Hi,

did a search, but couldn't find anything helpful, so I'm just gonna post this.

Problem:

I want to play a DVD with XINE (xine-lib-1rc3b) in a drive that worked well so far under Linux as well as Windows. It's an original DVD, so I use libdvdcss (v1.2.8). The video output starts up, as does the sound. However, sooner or later the entire system freezes, and I can't do anything else besides hitting the reset button. This issue is limited to DVDs. VCDs, AVIs and such seem to be unaffected.


I checked a Friends-DVD, which started with the Warner-Jingle and didn't even get through it before the hangup. Then I checked "Frequency" (different DVD-Layout, different distributor etc) and was able to let it run for about 5 minutes before all went dark.

I'm a little confused here, because I have already watched DVDs on my Linux-Box without problems. Since then I installed a couple GUIs for mplayer (emotion, kplayer). Anyway, neither of those installs potentially broken DVD-Playback libraries or anything like that, as far as I know.

There's one thing: I have a GeForce 2 video card, and I installed the nVidia drivers for it. I'm just not sure anymore if the start of the hangups coincides with the installation of those drivers, timewise. Also, wouldn't all playback be affected, if the drivers were the problem?

If anybody has a suggestion, I'd apprediate it.

Thanks!
- FurrySpider -

P.S.: Sorry for the load of text... =)

A short update:

The same problem occurs when using mplayer.

I tried to use libdvdcss 0.0.3, which was described in some (old) mailing list as more stable than 1.x versions, but to no avail. Back to 1.2.8.

I installed the most recent versions of libdvdread and libdvdnav - the problem persists.

Any ideas, anybody? Anyone with a similar problem?

Just in case anybody runs into similar problems:

It doesn't seem to be the nVidia drivers (1.0-5336).

That leaves me without any clue at all. So I guess it's back to Windoze for DVDs, at least until the next time I install Linux, when it may, or may not, work again...
=(

I've put way too much effort into finding a solution for this as to not close this thread now properly with the end of the tale. Maybe someone will find it helpful.

My new system (Slackware10) had the same problem. See first post, only with different version numbers. In some Ogle Mailinglist I read about DMA being an issue with DVD drives, so I started playing with hdparm. I even got DVDs to work - when I turned off the DVD drive's DMA completely, thus leaving video and audio stuttering and jumping. Not good.

Whilst fiddling with hdparm parameters, I found another solution by pure chance: arts crashed. After that, the problem was gone. Did a couple of test runs to confirm it, and now I'm running KDE without arts, playing any DVD without problems whatsoever -> happiness!

I still have no clue why and how arts could have caused the system to freeze completely. I guess there might be room for improvement there in arts as well as the kernel.

hmm.... well not sure either. but i'm using arts on kde and it doesn't crash for me. i am using an older arts version though... could be the newer versions just aren't stable.... don't know. glad you got it worked out though.

It sounds like you have 2 different apps trying to access your sound card at the same time. That could cause a lockup of Xine because it is waiting for access to the sound card. I have the same problem with UT2004 when I have a CD playing and then try to start the game, it just won't start because it is waiting for access to the sound card and the CD player is using it. The solution for my problem is easy: Don't try to play a CD and game at the same time, or use the alsa dmix plugin that mixes the sound before the sound card. I don't know what the solution to your problem is other than not to have 2 apps trying to access your sound card at the same time