How do I watch DVDs on my Linux laptop?

You should use VLC and libdvdcss.
Libdvdcss decodes the crypted DVDs.

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Welcome to LinuxQuestions, JohnRoss47.

As mentioned by Keruskerfuerst above, you will need the libdvdcss library to view commercial DVDs on a linux system. As to the player, there are many and some install the afore-mentioned library as a dependency. VLC, as mentioned, is popular. I like mplayer/mpv/smplayer ... I find it lighter and more intuitive.

Cheers.

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Hello and welcome to the forum

Depending on where you live, the use of libdvdcss may be illegal due to anti-circumvention laws. Fluendo offers a DVD player that is legal for Linux users, although it does cost a little bit of money. If you're interested, take a look here.

Regards...

Stop giving out 'legal' advice please. You are wrong...there is ZERO illegal about libdvdcss. If there was, every single Linux distro would be under numerous lawsuits, websites would be shut down, etc. They are not.

There has NEVER been one single, successful lawsuit/criminal case against the use of libdvdcss. U.S. courts have ruled in favor of 'fair use'...if someone owns the DVD, they can use WHATEVER THEY WANT TO PLAY IT. There is also no legal precedent in the U.S. for the use of any decrypting software, for WHATEVER purpose, with the exception of someone selling copies of that material.

You continue to give incorrect advice about legalities and other things that have ZERO to do with the OP's technical question. That Fluendo software, is (ready for this?) JUST as 'illegal', but you get to give someone money for it! Software patents have never held up in any court, and are, in fact, illegal themselves in most of the world. And did you mention that wonderful software of yours that's 'legal', installs a piece of software that doesn't let you play DVD's unless you're connected to the Internet, which will let it contact their servers, and send them data about what you're watching, and 'verify' your license??? No??

You are not the 'moral police' here....if you have an issue with some software, don't use it.

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Just a note that on my Linux Mint 18.1 system, the two packages that I installed for this purpose, in addition to those already on the system, were:

libdvdcss2

gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad

YMMV

I always just put the DVD in the drive and it plays with vlc. I hope the video police don't arrest me!

If you can't play the DVD as a DVD in your media player of choice, you can open it in a file manager and play the *.VOB files.

i don't usually like to post if the op has already received so much "advice" and not come back to get it, but here's the thing:
you probably expect to pop the video into the laptop, and then "somehow click on it" to play the video.
my experience is that this rarely works.
one thing that will work, is to open the media player first, and then open the dvd from there.

if you're using vlc, you might have to adjust the path to the Disk device. my experience is that always works.

If the DVD is css protected (basically any commercial movie DVD) and hasn't been decrypted, I believe that even playing the VOB files individually will still require the libdvdcss library.

Cheers,

Here are the instructions for installing libdvdcss on Ubuntu, both the official way and the quick way:
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/Res...ts/PlayingDVDs
http://www.videolan.org/developers/libdvdcss.html

Information which is quite unnecessary, but may be interesting:

Why is there a problem? Firstly, it has nothing to do with software patents: libdvdcss is not patented in the USA. It's because of what the code actually does: it uses a brute-force approach to hack the encryption code on the dvd. This falls foul of many laws which make it illegal to own software for breaking encryption. In the US, the relevant law is the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. In the EU it's illegal everywhere except Spain (which doesn't have such a law) and France (which does, but where DVD playing has been exempted). But as TBOne has pointed out, no-one has ever been taken to court for the offence, anywhere in the world, so I don't think you need to worry! Nevertheless, companies distributing Linux do worry, which is why they don't include it.

Software patents apply to the codecs which are used to decode media formats like flv. They only apply in the USA, Japan, and a few other countries. Ubuntu installs those at your request during installation, as you may remember. That way no-one who distributes Ubuntu can be sued, as the decision to download without paying the patent owners' fees was taken by the end user! The paranoid, or those who actually support the stupid system, can buy the codecs from Fluendo (who have paid the licence fee, I believe) but that's a waste of money. If you've bought a computer with Windows on it, the cost of Windows includes a fee for the codecs which (I believe) makes them yours for life.

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Not taking exception to what you said, but...
1. The U.S. history and law may have nothing to do with the OP. I could not see where the original posting or the member profile mentions what country (or even continent) the OP is posting from. In some places it is against the law and you do not get taken to court, they just come get you and you are never seen or heard from again.

2. I do not take warnings about law as being objectionable. It does not matter if the issue has never been tested in court, if I either simply do not WANT to break the law, or if I do but do not want to take part in the first 'test case'. It seem to me it would pay to check what the law on such thing says for your specific area. Why would you object to that?

(NOTE: I WOULD object to someone advising "that is against the law, do not do it" when they do not KNOW the law and do not even know what nations laws might apply. I did not see that here. )

I advise against running proprietary software on Linux. Companies that feel they OWN the software you paid for often feel they have some "right" to spy on anyone who uses it.

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Quite true, and I just cited what the US (and most of Europe and many other nations), view as 'fair use'. And in those countries where you just get taken away....why would the OP even care if the software was illegal or not, since even OWNING a DVD would either be illegal, or no one would care (such countries where copyright infringement is meaningless).
Caution is one thing...but the OP didn't ask about legalities, but a technical issue. The poster in question frequently posts unsolicited 'legal advice' about copyrights and other such things that display a pretty good lack of knowledge about such subjects. Whether or not it applies to the OP, giving off-topic and/or bad advice isn't good.
Totally agree, 99% of the time. I don't mind spending money on software that is very 'niche', like some solid-modeling software I use, for very particular needs. But hat Fluendo software is a prime example. Much like the frivolous lawsuits brought by SCO years ago; "Pay us for a "Linux License", and we won't sue; even though we don't OWN any of the Linux software, so whatever license we give you is worthless, you should still pay us". Fluendo doesn't own the DVD CSS code, so it sure can't sell a license for it.

If you're running on battery power, you might want to copy the DVD's VIDEO_TS directory to your hard drive beforehand. Spinning a DVD for the time it takes to watch a full length movie will really take a lot of power.

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