Hi,

I wonder if someone can explain something. I use totem-gstreamer to play DVDs, but why when I copy a VOB to my hard drive does it not play? (It attempts to, but it is very jerky and scrambled) I believe other media players such as VLC can play VOBs from the hard drive, buy why can totem-gstreamer not? What is the difference between playing a VOB from a DVD and hard drive?!

Thanks

Vob is a container format for mpeg video(+audio and subtitle tracks) designed for use in video dvds. Most players, including gstreamer should be able to handle vobs just fine. But they are usually css encrypted on commercial discs, so you can't just copy them straight to your hdd and expect them to play. You need to use a program with decss support like mplayer or vobcopy to decrypt them properly.

First of all, do you have all of the relevant gstreamer plugins installed? And do the vob files you have work in other players, like mplayer or xine? Your post doesn't make that clear. If not, then they probably haven't been decrypted properly. If they do play in other programs, then there may be a bug in gstreamer's support.

If the vobs are unencrypted, then you could use something like ffmpeg or mplayer to repackage the media in the more usual mpeg containers. If the problem is in gstreamer's vob support, that should correct it.

>But they are usually css encrypted on commercial discs, so you can't just copy them straight to your hdd and expect them to play.

That's my question; what's the difference between VOBs on a DVD and VOBs on a hard drive? They copy across OK. Even if they are encrypted, I have libdvdcss installed which should handle that; after all it plays fine from the DVD.

>You need to use a program with decss support like mplayer or vobcopy to decrypt them properly.

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried vobcopy but it has not made any difference.

>First of all, do you have all of the relevant gstreamer plugins installed?

Yes, DVDs play fine.

>And do the vob files you have work in other players, like mplayer or xine? Your post doesn't make that clear.
>If not, then they probably haven't been decrypted properly. If they do play in other programs, then there may
>be a bug in gstreamer's support.

Xine plays them fine. I believe totem-gstreamer has been like this for some time; just wondered why.