Netflix DVD, Issue No. 2
 

This is a new one for me.

When I put in Disk 1 Season 5 The Game of Thrones, my computer identifies the disk correctly, but when I try to open the disk with VLC, the computer shuts down both the Disk ID and VLC. Old Netflix DVDs work and so do ones from my collection.

I am using mint 17 in a i3 system. Everything else works fine.

Could the producers of The Game of Thrones have changed their security coding so that the current release is no longer compatible with Linux or VLC?

ThomasLMcLean
On the Wet Coast

Have you tried opening it using another media player on Mint?

Does it play ok on any other DVD player/computer?

Hydrurga:

Yes to your first question I tried Dragon from mint. I got the same result, Dragon shutdown.

No to your second question. I only have the computer to play back DVDs. However I use it for everything, CDs, Streaming, personal DVDs, face book. No problems except the new Game of Thrones release from Netflix.

Thanks for helping

Tmas
On the Wet Side.

Well I haven't really helped yet. :)

It sounds like there's something wrong with the DVD, or perhaps something wrong with it anyway that's greater than the tolerance permitted by your DVD drive. Why that would shut down the media players though I have no idea.

How about Disk 2 Season 5?

Also, stupid question I know, but have you tried cleaning the troublesome DVD?

Another silly question, do you know if it is an ordinary DVD or DVD Hybrid (Enhanced DVD)?

I have tried two from season 5 disk 1, no others.

Not silly questions.
Yes I have carefully cleaned them both.

They are standard DVDs as far as I know.

I do believe that that the producers of Game of Thrones have added a "security" update that is not supported by either Linux or VLC.

Ok, what an embuggerance.

Unless someone else comes up with a solution, I suggest that you contact both Netflix and Warner Home Video and see if they have any suggestions.

It's probably such a recent variant of encryption that it will not matter, but what version of VLC are you running?

libdvdcss may be either out of date or some memory out of bounds or overflow issue.??

I am running VLC 2.1.6. I believe that I am current in all of the relevant software.

I was hopping to find someone else that had the same issues.

I have contacted Netflix, they are considering the problem. I will also get a different disk next week, so we will see what happens next.

Contacting Warner home video is a helpful suggestion. I try them if the next disk is also a no show.

I really believe that it is a recently introduced coding issue that will come to light eventually along with the resolution.

Thanks everyone. If you come across anything that seems related please let us know.

The Mystery is Solved:

I received my third DVD for Game of Thrones, Season 5, Disk 1 from Netflix this morning. It played like a top, no issues. It appears that Warner Home Video shipped some bad disks to Netflix. I have never seen this problem before, however Netflix did not seemed to be concerned when I called them and they kept wanting to send me replacement DVDs. I sent a question to the Warner Home video store asking if there was an issue with the new release of Game of Thrones. It has been three business days and I have received no reply. I will take their silence as an answer.

The good news: there is nothing wrong with VLC or Mint 17.

Thanks for all of your comments.

Great. Thanks for letting us know, and enjoy!

The Saga Continues
 

These are the latest issues I have using my optical drive with Netflix DVDs.

My problem seems to be intermittent and only related to movies. Non-movie DVDs and audio cds work fine. I have not had any problems with data discs.

Thank You in advance for anything you can provide.

I use vlc in Mint 17.3 Rosa to play Netflix DVD movies. The system uses an i3-3220, Asus mother board, 40 gb SSD, and Asus optical drive.

1. With a disc, either audio or video, in the drive; I run regionset from root and get: [could not open disc “null”}. Mind you, this is a disc that I have just played with no issues, I don't even open the drive.

2. Sometimes when a playable movie is inserted, I punch play and vlc closes instantly. My cure for this issue is to open vlc and tell it to play a Blu-ray, with the problem DVD in the drive. I get an error message with a note that the system can't find a Blu-ray, I then tell it the disk is a DVD and it plays. Lately it will only play the first half of the disc before closing vlc. But generally it plays the whole thing without issues.

3. The video player Dragon seems to behave in the same way as vlc, except I haven't tried the Blu-ray trick.
with it.

4. Just to be clear, everything I have seen indicates that the Netflix DVDs are fine and they are not the issue.

To my untrained eye it seems like an intermittent software issue. I am really in the dark on this one.

Thank You in advance for anything you can provide.

I believe that I finally have this figured out.

1. Most DVD players come from the manufacture without the CSS region set. Mine did not have one set. BTW; the US is in region 1.

2. vlc does not ask for a region code from the DVD. When the disc being played asks for one vlc will look through libraries to find a response to satisfy the request. This may take some time. Repeated attempts to open the disc seems to result in vlc being able to successfully open it.

3. Movie producers have a continuing program to prevent unauthorized coping. So, what worked last year may not work now.

Use regionset [device] to set the DVD region. Here is a good explanation; https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Re...ts/PlayingDVDs

This information is, of course, not new, I just had a lot of confusion from the occasional success that vlc had working around the issue.

Many thanks to those who had comments and suffered through my confusion.

Thanks for the feedback - I'm glad you got it sorted out. :)

Just a headsup that your point 1 should read "with the CSS region set", not "without the CSS region set".

Without the CSS set is what my research has shown. That is, not set to any number, but left blank. I found this in several places. The region need to be set to avoid a list of problems. The referenced Ubuntu article explain it fairly well.

My bad, thanks Thomas.