Hey you! I can't play DVD's!
 

Well, I have been unable to play any dvd's, after trying everything I could with my experience level with linux. First off, I tried, needless to say, unsucessfully to watch a DVD with the programs that came with my mandrake distrobution, which are:

RealPlayerG2
Xine

RealPlayerG2 Wont play anything, accept the intro sound. Id rather not play anyting on that anyway cause it doesnt look as high tech cool as xine :). Anyway, i tried mapping it to the dvd mount and......nothing. Still plays that intro sound.

And with xine, I only get 3 playback options.....

VCD
DVB
CD

Wheres my DVD playback?!

After noticing this, I went and looked around a little. I stumbled across a directory of MPlayer (never heard of it b4) distros and tried to unzip and compile the source. (On the one hand, I wish everything came in precompiled packages like in Windows, but yet I wouldnt be learning the things Im learning by trying to get these things to work. :))

I have a question about the unzipping part. I came across my first gzip file. The wierd thing to me is that this file was first compressed as a tar file and then compressed again with gzip. Or at least I unzipped this file in the reverse order. Whats up with that?

Anyway, after I got it unzipped, I assumed that I would run the configure file because I had to do that before with something else. When I ran it, it told me that I didnt have the right compiler, but that I could force it to be compiled whith the compiler I have. So I did just that, despite suggestions not to. In durring this process it kept telling me that I either have to upgrade my kernel or recompile it. 2 things I dont know anything about.
If it helps to be exact, mmx mmx2 sse sse2 is what failed on me.

Hears the deal, I barely understand any of what brought me this far. I am not set on using mplayer and would actaully like to use xine if at all possible. Please give any ideas you can about how to get my DVD's running. I use windows less and less the more I learn with linux here, and would like to keep it that way.

Thanks,

xine takes a plugin to play dvd's
mplayer is better, but difficult to compile. you need lots of packages.
tar doesn't compress, it just puts files end to end which makes them
compress better.

gotcha ;) Well, does anyone know where I can get the dvd plugin for xine?

don't bother, just use the REAL version of a GOOD player.... http://mplayerhq.hu

I'm having the same problem with Xine, and I'd also like to know where to get this plugin...

Thanks

I cant install that. First of if couldnt be authenicated and it failed anyway.

dvd player
 

Hi: I can't answer any of your technical questions. However, I am a big DVD fan and all I care about is picture quality and sound - not some glitz interface. I use Videolan - from www.videolan.org - compiled by some programmers in France. I did not get the technical pages downloaded but just playing around with the settings I have a fully functional DVD player which looks and sounds great. There are a buttload of packages to d/l but you can install them all with one command (don't ask me - instructions are on the videolan site). Just create a new folder to d/l them to before starting the downloads - otherwise you'll end up with a buttlad of folders amidst all your other stuff.

I run RedHat 9.0 - not the commercial one but the one from linuxiso.org so I have no great tech help or support - I'm just winging it, as you appear to be.

Hope this helps.:cool:

why bother trying to compile mplayer, its hard for a newbie

most ppl could just use ogle, it works well and is easy to install
http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/index.shtml

If you want to get Xine to work, try this:

* Go to here to update URPMI (follow directions there).

* Select the plf and contrib packages.

* Go to Mandrake Control Centre / Software Management / Install Software.

* Select "All packages, by source repositry"

* Search for libcss, libdvdcss, libdvdnav, libdvdread and xine-dvdnav

This is the stuff you need to get Xine to read encrypted (commercial) DVD's

HTH
Baldrick

hmm, not really that hard if you don't bother with all the extra options, in fact when i first installed it i just left it to it's own devices and it worked just fine, if you want to tweak it's performance then it gets a little more complicated

in response to video land, Im using Mandrake and the installation would not work for me and Im not skilled enough with this to trouble shoot the problems. I got alot of problems such as no hdlist file found on medium, unable to open curl, retrieve of source failed, problem read sythesis file, unable to update medium.

You see, i dont know if its my distro or what, but everything eveyone suggests does not work for me. Commands arent working, processes arent working, files are not found........its all befuckered. As much as Im curious and am enthusiastic about learning, this linux things just isnt coming easily.

To eveyone: DONT SUGGEST PACKAGES THAT I HAVE TO COMPILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ANOTHER PROBLEM WITH THIS STUPID DISTRO OR STUPID ME OR STUPID LINUX OR WHATEVER THE PROBLEM BEING THAT I CANNOT INSTALL GCC BECAUSE "THE COMPILER IS ALREADY INSTALLED" BUT YET "CANNOT BE FOUND" BY ME OR THE DAMN COMPUTER!!!!!!!! ITS THERE BUT I CANNOT USE IT AND BECAUSE ITS THERE I CANNOT REINSTALL IT: "PACKAGE ALREADY INSTALLED!" AND NOBODY CAN HELP....FUCK!

finally something worked! in repsponse to installing the proper plugins for xine to read commercial dvd's. I searched my linux distro installation for the plugins and installed them, making xine work! Im so excited. However how does one know which packages are needed and why doesnt the linux installation install those by default if they are on the disk? I mean there is no way for me to know these things, or is there?


P.S. Certain "Commercial" DVD's won't work.

Firday-worked! :)
Hackers-Didnt Work!:mad:
Goldmember-Worked!:)

mandrake, dvds and the wonder world of . . . .
 

Hey - I understand your frustration. Linux can be a pain in the butt. So is Windows. I tried 3 or 4 distros before settling on Red Hat - and that's only temporary. I couldn't get Mandrake 9 to install. I'd like to install FreeBSD but am not nearly technically proficient enough.

As far as why package lists aren't available or whatever . . . who knows . . . maybe if you read every man page and every technical help file the information would be there . . . and you would be 98 years old.

Live fast. Die young. Don't read technical digit head mush.

I'm kidding . . . I think.