Hello everybody,

Running Ubuntu Hardy Heron and have found that Xine-UI always starts with the volume down to zero.

BTW, also found that when trying to autoplay a DVD video with Xine, results in an error after the copyright chapter is played.

Any ideas?....anybody?

Regards,
Greenie

I had that problem with Xine too. I could not play any DVDs with it. How can you fix it?

Well for a start, a DVD will play fine (you need libdvdcss in order to decrypt a typical DVD video) if the DVD is inserted into the drive and then Xine launched manually, and the user clicks on 'DVD' at the xine GUI.

The DVD playback problem only occurs when autoplay is attempted.

The volume problem is always there. Everytime Xine is launched, the volume is to zero. The user MUST adjust the volume manually. Is there a way of telling Xine what volume to start with when it launches?

With Xine, you can add into the default configuration file the option to set the volume. From the command line, it would be xine -S volume=100, if you want to blast the volume to max level. The range is 0 to 100. You would have to find the default configuration file for xine. I am new at this Linux. You might try to open Xine from the command line with the -S volume option, and then insert the DVD. This could work.

1) What kernel version will the libdvdcss work with? Does it need anything else to work?

I've witnessed libdvdcss working on 2.4 and 2.6 kernels. Its easy to implement, all you need to do is:

i) Locate either a libdvdcss*.rpm file (for Fedora, Suse or similar), or libdvdcss*.deb file (for Debian, Ubuntu, or similar) on the internet and download it.

ii) If you have the rpm version and you are running Fedora, Suse or similar, enter into a terminal: rpm -Uvh libdvdcss*.rpm

ii) If you have the deb version and you are running Debian, Ubuntu or similar, enter into a terminal: sudo dpkg -i libdvdcss*.deb

And thats pretty much it, you should be good to go with DVD playback in your preferred video playback application such as Xine, Totem, VLC etc.

Please note that the * means that the filename example I have presented here is not complete, as there are usually version numbers in the file name, and this will depend upon which version you manage to download from the net.

Using libdvdcss is essentially illegal I believe, so you might have to search deep in order to find this library. When you do locate a working copy of it, I suggest you keep it in a safe place in case you want to install it again sometime later in the future.

If you can only find an rpm version of it, you can still probably get the rpm to work on a Debian or Ubuntu based system by using a program called 'alien'.

Getting alien on Debian or Ubuntu is easy, all you need to type into a terminal is: sudo apt-get install alien.

Once alien is installed, you can use alien to convert the 'rpm' file into a 'deb' file by typing into a terminal:alien <packagename>.rpm

Then once you have the deb file, you can type into a terminal:sudo dpkg -i <packagename>.deb
and that will install the package for you.

Thank you for the comment.

Do you mean to tell me that I can not play my DVD with xine legally? I paid for these DVDs! They are not illegal DVDs! They are not pirated DVDs from (edited).

I read something on the web about how airlines use Linux to show movies during flights. How do they do that? Do they have a computer on the airplane running Linux? Are they playing DVDs?

Yes, that is what I am saying.

Correct, but you are supposed to pay again for a device (or software) to play them. Doesn't it stink!

Yes, most probably you heard about the Panasonic IFE system called ex2. There are also Windows based versions of IFE by other companies.

You can open up ~/.xine/config and locate the line
and change it to
This will tell xine to use the current pulse audio volume setting.

Not likely. IANAL, but from what I've heard, using a workaround to
use the content is legal even under DMCA. Distributing workarounds
for the purpose of illegal copying may be a DMCA violation, hence
distribution of workarounds in the US is tricky.

But realistically, there's no reason to bother decrypting the disk
if you want to copy it for illegal sale. Decrypting just enables
fair use. (But, as an "affirmative defense", you have to fight it
out in court, and your pockets are likely not as deep as the
movie company's.)