I know I'm a glutten for punishment. Actually a glutten to learn. I've been using Redahat 9.0 for a few weeks now and decided to do a fresh install, so I could go through the process of setting everything up again. Well, I used Synaptic to install MPlayer. the GUI is nice to look at. When I insert a DVD, It doesn't recognize any media in the DVD drive. HOW DO I SET THIS UP TO PLAY MOVIES?

what's the actual error message? make sure mplayer is configured to use the proper device (the default is /dev/dvd which doesnt exists in default redhat installation, I think)

There is not an actual error message pop up. Basically it does nothing. The message no media loaded is showing in the MPlayer skin.

When I go to the preferences tab under Codecs & demuxer there are options
1- Use non inter-leaved AVI parser (this is unchecked)
2- Rebuild index table if needed (this is unchecked)
3- Video codec family (none) should I choose from the drop down ?
4- Audio codec family (none) should I choose frome the drop down ?
I don't know if this is a problem ?
00-no media opened show on the MPlayer GUI or skin.

I don't think its necessary to change these settings, in the last tab, where you can change cache settings etc down the bottom you can specify your dvd device, if its set to /dev/dvd try making a symlink or simply change it to your dvd device.

Okay, I went in and changed it from /dev/dvd to /dev/scd0 and still have the no media opened.

Try invoking "mplayer" from the command line, with proper arguements to play the dvd and see what output you get.

mplayer -dvd 1 Or, if you have the newer version, it will throw up the necessary command, something like:
mplayer //dvd:1

Or something along those lines (maybe I'll install the latest so I can start helping with that as well ).

However, a lot of the time, mplayer, unless compiled from the actual source or installed via the actual MPlayer RPM's, is crippled. This very well may be the case here. They cripple it because certain countries laws don't allow certain DVD things without the proper license. If you choose to continue to use the synaptic version to at least verify it's crippled, it's best to attempt play (when there is an error) from the command line 'mplayer' so you actually get an error message to post up.

As for the symlink to /dev/dvd from your actual device. If /dev/scd0 is your 'actual DVD device' then to create the symlink, open up a terminal, and su to root, and then type:
ln -sf /dev/scd0 /dev/dvd

Replace /dev/scd0 with whatever your actual DVD device is. If you have any question, try the 'eject' option, that's always fun anyway. As root, at the command line, type:
eject /dev/scd0
And see if your DVD player ejects. If it does, then you are good to go

Cool

Hey, I did a symlink and tried the eject command. I get error eject: unable to find or open device for: `dev/scd0' what next?

Sorry, I did eject from a command line and it ejected. I typed in mplayer and it shows the following.
[dad@localhost dad]$ mplayer
MPlayer 1.0pre2-3.2.2 (C) 2000-2003 MPlayer Team

CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP Thoroughbred 2172 MHz (Family: 6, Stepping: 1)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
Reading config file /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf: No such file or directory
Reading config file /home/dad/.mplayer/config
Reading /home/dad/.mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/home/dad/.mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
Reading /etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/etc/mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
Using built-in default codecs.conf
Usage: mplayer [options] [url|path/]filename

Basic options: (complete list in the man page)
-vo <drv[:dev]> select video output driver & device ('-vo help' for a list)
-ao <drv[:dev]> select audio output driver & device ('-ao help' for a list)
vcd://<trackno> play VCD (Video CD) track from device instead of plain file
dvd://<titleno> play DVD title from device instead of plain file
-alang/-slang select DVD audio/subtitle language (by 2-char country code)
-ss <timepos> seek to given (seconds or hh:mm:ss) position
-nosound do not play sound
-fs fullscreen playback (or -vm, -zoom, details in the man page)
-x <x> -y <y> set display resolution (for use with -vm or -zoom)
-sub <file> specify subtitle file to use (also see -subfps, -subdelay)
-playlist <file> specify playlist file
-vid x -aid y select video (x) and audio (y) stream to play
-fps x -srate y change video (x fps) and audio (y Hz) rate
-pp <quality> enable postprocessing filter (details in the man page)
-framedrop enable frame dropping (for slow machines)

Basic keys: (complete list in the man page, also check input.conf)
<- or -> seek backward/forward 10 seconds
up or down seek backward/forward 1 minute
pgup or pgdown seek backward/forward 10 minutes
< or > step backward/forward in playlist
p or SPACE pause movie (press any key to continue)
q or ESC stop playing and quit program
+ or - adjust audio delay by +/- 0.1 second
o cycle OSD mode: none / seekbar / seekbar + timer
* or / increase or decrease PCM volume
z or x adjust subtitle delay by +/- 0.1 second
r or t adjust subtitle position up/down, also see -vop expand

* * * SEE THE MAN PAGE FOR DETAILS, FURTHER (ADVANCED) OPTIONS AND KEYS * * *

[dad@localhost dad]$

try
mplayer dvd://1

New error messsage follows
[dad@localhost dad]$ mplayer dvd://1
MPlayer 1.0pre2-3.2.2 (C) 2000-2003 MPlayer Team

CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP Thoroughbred 2172 MHz (Family: 6, Stepping: 1)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
Reading config file /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf: No such file or directory
Reading config file /home/dad/.mplayer/config
Reading /home/dad/.mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/home/dad/.mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
Reading /etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/etc/mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
Using built-in default codecs.conf
font: can't open file: /home/dad/.mplayer/font/font.desc
Font /usr/share/mplayer/font/font.desc loaded successfully! (206 chars)
Linux RTC init error in ioctl (rtc_irqp_set 1024): Permission denied
Try adding "echo 1024 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq" to your system startup
scripts.
Using usleep() timing
Can't open input config file /home/dad/.mplayer/input.conf: No such file or directory
Can't open input config file /etc/mplayer/input.conf: No such file or directory
Falling back on default (hardcoded) input config
Opening joystick device /dev/input/js0
Can't open joystick device /dev/input/js0 : No such device
Can't init input joystick
Setting up LIRC support...
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support.
You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing dvd://1
libdvdread: Can't stat /dev/dvd
No such file or directory
Couldn't open DVD device: /dev/dvd


Exiting... (End of file)
[dad@localhost dad]$

can you post your 'dmesg' ?

How do I do this?

Open up a terminal and type "dmesg"
just extract relevant information if you can (hd* scsi etc)