Explained, Maybe Video DVD's won't play

[CutRightSharpening]

OK,
After spending a lot of time I have reached the conclusion that the problem is maybe two fold:
1. Primarily,, out of date Codec files. I reached this conclusion by trying a LOT of commercially produced DVD's in VLC on Mageia and VLC on Mint 15. On Mageia anything older than about 15 months will play. On Mint 15 I can play everything to within about 2 months ago will play. During an update to Mint a couple weeks ago, I got an update to the Codec file. That brings me to number 2. The Codec files for Mageia are not being kept up-to-date but Mageia isn't alone since the Mint 15 is also not fully up-to-date.

I suspect that Linux Codec's are never going to be always fully up-to-date so the newest videos are not going to play.

So, unless one of the Magi have way to always keep the Codec files completely up-to-date, the best this problem will ever be is Explained,, Maybe
5/21/14
-----------------------------------------------

I found and downloaded the Tainted Codex from the Welcome Screen Application.
When I insert the DVD it asks what to do and I have tried to play with
VLC
xine
Videos
Dragon
Xine will play the warnings and then says I don't have the permissions needed.

[doktor5000]

Please try with vlc. Do you also have libdvdcss installed or respectively lib64dvdcss for a 64bit system?

[CutRightSharpening]

Installed lib64dvdcss
VLC didn't workthe first time and still doesn't work. I have played this specific DVD in VLC on the machine that has Mint 16 Cinnamon on it.
Videos still says >> An error occurred -- The movie could not be read
xine played the warnings and a bit of the intro music then gave me this.

[doktor5000]

VLC didn't workthe first time and still doesn't work.

"Doesn't work" is not really descriptive ... How did you try to open the DVD?

[CutRightSharpening]

I right click on the DVD drive on the desktop then select VLC from the OPEN WITH list.

[CutRightSharpening]

I right click on the DVD drive on the desktop then select VLC from the OPEN WITH list.

And this is all I get. Going through the VLC menus doesn't make it get any better.

[CutRightSharpening]

Set VLC as the default player and inserted the DVD into the drive. VLC opened, momentarily displayed the DVD title in the top status bar, and then didn't play the video.

[Ken-Bergen]

Please post the output of

Code: Select all

rpm -q vlc

[CutRightSharpening]

Read my signature.. If terminal and coding writing is needed, then something isn't ready for the masses.
I already indicated that I had downloaded the Tainted Version.

Terminal Report vlc-2.1.2-1.mag4.tainted

Who was the idiot that made the terminal so you cannot highlight and copy text from it? This is why something for the masses should not require the use of a terminal or code writing.

[Ken-Bergen]

If everything is working then you should never need to go to a terminal.
When trouble shooting though it's easier say "run this command in a terminal and post the output" than walk through the steps to get the same information from a graphical interface.

For highlight, copy and paste from a terminal just use a terminal emulator which can be found in the menu under Tools, one such is xterm which I believe is installed by default.

BTW: It's not that I didn't believe you when you said you had the tainted version of VLC I just asked for verification that it actually was installed before running around in circles.

Also, is this just one DVD or have you tried others?

[CutRightSharpening]

Ok,
I have DVD's in 3 basic categories.
Homemade I did not try all of them but the 3 that I tried worked in VLC and xine.

I have Training/Reference videos made by mostly small companies on different aspects of my business of sharpening and repair and the 4 that I tried from 4 different companies worked in VLC and xine.

I have an extensive collection of commercial videos movies and such. Of the 10 that I tried all of them that I purchased more than 18 months ago worked in VLC and Xine.
the ones that were less than 6 months old did not work in VLC or xine but they do work in VLC running on a Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon machine as did the older ones.

I have 1 video that I bought pretty much as soon as it became available in the last 2 months that appears to ONLY run in Nero on a Win 7 machine.

So, If I understand things correctly, the problem is probably out of date codec files.

[doktor5000]

Read my signature.. If terminal and coding writing is needed, then something isn't ready for the masses.
[...]
Who was the idiot that made the terminal so you cannot highlight and copy text from it? This is why something for the masses should not require the use of a terminal or code writing.

