I reading an article that explains to me that slackware 12.0 is a stock box and one would have to configure/install some stuff to get media to work as on windows or better.
Firstly i installed most of the updates from: slackware -> getslack -> mirror -> repository ->slackware 12.0 -> patches ->packages -> alot.of.files.tgz.
That seemed to go well until i tried to open amarok. The load icon for the amarok flashes on the screen and disappears, it appears to be loading in the taskbar and after a little while it just disappears, so it never runs, note: this is after the update and i cant say which one caused it. But i ignored temporary becuase audacious seem to be doing a fairly descent job.

So the article(humanreadabledotnfshostdotcomslashsdegslashmultimediadothtm) describes which packages and codecs are needed for a fully functioning media library.

[Before and After update: Scenario
Dvd inserted into rom, a dialog window would appear with suggestions like, burn with kb3, do nothing etc. Usually if i go to System -> storage media i would see the dvd, but ofcourse i cant play it.]

Now the pointed out 3 things amongst many to address multimedia issues.
mplayer-codecs-all
libdvdcss
libdvdread

I went to another site i learn to install from the SlackBuilds scripts.
then i installed those 3 in the order above.

Ecstacy! gxine played my dvd. (gxine could not play dvds before,Xine still says: NO MRL,Realplayer 11 says its missing something with every type of media file i try, noaton doesn't load, amarok still doesn't load, and the others media players still dont work) but i was happy. However i noticed it was a bit slow so i jacked in another 256Mb of ram to ease the situation.
Noticed now that my dvd rom is not picking up my dvd movies. I ignored this b/c most of my video files are .avi anywhere. So i open gxine and tried to play an file.avi video. Its like i started all over. They all fail.
Its like hell for a persistent newbie.
Uninstalled 3 media files listed above and installed them again. Nothing.
Im tired now i dont know where to go and what to do. Most of the directions online kind of specific to distro's. I just want to get the regular players up and running. I dont want to install some new player.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

after you extract mplayer-codecs-all (not sure where slack installs them - possibly /usr/local/codecs)
and in the xine settings point xine to that location where it says win32 codecs.

try a dvd with xine dvd://1

im not sure either, and the drive doesn't appear to recognise the dvd. I may need to get pass that hurdle first.
Question if i look at the storage section doh it reads cds and my flash it has the option to mount. When i mount it what actuall does that do?

not sure what you are trying to ask but mounting a disk simply means attaching it to your file system so that you can have access to it (read and/ or write).

most distros make a symlink from /dev/dvd to your dvd/ cdrom device.

try:and post results.

Codecs are installed to '/usr/lib/codecs', so point xine there. However, I recommend installing mplayer, there's a slackbuild for that too:
http://slackbuilds.org/repository/12...media/MPlayer/

Or you can just install the package here:
http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slac...ayer/pkg/12.0/

Xine usually does play dvds as long as it has libdvdcss available and you point it to the drive, usually what I do is open xine then click DVD on the panel, it loads it.

Note: i uninstalled libdvdcss, libdvdread and mplayer-codec-all.

I tried about 10 different dvds
Output1:
root@me:~# mount /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd
mount: block device /dev/hdb is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: /dev/hdb: can't read superblock

output2:
root@me:~# mount /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd
mount: block device /dev/hdb is write-protected, mounting read-only
(this one i saw the dvd files in /mnt/dvd)

So thats is a start. Thanks

Tried to play the dvd in gxine and gxine freezes.
Pointed it to some of the files in /mnt/dvd and it just crashes.

Pointed xine to /mnt/dvd/something.vob -> nothing happened
Pointed xine to /mnt/dvd/select_allfiles_inthisdirectory and got:
xine engine error
There is no demuxer plugin available to handle...
one of the file formats of a file in this directory.

xine dvd://1
(output):
root@me:~# xine dvd://1
This is xine (X11 gui) - a free video player v0.99.5.
(c) 2000-2007 The xine Team.
libdvdread: Encrypted DVD support unavailable.
libdvdread: Can't stat //1
No such file or directory
libdvdread: Encrypted DVD support unavailable.
root@me:~#
The video player loaded but played very slow.
But from observation im guessing i have to install libdvdcss and libdvdread, so i installed mplayer-codecs-all, libdvdcss,libdvdread then:

root@me:~# xine dvd://1
This is xine (X11 gui) - a free video player v0.99.5.
(c) 2000-2007 The xine Team.
libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.10 for DVD access
libdvdread: Can't stat //1
No such file or directory
libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.10 for DVD access

libdvdread: Attempting to retrieve all CSS keys
libdvdread: This can take a _long_ time, please be patient

libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_0.VOB at 0x00000235
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB at 0x00001775
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_02_0.VOB at 0x001903bf
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
continues in a similar pattern.

Then i get an error report saying my machine is possible to slow due to the amount of drop frames
I am running an athlon 4000 with 1GB of DDR ram. Mobo is fairly descent.

If i open xine on from the menu its still says no MRL.
Atleast gxine seems to get the job done-
amarok noatun and RealPlayer11 has the same behaviour described above.
MPlayer says no stream to handle url dvd://1

Progress thus far: gxine plays dvd's and dvdrom works. Now for the fine details.....

First, make sure you install libdvdcss and libdvdread before installing mplayer, that way it will find them as dependencies.

Next, both of these commands work for me:

Also make sure the DVDs you're trying to run have the same region code as the player.

DVD copyright: No
xine dvd://1
xine dvd://
both starts the xine engine and gets the video
buts its very sluggish. However gxine plays alittle slow, but much better.

mplayer dvd://
Shoots up the mplayer video window, real time play no drop frames, but no control box. Im trying which keys does what. skip, goback, skipsection, play, pause, volume etc. Or is there a way/command to launch the control box simultaneously?

DVD copyright: Yes

mount /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd
output:
bash-3.1# mount /dev/dvd /mnt/dvd
mount: block device /dev/hdb is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: /dev/hdb: can't read superblock
bash-3.1#

I thought read only meant you just cant make changes.

xine dvd://1
output:
bash-3.1# xine dvd://1
This is xine (X11 gui) - a free video player v0.99.5.
(c) 2000-2007 The xine Team.
libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.10 for DVD access
libdvdread: Can't stat //1
No such file or directory
libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.10 for DVD access
libdvdnavVDOpenFileUDF:UDFFindFile /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO failed
libdvdnavVDOpenFileUDF:UDFFindFile /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.BUP failed
libdvdread: Can't open file VIDEO_TS.IFO.
bash-3.1#

xine dvd://
output:
about the same as above

mplayer dvd://
output:
bash-3.1# mplayer dvd://
MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.1.2 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 4000+ (Family: 15, Model: 39, Stepping: 1)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.

Playing dvd://.
Couldn't open DVD device: /dev/dvd
No stream found to handle url dvd://


Exiting... (End of file)
bash-3.1#

gxine isn't able to play the file either.
Anything mplayer can play i realize gxine would play. But the quality on mplayer is superior.
If i could get the control box also with
mplayer dvd://
that would be good.
I THINK the region code is ok.

You can use 'gmplayer' to have a GUI interface where you will have more options, or run 'man mplayer' of a list of the hotkeys.

gmplayer:
i got a video error.Only the control box remains open.

I'll just use the keyboard shortcuts, thanks.
Any suggestions on what to do with amarok, noatun and realplayer.They all still have the same problem.