Now I know this question has been asked and answered countless times before! However, I cannot get my Linux distro (Mandrake 10 community ) to play the darn things even with all the explanations I have found. It can't be that hard to get Linux to play encrypted DVD's, can it?

The player I'm using is TOTEM

I've downloaded the LIBDVDCSS file and followed the installation instructions precisely. Totem also recognizes my DVD drive (well I presume it does as in preferences it lists it as a SONY DVD drive).

And well, I still get the message that not the right codec is installed to play the DVD.
From what I can see the codec packs have been installed which came on the community iso images.

Can someone please give me really basic step by step pointers on how to get DVD's to play

As mentioned, I have made the effort of searching through previous threads and well most other people did not manage to get it going either.

PLEASE HELP ME

Use MPlayer I also had Probs with DVD's and Totem, had all the codecs and nothing. Tried MPlayer and YAY!!!!

Try mplayer as previously suggested.
Also, you might want to try upgrading to Mandrake 10.0 official. The community version is/was a beta stage development version. It's got a lot of bugs - playing DVD's might be one of them.

cheers will try mplayer and look into the official mandrake version. I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks for the replies so far

All done and dusted

Thanks again guys, it seems to have done the trick!