Debian Lenny won't play bought DVDs, only copies.

LordNAg · 04-30-2009, 02:27 PM

Hi everyone!

I recently made the switch from Windows to Debian, and while I have no trouble playing copied DVDs, I am having trouble playing any DVD that's been bought from a shop. I reckon I need to install some sort of Decss file but I'm having a little trouble figuring out where to go from there.

Having no luck with Mplayer or VLC. Any help would be appreciated. :D

Running Debian Lenny amd64 on a HP Pavilion zv6000. Don't know if you need to know anything else. Ask me if you do. :)

digerati1338 · 04-30-2009, 02:54 PM

Try adding the repository from http://www.debian-multimedia.org. This line should go in /etc/apt/sources.list:

Code:

deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ lenny main

That repository has a different version of mplayer that will have codecs built in that can play copy-protected dvds. These codecs aren't in the official repositories because they contain material that doesn't strictly adhere to debian's terms. I think that repo has other video players besides mplayer too. Just pick your favorite. Also make sure you have libdvdcss2 and w32codecs installed.

LordNAg · 04-30-2009, 04:00 PM

Right, done that. What did that do? Does that mean that the new version of mplayer will appear in Synaptic?

And how do I go about installing libdvdcss2 and w32codecs?

You're gonna have to hold my hand here, I think.

Tinkster · 04-30-2009, 04:05 PM

Hi,

And welcome to LQ!

apt-cache search libdvdcss

If it finds it, install it with

apt-get install <package name as returned from search>

Cheers,
Tink

the trooper · 04-30-2009, 04:12 PM

You have added Debian-Multimedia to your apt sources,yes?.As shown by digerati1338.
The first thing you need to is use the following commands from a shell as root:

aptitude update
aptitude install debian-multimedia-keyring,say yes when prompted to install the keyring.
aptitude install libdvdcss2 w64codecs,w64 as you are using a x64 machine.

You can substitute apt-get for aptitude if you prefer.
If you have not used aptitude before use the command aptitude keep-all first.

digerati1338 · 04-30-2009, 04:39 PM

What trooper said is correct. For 64 bit you need w64codecs. You can use those commands on the command line as root (type su and hit enter first).

Alternatively you should be able to do the same thing from synaptic if you're more comfortable with that. First rescan your sources to update synaptic, then run a search for the packages mentioned above and install them.

LordNAg · 04-30-2009, 11:01 PM

Awesome! The Very Best of Father Ted is playing away in VLC right now. Cheers guys! Big help!