610]

Hey Alun Sundry, this probably isn't too much help but you might try another video player. You can search synaptic for mplayer which is great software and also Windows/Linux compatible. It also has a great front end, smplayer. At least to see if the problem persists. I've watched a few dvds on Linux w/o problems and I doubt the movie makers are increasing security to watch dvds.. that would screw the ppl would older dvd players to I assume..

Maybe mplayer will work and you'll find you like it. At the very least you'll be able to tell us if its just a xine problem or exists across programs.

[alun_sundry]

Hello, I thought I'd post on this again, as I've tried to play another DVD tonight without much luck. It seems I'm having trouble getting towards the menus. The DVD began to play, gave me a HBO video intro logo jingle thing, then froze with "Are you trying to play a DVD without libdvdcss?". The third time of trying this I manually clicked on the 'next track' arrow and got to the menus. I also reinstalled libdvdcss2 and then uninstalled it and installed it again.

Mplayer that the previous replier mentioned is installed as default with Mint as well as Xine, so I've already tried these. It's a bit frustrating, as I chose Mint above the other Linuxes because of sidestepping having to find those codecs.

Thanks for any input.

[alun_sundry]

I've now found VLC works better - but, I'd like to know how to set things so when I try to play a DVD VLC starts up instead of Totem-Xine. I know how to associate file types to applications, but there doesn't seem to be an option like this (properties > open with...) for DVDs. Unless I'm supposed to find a VOB file on the DVD and associate that? But then that might scupper the way that VLC is dealing better with starting from a DVd's menu than the other players. (I also installed Ogle but it hasn't shown up on the menu, somehow.)

Thanks for any input....

[alun_sundry]

Solved, I think.

In case anyone else looks in with the same trouble, I open the DVD as if it were a folder (right-clicking its desktop icon, clicking Browse Folder, getting me "cd rom 0 - file browser"), clicked Edit > Preferences > Media and then changed DVD playback to VLC.

Shame some of this software is so plain or ugly though....

[rivenought]

Are you using Mint 5 or Mint 6? I know when I was using Mint 5, the original installation was flawless at playing DVDs, but a Level 3 update along the way caused me to lose the beginning credits and DVD menu before the movie played. Totem did get a little wonky every so often after those updates. I reinstalled / and then enabled only the Level 1 & 2 updates. My DVD playback was flawless once again.

Did you try Totem-GStreamer instead of Totem-Xine? I just looked in the menu structure (System>Preferences>MainMenu>Sound & Video), and I have three Movie players: Movie Player, Movie Player Xine, and MPlayer. As far as I know, I am using Movie Player (Totem with GStreamer). This is what it looks like to me, though I could be wrong. However, in Mint 6, everything works just perfectly. You may wish to verify and see which one will work best for you. This may not fix your problem, but hopefully might point you in the right direction. Good luck.

[alun_sundry]

Mint 6 I'm using. Thanks, that will make me justifiably cautious about updates. I will grin and bear using VLC, I don't want to do any big reinstallations again, and hopefully a later update will sort things out with Xine.

I had thought that Xine deals with DVD, where GStreamer dealt with flv, wmv etc.

[rivenought]

To be honest, I may have to defer to others who are more knowledgeable as to which codecs do what. The one thing I can tell you is that my Mint 6 has all the Level 1, 2, and 3 updates installed. My DVDs play just fine in Totem. It is odd that Totem does not do all you need, but as long as you have something that works, such as VLC, you may as well stick with it. If you do come up with any new info, please post.