4

Is there a DVD player application i.e. a graphical user interface for Ubuntu that plays ALL DVD Videos, encrypted, non-encrypted, home made DVDs, "CSS" DVDs?

Is it easy and straight forward to install and guaranteed to work?

(Obviously looked at VLC Player (won't play a commercial DVD I've got - does nothing, no error message), Movie Player (error message something like can't open/can't play). I've also looked at Xine, libCSS, MPlayer and the indication of how success they might work for all DVDs in their documentation seems vague, or the Synaptic package manager doesn't download everything, or there is a command line instruction which works for older versions of Ubuntu and/or it reports something missing, directory not found, or possibly assumes you've done something else beforehand.)

2
  • if VLC won't play it, I don't know what will! :)
    – studiohack
    Nov 30, 2010 at 1:17
  • @studiohack - VLC DOES play it BUT in Windows 7. I'm using the exact same PC/DVD drive - the PC is dual boot: Boot into Windows 7 and it plays on VLC perfectly. Boot into Ubuntu and it DOESN'T play on VLC - latest version. Nov 30, 2010 at 10:44

2 Answers 2

5

Have you installed libdvdcss2? This page should help you out: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs

Just to Clarify, you just need to use these two commands:

sudo apt-get install libdvdread4

and then:

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

After this, I usually use VLC to play the DVD, since IMHO, it's the best Media player out there.

7
  • 1
    I assume that you are on 10.04. Is that your version? Oct 16, 2010 at 1:28
  • Yes, I have 10.04 but would also like to try 10.10. Thanks so much for answering, I will get back to you tomorrow evening when I can get to my Ubuntu machine. Oct 19, 2010 at 20:56
  • Sorry I am unlucky - the steps don't work for me, even after a reboot. I am trying to play "City Of God" DVD-Video, Region 2 on my 1.8Ghz Core Duo Intel 2Gb RAM Ubuntu 10.04 desktop with ATI HD4350 Radion graphics. Can you suggest anything else I can do? Nov 4, 2010 at 23:24
  • the problem I get is a frozen screen in VLC player (version 1.0.6 "Goldeneye") with green "macroblocks" with some of the picture. Nov 4, 2010 at 23:37
  • I'm probably going to create my own answer in the next day or so to say that the solution is not 100% guaranteed i.e. to say that my original question is not possible on all Ubuntu machines. By the way, the same machine booted into windows plays the DVD without problems. Nov 7, 2010 at 13:57
2

I'm going to answer my question - the answer at the moment appears to be: NO - there isn't a guaranteed method to play all DVD-Videos in Ubuntu.

The City of God Region 2 DVD-Video of the film I have won't play, frozen screen, covered in green macroblocks, in Ubuntu.

BUT on the exact same PC and drive booted into Windows 7, it plays perfectly on VLC.

Credit to @dev for their answer - their answer is the official answer it seems for Ubuntu - as they reference. However this answer only applies to some DVD-Videos as it does work for some other films I have bur not the one above. On that basis, the answer cannot be the accepted answer, the I have upvoted @devs answer.

I've opened a thread on the Official Ubuntu forums to specifically track my issue: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10179508

1

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .