I'm running Mandrake Linux 9.1 with the KDE interface and I've been having problems trying to play DVD's using Xine and MPlayer. When I try to watch a DVD it plays the warning screen about copyright protection and then just goes blank. Sometimes using MPlayer it will just freeze. Any ideas as to why this is happening?

I have a MSI FX5200 Series (64MB DDR) video card & a LG Electronics GCC-4480B CD-RW/DVD drive.

How did you install/compile MPlayer? How are you playing the DVD (what commands?)?

Cool

You might consider ogle. I use KDE and Mandrake 9.0 and have never been able to get xine to work. Ogle, on the other hand, was a piece of cake to install. It was so easy to install that I just gave up on xine.

The instructions on the ogle website are among the best I've ever seen. They tell you what dependencies you need, where to get them, and what order to install them in. Here's the URL: http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/

I installed MPlayer by going to Configuration -> Packaging -> Install Software. When I open MPlayer and choose Open DVD it just freezes. I've also noticed that when I play videos (mpegs) the sound is crackly. It doesn't just happen when I play videos though, it also happens when the startup music plays. When I play an audio CD it sounds fine but when I play a mp3 file it crackles. I have a Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live 5.1 card just so you know. All I wanted to do was get my sound and dvd player in working order before school starts up. Can anyone help?

One other thing I forgot to mention is that for some reason I can play my 3eb DVD in both MPlayer and Kaboodle but I can't play any other DVDs without MPlayer freezing...this is just too weird...HELP!!

do NOT instal the version that comes with mandrake, go get the REAL version from http://mplayerhq.hu

Well, I was pretty sure that I installed the latest version. I had downloaded it through their site. I'm thinking about running XP and Linux on one machine (dual booting) since Linux does have some drawbacks. How do I go about changing my Linux partition? I am assuming I would change it through the control center and then choose DiskDrak...

That would be correct Resizing your partition, and installing XP along side it though will cause some problems, if you have nothing to lose, or have backed up everything, I suggest wiping the drive, partition it as you'd like, then install XP first, Mandrake second...

Cool

What masterC said, I've been told,and have done it myself, Windows XP first, then Linux.
Also, you have libdvdcss and libdvdread installed?
After installing Mandriva, all I had to do was install those two files, and everything works.