Playing DVDs, seems impossible

Hi I am finding it impossible to play DVDs on Ubuntu. I have tried with lots of disks, and several media players. Totem, goes unresponsive Mplayer, takes ages, then says there are too many video packets in buffer VLC seemingly does nothing Can anyone help me?

enter the command one after the other

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/intrepid.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

reboot (CTRL+ALT+Backspace)

then use any player

Hi The start up and menu screen now works perfectly, but once i click play movie, the picture and sound get SERIOUS distortions. I can see the movie is trying to play, but the screen is almost unrecogniseable

what are your system specs? ie. video card, ram, cpu? also, what version of Ubuntu?

This may help: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=766683

Falc7 said: Hi

The start up and menu screen now works perfectly, but once i click play movie, the picture and sound get SERIOUS distortions. I can see the movie is trying to play, but the screen is almost unrecogniseable

Set the playback from you videos from OpenGl to X11 or Xvideo, it might help.

Also it could be compiz fusion (it could be, I never had that problem).

@ Mapes, thanks i'll take a look

It is an acer 4920 Intel graphics accelerator X3100 2GB Ram Core 2 Duo T5250

@billgoldberg How do i do that?

Falc7 said: @ Mapes, thanks i'll take a look

It is an acer 4920 Intel graphics accelerator X3100 2GB Ram Core 2 Duo T5250

@billgoldberg How do i do that?

In vlc:

Tools -> Preferences -> Video in the output dropdown menu.

Disabling compiz:

System -> preferences -> appearance in the last tab -> "none".

Then to switch it back on, tag "extra" instead of "none".

I've just tried both of those, but the distortions are still unchanged, i can post a screen shot if you like?

Intel graphics accelerator X3100

Sounds like the graphics driver is not working as expected.

System>admin>hardware drivers.

It says no proprietory drivers are in use on this system

Are any offered to be installed?

Nope

If I were you I start a new thread.

Title something like. How do I install a driver for an Intel X3100 graphics accelerator.

I'm not familiar with this one.

according to this the intel card isn't working well with Compiz at all

http://ph.ubuntuforums.com/showthread.php?t=975026

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/252094

i read in the thread i created that compiz can work http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6308434#post6308434

Its strange, the opening screen, licensing information, and 'carlton' sign all work fine at the start

Would anything on this link work? http://intellinuxgraphics.org/index.html

Change the output to OpenGL or Xv (Xv with NO compiz tho)

Its a driver issue which you cannot solve. The reason there is no driver listed in Hardware Drivers is because that application is for drivers which are closed source. Intel drivers are Open Source. They are enabled by default. If you have effects on the desktop. You have 3D. Intel drivers are working properly.

Yep effects seem to be working okay.

I have changed the video output in VLC to OpenGL however the DVD still dosen't play. And i know the DVD is fine because it works in the same computer on Vista

Falc7 said: Yep effects seem to be working okay.

I have changed the video output in VLC to OpenGL however the DVD still dosen't play. And i know the DVD is fine because it works in the same computer on Vista

Try this http://buck-nasty.blogspot.com/2008/11/install-audio-and-video-codecs-in.html

It alwasy works for me.

crjackson said: Try this http://buck-nasty.blogspot.com/2008/11/install-audio-and-video-codecs-in.html

It alwasy works for me.

I've just done that, unfortunately the screen still dosen't work

[[IMG]http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/7834/screendr0.th.jpg[/IMG]](http://img168.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screendr0.jpg)

It begs the question, if the drivers for intel are open source, why can't i play DVDs?

Falc7 said: I've just done that, unfortunately the screen still dosen't work

[[IMG]http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/7834/screendr0.th.jpg[/IMG]](http://img168.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screendr0.jpg)

It begs the question, if the drivers for intel are open source, why can't i play DVDs?

Wow, that is ugly... Mine has looked like that before too, I'll dig around some more and see what I can find.

Okay, here is a test.

Do you have ANY DVD movies that are not copy protected (even home movie on DVD)? If yes, see if it has the same problem. It may be a long shot, but at least it will eliminate CSS handling.

If not, rip one of the DVD's to your HD (stripping encryptions in the process) and see if the content will play properly.

I have had a couple of instances where I couldn't play movies until I ripped them (in spite of the fact that CSS handling was installed). Give it a shot and let me know what the dealio is.

its not the video card drivers, its the drivers for reading dvds. something is missing but i dont know what

i did have the same experice when i was playing round with mandriva 2009 one and using "movie player" i got the same result. i used vlc and it was fine

i wnet hunting thru add remove and from emeory i searched on add remove and i found a few extar drivers for dvd reading, from memeory it said somehting about block reading. i added i and restart it and it was all good.

sorry to be a bit vague, but i honestly believe it is not the drivers for your video card causing this error.

those blocks you see on the video output is cos the dvd is not being decoded correctly

While generally speaking it won't matter you should post what version of ubuntu your using.

Try going into your home folder (view -> show hidden files), find the .dvdcss folder and delete it.

Then try vlc again.

If still no go, open vlc from a terminal, then go file -> open disk and see what errors show.

For vlc 0.8.6 just use vlc in the terminal.

For vlc 0.9.x use vlc -vv (start with -vv to limit the info, -vvv gives to much in this case.

@mc4man thanks, i deleted that file, and it seems to be working now! And thanks everyone else for your help :)