Please tone down you attitude. That thing about "linux for the masses" is an arbitrary definition of yours. We have many people here who provide support voluntarily, and if you require help, you also have to play by their rules. When output of commands is required, that is simply to cut down the required time for the supporter and for the one who asked, as it is much more efficient then lenghty explanations.

Please open VLC, from the menu select media -> open disc -> select DVD if not already selected -> select no disc menus and click play.

[CutRightSharpening]

Playback failure:
DVDRead could not open the disc "/dev/dvd1".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvdsimple:///dev/dvd1'. Check the log for details.

No, I don't know how to get to the "log".

[Ken-Bergen]

Why did you fully edit your original post?

In light of your edit all subsequent posts seem out of context.

It would have been much better to edit the title of the original post prefixing it with [DONE], then adding a final post at the end.

[CutRightSharpening]

I didn't and still don't think it is "DONE" and there isn't anything farther down in the thread that provides any actual solution so why have anyone spend time reading the whole tread? Let them know up front to get the latest Codec's, then try a lot of different DVD's and look for a pattern of failure to see if it is likely that the Codec is out of date rather than the application isn't working.

If they have the Codec and nothing will play, then it is time to ask for help from the Magi.

I screwed up originally since I only tried ONE DVD and assumed that meant none would play and that the application(s) were failing so I wasted some of the Magi's valuable time. I apologize.

[jkerr82508]

Most of my commercial DVD's are older, but I have one that was released earlier this year. It plays perfectly on Mageia 4. I launched VLC from the menu, selected DVD from the panel on the left of the VLC display. The DVD was listed in the window on the right. I clicked on it and the DVD started playing.

I have no idea as to which of the following are necessary, but here's what I have installed:

Code: Select all

$ rpm -qa | grep vlc
vlc-2.1.2-1.mga4.tainted
vlc-plugin-pulse-2.1.2-1.mga4.tainted
phonon-vlc-0.6.2-2.mga4
vlc-plugin-theora-2.1.2-1.mga4.tainted
vlc-plugin-common-2.1.2-1.mga4.tainted
lib64vlc5-2.1.2-1.mga4.tainted
lib64vlccore7-2.1.2-1.mga4.tainted
vlc-plugin-lua-2.1.2-1.mga4.tainted

and

Code: Select all

$ rpm -qa | grep dvd
lib64dvdnav4-4.2.1-1.mga4
lib64dvdread4-4.2.1-1.mga4
dvd+rw-tools-7.1-7.mga4
gstreamer0.10-resindvd-0.10.23-14.mga4.tainted
lib64dvdcss2-1.2.13-2.mga4.tainted
dvdauthor-0.7.1-5.mga4
libdvdcss2-1.2.13-2.mga4.tainted


It is possible that this particular DVD was using an older encryption method. It's not a subject that I know much about. I don't usually play DVD's on my PC.

Jim

[doktor5000]

Ken was right there - please do not overwrite your initial post. If you really think you have to edit it, then at least
add a new paragraph and prefix it by EDIT: or UPDATE: or so - but this is usually what replies are made for.

I suspect that Linux Codec's are never going to be always fully up-to-date so the newest videos are not going to play.

So, unless one of the Magi have way to always keep the Codec files completely up-to-date, the best this problem will ever be is Explained,, Maybe
5/21/14

If you're talking about actual video DVDs here, the codecs are certainly not out of date. They're using MPEG2 codecs,
which are ages old and the implementations didn't have any major updates during the last 5 years.
For all other codecs we're pretty much up-to-date.

And if xine shows some "permission error" that is certainly not related to outdated codecs. Not sure how you came to that conclusion.

[ozky]

It looks like user or xine cannot access cd/dvd device,you can try to add your user to cdrom group.

[tarakbumba]

Are you sure that your DVD is mounted under /dev/dvd1? I have a LG dvd-rw and it is under /dev/sr0 . It seems something wrong with your vlc configuration, note that you can change dvd mount point settings in vlc configuration.