I recommend MPlayer to play both DVD movies and AVI files.

To run it install at least essential codecs (or mplayer-codecs-all), mplayer, and libdvdcss. To play DVDs with DTS digital surround install also libdca. You'll find all of them in SlackBuilds.

In your ~/.mplayer directory add symbolic link subfont.ttf to some TTF font, for example: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf.

In /etc/group add regular users (first_user, second_user, etc.) to at least audio and cdrom groups:

audio:x:17:root,first_user,second_user
cdrom:x:19:root,first_user,second_user

Check your DVD device with the command ls /dev/dvd*:

/dev/dvd1 /dev/dvdrw1 /dev/dvdwriter1

To play the first title from DVD use the command:

mplayer -alang en -slang en -dvd-device /dev/dvd1 -dvd-speed 1 dvd://1

If the movie uses interlaced frames add to above the switch -vf pp=lb.

To play movie.avi film with movie.srt subtitles use the command:

mplayer -ass -ass-color ffffff00 -sub movie.srt movie.avi

I hope I included above all the conditions necessary to play DVD movies and AVI files. If it doesn't work for you ask a question here.

I prefer Xine and/or VLC just because they support DVD menus (though I hear that may be coming to mplayer). There are some DVDs that are needlessly complex and experimenting with dvd://1 (or 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc.) still won't get the desired title. Playing it with Xine or VLC allows you to play it just like in a normal DVD player. A side benefit is that you can play out-of-region DVDs (like PAL DVDs with non-region zero coding, for me) without any effort. The only way I've found of doing this in Windows is by using VLC (mplayer works as well, but without the menus some DVDs are very frustrating).

Good tip about the libdvdcss as well -- I forgot you needed that (installed it very long ago). I'm pretty sure you only need it for encrypted DVDs though (which is basically all of them now).

With mplayer, install libdvdnav and also edit your mplayer.conf to use the mouse for menus.

This is why I don't recommend to use mplayer for DVDs. Why bother with typing all this when you can just configure your system to automatically launch kaffeine when you insert dvd?

Can you provide example .conf or link to documentation? I'm sure that I've tried to use mplayer for dvd-menus with libdvdnav, but result wasn't satisfactory.

Somebody once wrote that the stock Slackware is DRM (Digital Rights/Restrictions Management) compliant. I believe the statement is factual. Therefore the original poster offers a legitimate observation.

Slackware is not the only operating system that is "DRM compliant." Yet this is the Slackware forum and I'll stick to that topic.

The stock Slackware cannot play encrypted DVDs. Just about all commercial DVDs are encrypted. Yes, building the libdvdcss package is a straightforward exercise for typical Slackers, but is not straightforward for new Slackers. The easiest approach for new Slackers is to instead download a prebuilt package. Yet new Slackers first need to know that the stock Slackware does not support encrypted DVDs. Otherwise there is a disconnect and blank stares.

Installing libdvdcss is not the only multimedia stumper with the stock Slackware. With the stock Slackware the popular K3B tool does not support all advertised features. Ripping a video DVD is not possible with K3B in the stock Slackware. To rip DVDs K3B requires the following:

transcode and dependencies
a MPEG-4 encoder; either Xvid or DivX4/5
libdvdread
libdvdcss

These packages are not included in the stock Slackware. Further, K3B must be recompiled after those packages are installed. I doubt many typical computer users will be able to modify Slackware to support these multimedia tasks. Many can install packages but the result will be more blank stares when told to recompile a core package after installing those packages.

A significant number of people know that inserting a commercial DVD into a DVD appliance "just works." When they insert the DVD into a computer and nothing works the result is a blank stare.

Regarding having full access to the floppy drive, most new Slackers, especially those migrating from Windows or Macs, are not going to know about concepts such as mounting, user permissions, and groups. Most new Slackers are not going to know about the adduser front-end shell script for the useradd command. Most new Slackers are not going to know about /etc/skel. Most new Slackers are not going to know about /etc/default/useradd.

A post like the one starting this thread indicates frustration. Frustration indicates a disconnect at core levels, with the system design, user expectations, or typically --- both. I would guess that a significant number of people on this planet have no clue what to do when their car fails to start. Most computer users will respond the same way to the simple exercise of trying to access their floppy disks and DVDs and nothing works as expected.

With that said, I use xine to play encrypted DVDs. The xine front-end provides a decent imitation of a typical DVD appliance, particularly the simulation of the remote control. However, I had to build and install many packages to convert the stock Slackware into a more robust multimedia box.

Which simply means that the most important task for every "new slackware user" is to stop being newbie and learn required info. Being novice is not a good excuse. People probably were warned many times that this distribution isn't "easy", so if they installed it, they'll have to learn something before using it.

And another thing. Windows "power user" WILL know about access rights, because they exists in windows since win2000. Same might be true about Mac.

