I/O errors reading "region1" despite "regionset" and libdvdcss

kaza · 12-17-2015, 01:59 PM

Hello,

I bought at Amazon few Nationl Geographic DVDs which are natually
encoded as "region 1" (and I live in "region 2").
At first I thought that by installing "regionset" (and I have
libdvdcss installed for a long time) and by changing the region I could
view the DVDs and copy the *.VOB files to disk to play them from disk.
However, I've got very choppy playbak with huge pixellation. Attempts
to copy the *.VOB resulted in I/O errors. A friend of mine reminded me
that DVD drive not being used for a long time (my case) could become
dirty and I/O errors would be expected. So I bougt at e-bay another drive,
changed its region to "1" too but to no avail: now I can't play at all
and I/O errors persist. As for the media itself - it's a package of 12 DVDs
and I tryed almost half of them - same results.
So, two DVD players (old LG Bluray and newer LG M-DISK), about 6 disks
give similar results.
I upgraded libdvdcss to libdvdcss-1.3.0-1.fc19.remi.x86_64
(yes, I know I should upgrade fc19 but I haven't got the time yet)
from previous 1.2.10 but nothing changed.

here's the attempt to read a file by vlc:

Code:

<localhost.localdomain>.../user>regionset /dev/sr0                                                 
Current drive parameters for /dev/sr0:                                                              
  RPC Type: Phase II (Hardware)                                                                        
  RPC Status: active region code (bitmask=0xFE)                                                           
  Drive plays discs from this region(s): 1
  Vendor may reset the RPC 4 times
  User is allowed change the region setting 3 times
Would you like to change the region setting for this drive? [y/n]: n
<localhost.localdomain>.../user>vlc /run/media/user/NGC_WORLD_S_DEADLIEST_D3/VIDEO_TS/VTS_02_1.VOB
VLC media player 2.0.10 Twoflower (revision 2.0.10-0-g2912d78)
[0x9ae108] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 14: reading configurations from ~/.fonts.conf is deprecated.
[0x7f0b80004528] filesystem access error: failed to read (Input/output error)
[0x7f0b800021a8] main stream error: cannot pre fill buffer

Am I missing something obvious?
TIA,
kaza.

ondoho · 12-19-2015, 05:31 AM

where's that output from?

can you play other dvds?

kaza · 12-24-2015, 07:05 PM

Hi ondoho, thanks for response.

I can play regular DVDs (without region code) without any problem.

The output is from first showing with "regionset" that the region
of the drive is indeed "1", same as the DVD media.
Then I attempted a simple copy of the video file which resulted in I/O errors.

BTW, I checked the DVD disk with "region 1" in my friends laptop (Windows)
and it played without a problem without anything being changed in his laptop.

TIA for any ideas,
kaza.

ondoho · 12-25-2015, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaza

(yes, I know I should upgrade fc19 but I haven't got the time yet)

you should.
fc19 reached end of life a year ago, and it's quite possible that your dvds are too new for an old version of libdvdcss?
or anything, really.
end of life, full stop.

Code:

<localhost.localdomain>.../user>

is that your terminal prompt or what? very confusing.

kaza · 12-26-2015, 03:50 AM

Hi ondoho,

OK, I see I'll have to spend time on upgrading (that is few days performing two full backups to a tape
in hope when I'm back from work no power outages longer than UPS capability) and then full
partitioning, installing from scratch, then restoring up everything to /home and then
going over the list of currently installed packages and manually installing everything
over the standard OS. Considering 12+ hours work days and mostly occupied weekends - hope to upgrade
before Fedora 25 is out... :-)

yes, that's the terminal prompt.

Thanks for the help!

ondoho · 12-27-2015, 03:36 AM

well don't blame me...

but isn't it possible to upgrade from one version to the next in fedora???

anyhow, good luck with that!

DavidMcCann · 12-27-2015, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

but isn't it possible to upgrade from one version to the next in fedora???

Yes, but only to the next, so that would be 19 > 20 > 21 > 22 > 23! That would take longer than installing 23. Fedora is probably not the best choice for people who don't like upgrading or re-installing.

ondoho · 12-27-2015, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann

Fedora is probably not the best choice for people who don't like upgrading

i think that holds true for virtually every linux distro.

jpollard · 12-27-2015, 03:16 PM

I've been using dvdbackup to make copies... the results remain in the same region coding though the encryption gets removed (VLC had no trouble with the DVDs).

Most of the copying problems I've had are due to deliberately coding the DVDs in a nonstandard way. The ISO format doesn't support hard links... yet I've got a couple of DVDs that replicate the video data some 9 times - thus the recorded disk has to be using hard links (the separate VFO files have the same md5hash... and the sum is larger than 8GB that will fit on a standard DVD). Other times the errors are bogus (a deliberate unused short block at the end of a file).

One problem with a number of used DVD drives is whether the region coding has been changed... some drives only allow a limited number of changes, then lock on the last change from then on.