Hi Linux Gurus,

I installed Ubuntu 11.10 and cannot seem to be able to play any DVD's with any of the programs. It looks like im missing codecs or something,

Where can I get a bunch of quality DVD codecs? Any ideas?

See > RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs - Community Ubuntu Documentation : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Re...ts/PlayingDVDs

Yeah I tried that, but still nothing will play. Im having this problem with multiple DVD's and multiple programs still, even after installing libdvdcss2 codecs. Its funny because I didnt have any problems with earlier versions of Ubuntu.

As a test, I loaded the DVD's on to a Windows machine, and had difficulty playing them until I selected "Play Movie" on the InterActual program that came as part of the DVD. Looks like its encrypted somehow by this InterActual utility.

Ill have to find out if there's an InterActual utiltiy for Ubuntu as well.

Do you have VLC installed? If not you may want to try it. Comes with its own supply of codex.

Hey Widget, thanks for the suggestion. I tried that last night too and a whole slew of others. Theres something special about this interactual software. When I tested the DVD's on Windows last night using Nero, they wouldnt play unless I ran the Interactual software from the DVD at the same time. From what im seeing in my research, this is a common issue with DVD's that have the Interactual software, but I havent come across a true solution yet.

I have not got a clue. This is the first I have heard of this.

I did, however run a search and came up with this;
http://www.tucows.com/preview/279162

Have no idea if this even will help but thought it may give you a place to start from.

Found some more interesting stuff.

http://www.intervideo.com/jsp/Produc...e.jsp?p=LinDVD
Is an announcement but not to hopeful or helpful to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinDVD
This was put up back in Feb 2011 so there may be some movement.

http://expert.mandriva.com/question/101653
Is very old (07) so this has been around for a while.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...lindvd-490077/
This is old too. But it is from a trusted source.:-D

Yeah unfortunately those dont work either.

So heres the deal, on the DVD's have Interactual executable files on then, which need to run in addition to your DVD player program. Heres the problem, the executable will only run in a WINE session, and of course the DVD program only runs in a linux session, so they don't see or talk to each other. Bummer. So now I'll have to see if I can find some free Windows program that can play DVD's since I doubt Nero will install correctly in a Wine session. I know Winamp used to run fine under WINE so maybe that will work.

My understanding is that there are DRM issues that make playing a DVD in Linux like playing a DVD on a DVD player (having the menus work and so on) difficult. There is a workaround.

Generally, you can open a DVD in a file manager, go to the video_ts directory, and play the individual files in any video playing software. If I remember correctly, the *.vob files are the ones that you play (I don't have a DVD handy for testing).

The DVD audio_ts directory is empty. I have been too lazy to research why it exists, but it seems to be a necessary part of DVD structure. If it's not present, the DVD will not play in a DVD player.

Ok so I went to this following link:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Re...ts/playingdvds

and installed multiple packages related to the various Restricted Format links. So far this seems to have fixed the issue.

The rason that Interactual is so "special" is because it is spyware: http://interactual-player.software.informer.com/wiki/
Also:
http://www.beansforbreakfast.com/before/001179
http://www.interhack.net/pubs/pcfriendly/
It is most definitely not PC "friendly".
The sole purpose of Interactual is to make sure you do not dare to copy their precious DVD. Some versions of Interactual can be difficult to remove as well:
http://club.myce.com/f34/how-complet...dly-pc-219410/
http://www.computing.net/answers/win...al/157507.html
http://secunia.com/community/forum/t...ual_player_2_x
There are many other references about this.

Nothing surprises me these days. Thats good for us to know so thanks for your posting tommcd

YES. Don't think there is any need for me to ever actually pay to get a disk that brags about being a deep info mining device.

Will warn the wife about this too.

Simple download and use restricted extras from ubuntu software centre.