Watching DVDs
 

Hi All,

Runninng the standard Slackware 9.1 (2.4.22 kernel) and trying to use mplayer to watch a DVD. I can watch normal movie files, e.g. *.mov, etc.

I would like to be able to watch a DVD at my computer though as well, and can't seem to get it working.

I have a combo CD-RW/DVD-RO drive on a Dell Dimension 2400. If I want to mount a CDROM or DVD in the drive then I have to do the following:

mount -t auto /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom (or /mnt/dvd)

This seems to work OK and I can then browse the CD or DVD using a file manager or from the console.

However, when I launch mplayer and select DVD, it gives me an error:

Couldn't open DVD device: /dev/dvd

In my list of devices I have a symbolic link:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Apr 4 13:26 dvd -> /dev/scd0

The only strange thing about this is that when installing Slackware, it detected my CDROM at /dev/hdc

However, now it is installed, I can't mount anything with /dev/hdc, only /dev/scd0/

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks in advance

you have got ide-scsi emulation in use for that drive, if it is not a dvd/cdrw combo, then edit your bootloader config (lilo.conf / grub.conf) and remove the bit that probably says "hdc=ide=scsi" then it will be back to /dev/hdc and will load the dvd's fine.

You should include yourself as "normal user" into disk group by editing your /etc/group file adding your username at the occourence of the disk group.
It can also be done using Kuser
Hope this helps
Ciao

i don't see how this is at all related to the problem described.

I think permissions may be your issue? First, verify the symlink between /dev/dvd and /dev/scd0. It shouldn't matter about the scsi emulation. I have a DVD (non-writer) that uses scsi emulation, and it plays DVD's just fine. Second, try ejecting /dev/dvd. type:

eject /dev/dvd

Post what error you get. I'll bet your permissions for /dev/dvd are restricting it. You can either change chmod /dev/dvd or chown /dev/dvd to a group that you're a member of.

I think.

--Akshun J

I also thought of something else pretty important. Are you watching encrypted DVD's? Chances are, you are. Do you have libdvdcss2 installed? That's the only way to decrypt your DVD's.

--Akshun J

It was the rights! Thanks for the tips guys.

I thought I had the rights OK since I had full rights to /dev/dvd. Not to /dev/hdc though. DOH!

Now DVDs work fine. I had the libdvdscss installed anyway.

In the words of Monty...... eeexcellent

Thanks again!

As that worked fine, it means it was related to the problem
Ciao

Hi!

I'm currently using Slackware 9.1 on my PC as main operating system. Yesterday, I tried to play back a dvd, that I got from my girlfriend (Three colours : Blue). I've installed libdvdcss
(version libdvdcss-1.2.8-i486-1rob.tgz from www.linuxpackages.net), xine and the other usual suspects (libdvdread, libdvdnav) and I have already watched several DVD's on my Computer (some of them were CSSed) without problems.

But yesterday, right from the start, the picture was flacky, tiles in arbitrary colours were moving around and after approx. 30 sec. XINE abortet the playback.

The DVD is OK, I verified this with my brothers WinXP box and my standalone DVD-Player,
my girlfriend also had the same problems with this DVD (and similar problems with another DVD) on her Computer (a customized Mandrake 9.1 box with libdvdcss2 and Mplayer as Playback software).

I would be very grateful, if somebody could tell me if this is a known limit of the DVD playback capabilities of Linux and/or if there is anything, that I can do to solve this problems.


Best Regards

Martin


PS.: Please apologize my English, I am (as you have probably already found out :-) ) no native
speaker (but I try to improve ;-) )

Perhaps it is a combination of the particular DVD and your DVD reader? I can't watch some DVDs on my computer, but they work fine in a DVD player and vice versa. From what you wrote, I assume that other DVDs work fine on your computer?

Yes, I've encountered this problems only with one DVD so far while I've watched about 50 different DVD's so far with my DVD - drive.

Regards

Martin

I'd suggest it might just be the DVD then. I can't watch the Matrix on mine. Bizarre? I can't watch it on my DVD player either though. Apparently, the DVD has some feature that the player just can't handle, or it requires a software upgrade to fix. Just never bothered with it.