Praise Bob!

If you'd like to use MPlayer with DVD menus follow these steps...

First install libdvdcss (1.2.10), libdvdnav (4.1.3), and libdvdread (4.1.3). Use the current versions of these programs (in parenthesis I pointed versions I used). You'll find them on SlackBuilds. I didn't use SlackBuilds scripts but compiled those libraries in traditional manner: ./configure && make && make install. (For libdvdnav and libdvdread I used ./configure2 command.) At the end run ldconfig command.

Then get essential codecs from http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ Download section (the current version is essential-20071007.tar.bz2) or mplayer-codecs-all from SlackBuilds (the current version is all-20071007.tar.bz2). I copied these codecs to /usr/local/lib/codecs/ directory.

Next get libdca (0.0.5) from SlackBuilds and install it in order to decode DTS coherent acoustic streams. I installed it in traditional manner.

Afterwards install MPlayer. Don't use outdated 1.0rc2 version. Take the current subversion. You can gain it with the command svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk mplayer. Because of the problems with the compilation of libavcodec from the current subversion (dev-SVN-r27942-4.2.3) I used tested mplayer-svn_r27865.tar.bz2 version taken from SlackBuilds. I configured it using the command ./configure --disable-dvdread-internal --codecsdir=/usr/local/lib/codecs --enable-gui --prefix=/opt/MPlayer and compiled and installed it with the command make && make install. If you'd like to use SlackBuilds script read the README file and use DVDNAV=yes command in mplayer.SlackBuild.

At the end get Blue theme from http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/skins/Blue-1.7.tar.bz2, unpack it, and copy it's content to /opt/MPlayer/share/mplayer/skins/default/ directory.

If you followed my methods of compiling and installing these programs you need a few symbolic links in your system. In /usr/local/bin/ made symbolic links to gmplayer, mencoder, and mplayer programs from /opt/MPlayer/bin/ directory. In /usr/man/man1/ made symbolic links to mplayer.1 and mencoder.1 files from /opt/MPlayer/share/man/man1/ directory.

To use DVD menu run the command mplayer -alang en -slang en -dvd-device /dev/dvd1 -dvd-speed 1 -mouse-movements dvdnav://.

IMO it is still too much typing for simply watching DVD.

Put in your ~/.bashrc:

alias dvd='mplayer -dvd-device /dev/dvd1 -dvd-speed 1 -mouse-movements dvdnav://'
alias avi='mplayer -ass -ass-color ffffff00 -sub Sub Movie'
alias avi1='mplayer -ass -ass-color ffffff00 -sub Sub1 Movie1'
alias avi2='mplayer -ass -ass-color ffffff00 -sub Sub2 Movie2'

Use the command dvd to play DVD. Use the command avi to play AVI (you need the appropriate symbolic links to subtitles and to movie in the directory with the film). Use the commands avi1 and avi2 to play first and second AVI with subtitles (you need the appropriate symbolic links).

Alternatively you can use more flexible scripts instead of aliases:

dvd:
avi:
In the second case you need symbolic links to different subtitles files (EN, ES, FR, DE, IT, etc.) as well as symbolic link to AVI file (Movie).

If you have movie in two parts use EN1, EN2, ..., Movie1, Movie2 symbolic links and run the script with the switch 1 or 2.

To cycle through subtitles languages use j key; to cycle through audio languages use # key.

this thread is ON FIRE!

What I find funny is that by the original thread poster being an #*@ he probably got more information than if he had said what he tried already. Now everybody has to pop in their two cents on how to fix his problem when he already solved it by going to windows. Lets hope he stays there instead of polluting the forums with more complaints.

I will give him this. It took several trys with google to get a valid hit within the top 3. I had to use "slackware play video dvd" to get information. I also couldn't get a good how to in the top three with smiler things to "linux play video dvd". However, MPlayer and some other video player webpages explained that libdvdcss was needed to decrypt dvds.

But then most users don't realize that they are paying for media that they can't easily make a personal back up copy of. If the common person would wake up to the restrictions that are being placed on them and STOP paying for encrypted dvds, then maybe cooperations would stop with the encryption... but no... it's too late for that. there is no going back now because a cooperation would only see a decrease in sales as evidence that more people are 'stealing' their crap.

OK sorry, this is off topic but either way... hasn't all pertinent information to the original topic already been given?

I don't suppose the author of that thread read it. He or she expressed his or her bitterness with Slackware and went back to Windows. In my opinion that thread is for the people who had, have or will have problems with playing DVDs in Linux. I don't refer my posts to any particular user. I refer them to all conscious Linux users.

I know you can make script, etc. It is just personal preference. I simply don't think that mplayer is most suitable for playing DVDs.

Of course he didn't. When people write something like that (i.e. rant without question), they often don't read replies.