Can't play commercial DVD's

[bruc3w4yn3]

Hey, I'm quite new to Linux yet, so any help would be appreciated!

I'm trying to play a DVD, any commercial DVD on my laptop, but VLC keeps saying

Playback failure:
DVDRead could not open the disc "/dev/dvd".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///dev/dvd'. Check the log for details.

I've looked up this problem on google, and seen a number of people who had similar problems, but the solutions they tried have not helped me so far. I tried changing the disc name to "/dev/sr0", I tried manually mounting the DVD drive, downloaded regionset as well as libdvdcss4. When I try to use regionset, it gives me the following error;

ERROR: Could not open disc "(null)"!
Please ensure there is a readable CD or DVD in the drive.

I also tried using Gnome Mplayer to no avail. Thank you for any help you can give!

[kc1di]

welcome to linux and the mint forums bruc3w4yn3,

In VLC - you have to tell it where to find the DVD . the defualt does not always do it.

Go to Media tab select open disc in the box that comes up select Disc if not already selected,
There will be a drop down menu That by default says

Code: Select all

 /dev/dvd  

click on the little down arrow and select

Code: Select all

/dev/cdrom

Give that a try if it does not work then try hitting the browse button and find your dvd it will most likely be

Code: Select all

 /mnt/<title of DVD>

Either way it should work.

you can make a symbolic link to the correct location so you don't have to do this every time but lets see if this gets it playing for now.
then we can deal with the link later.

[nomko]

Check here: https://sites.google.com/site/tipsandtr ... multimedia. And especially the section about DVD playback.

[kc1di]

Check here: https://sites.google.com/site/tipsandtr ... multimedia. And especially the section about DVD playback.

Mint comes with all the multimedia codecs already installed you should not have to install them again.

[bruc3w4yn3]

welcome to linux and the mint forums bruc3w4yn3,

In VLC - you have to tell it where to find the DVD . the defualt does not always do it.

Go to Media tab select open disc in the box that comes up select Disc if not already selected,
There will be a drop down menu That by default says

Code: Select all

 /dev/dvd  

click on the little down arrow and select

Code: Select all

/dev/cdrom

Give that a try if it does not work then try hitting the browse button and find your dvd it will most likely be

Code: Select all

 /mnt/<title of DVD>

Either way it should work.

you can make a symbolic link to the correct location so you don't have to do this every time but lets see if this gets it playing for now.
then we can deal with the link later.

I'm afraid it still gives me the same error, can't open /dev/cdrom. When I click the dropdown, there isn't any drive listed. I tried to manually mount the drive last night, but it doesn't seem to have had any effect.

[kc1di]

I'm afraid it still gives me the same error, can't open /dev/cdrom. When I click the dropdown, there isn't any drive listed. I tried to manually mount the drive last night, but it doesn't seem to have had any effect.

couple of possibilities.
1. does this drive get recognized by the system for other tasks? IE. playing audio cd or just any cd that you put into it?

2. does it mount the dvd at all. place a dvd or cd in the drive and look in /media/ see if it's there.
let me know if you find it or not.

3rd thought this isn't a usb drive is it?

[bruc3w4yn3]

couple of possibilities.
1. does this drive get recognized by the system for other tasks? IE. playing audio cd or just any cd that you put into it?

2. does it mount the dvd at all. place a dvd or cd in the drive and look in /media/ see if it's there.
let me know if you find it or not.

Nada. I tried cd, commercial dvd and burned dvd, and nothing for any of them. I have an Acer-Aspire 5810T-8929, and I'm pretty sure the disc drive has a mechanism built in for energy saving. When I was still using windows, to get it to recognize the drive at all I had to press the eject button and that would activate it. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with it. I have to get to work, but I will check back later, thank you!

[kc1di]

couple of possibilities.
1. does this drive get recognized by the system for other tasks? IE. playing audio cd or just any cd that you put into it?

2. does it mount the dvd at all. place a dvd or cd in the drive and look in /media/ see if it's there.
let me know if you find it or not.

Nada. I tried cd, commercial dvd and burned dvd, and nothing for any of them. I have an Acer-Aspire 5810T-8929, and I'm pretty sure the disc drive has a mechanism built in for energy saving. When I was still using windows, to get it to recognize the drive at all I had to press the eject button and that would activate it. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with it. I have to get to work, but I will check back later, thank you!

Good at least that explains why it's not working VLC It's not the program.

If I find anything further will post it here.

[bruc3w4yn3]

Good at least that explains why it's not working VLC It's not the program.

If I find anything further will post it here.

Thanks! I'll keep checking back.

[kc1di]

Good at least that explains why it's not working VLC It's not the program.

If I find anything further will post it here.

Thanks! I'll keep checking back.

I'm Sorry - I've searched all the sources i have either not many people have your machine and use Linux or they have never posted much about it.
perhaps someone will come along who's has the Acer-Aspire 5810T-8929 and give you some help.

Only reference I could find to the DVD rom in your machine is that they are prone to fail.

sorry could not be of more help.

[mastablasta]

I'm afraid it still gives me the same error, can't open /dev/cdrom. When I click the dropdown, there isn't any drive listed. I tried to manually mount the drive last night, but it doesn't seem to have had any effect.

it could be that disk gets mounted somewhere else. For example a music CD on my mashcine gets mounted on /dev/sr01 for some reason

try to find correct mount point in VLC settings.

[Waves]

I have the same problem with Lubuntu 13.10 and gnome-mplayer. It looks for the movie in /dev/dvd while it is in /dev/sr0. If I create a link:

ln -s /dev/sr0 /dev/dvd

It works but the link is wiped out at the next reboot. It is not a codecs issue.

Can anybody help?

[AlbertP]

You can put that command in the file /etc/rc.local to have it executed every time you boot.

Code: Select all

gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local

(replace gedit by pluma on MATE editions of Mint, and on Lubuntu you'd probably use leafpad as text editor)

By the way, could you check if the computer's DVD drive is perhaps manufactured by Matshita?

[Waves]

Thanks Albert!

It worked like a charm. Do you have any idea why this problem occurred? Why isn't Ubuntu doing anything about this? I am shocked that at each new upgrade there is something fundamental that does not work.

Thanks.