Problem Reading DVD's - Solved

[dangbert]

Just consider this a heads up.

I started to write a very caustic and pointed question, but decided to be factual instead.

When I trid to run a video disk (dvd.vr) PCLinuxOS could not read the disk.  The disk was recorded on my DVD recorder off the television and "Finalized" for access by other players.

Windows XP reads it just fine.  Mint 13 KDE reads it just fine, in fact I am using Mint to copy the disk as I type (something PCLinuxOS was unable to do).  Disk Recorded and playing just fine on VLC, on Mint 13 (I am watching the copy now).  [I just updated to PASS and the first thing it did on updating the system was to remove most of the VLC apps.  I assume this was because of a new version of VLC that no longer needed all the addon apps - at least I hope that is the reason.]

So, with other systems able to read the disk, the problem is not with the disk, which leaves PCLinuxOS.  


Deb

[Archie]

With not enough information on your PCLinuxOS install, it's really hard to say. Some distros install with libre/proprietary decoders. You are probably missing a decoder for a particular video format. But I'm just guessing here.

And kindly change your subject title appropriately.

[Yankee]

When I trid to run a video disk (dvd.vr) PCLinuxOS could not read the disk.  The disk was recorded on my DVD recorder off the television and "Finalized" for access by other players.

What codec was used to record the TV show ?    VLC and Mplayer are
known to read anything.   Curious what codec is not reading.   

FF

[dangbert]

I am not  sure as to the codex, whatever is dafault.  But the really weird thing is PCLinuxOS itself would not read the disk.  As I said, both XP and Mint had no problem reading it.

Deb

[muungwana]

can you play any other DVD?

can you play any other DVD with anything else other than VLC.

exactly,what error message do you get if any when things do not work.

exactly,what steps are you taking that lead to the error.

not all distro ships with the same set of codecs.Maybe all you need is a codec not installed in pclinuxos but is in the repository.

The more you give on your part, the easier it will be to help you out.

If possible, stick to technical stuff and leave out opinions when asking for support.The opinion part usually raise negative emotions and leads to unnecessary posts. If they do not raise negative emotions, they cause unnecessary effort to go through them looking for technical information

[Rudge]

can you play any other DVD?

can you play any other DVD with anything else other than VLC.

exactly,what error message do you get if any when things do not work.

exactly,what steps are you taking that lead to the error.

not all distro ships with the same set of codecs.Maybe all you need is a codec not installed in pclinuxos but is in the repository.

The more you give on your part, the easier it will be to help you out.

If possible, stick to technical stuff and leave out opinions when asking for support.The opinion part usually raise negative emotions and leads to unnecessary posts. If they do not raise negative emotions, they cause unnecessary effort to go through them looking for technical information

+1,, (this is an "unnecessary post")

Because something works in one distro, but doesn't in a different one, is really only prof that it works in Linux.

Stating that "it works in Linux" only leaves... "How do I get it to work?".

I would start by listing what DE you are using.

Also, what .ISO did you use. If, by chance you are using Minime, I would not expect all the video to work.

You have not said.    

[Archie]

For starters, win32-codecs is not installed on other flavors of PCLinuxOS (I'm not sure if FM has it installed). Without relevant info, it is really a guessing game for those who want to help. Do a Synaptic search for win32-codecs and install that. Maybe that's all you need.

Good luck.

[CaptainSarcastic]

You are really not being adequately clear.  When you say that PCLOS does not "read the disk," do you mean that it simply does not recognize the disk as being present or that it doesn't play the recorded video?

If you are encountering technical problems, you need to be as specific in your wording as possible.

[Neal ManBear]

Deb,    
What the others are trying to tell you is that it isn't the distro that does the reading of the DVD but rather the app via the correct codecs. With the codecs installed, vlc, mplayer or any other media player capable of playing a DVD will play it on any distro. Without the codecs installed, none can play it.    
Also, check to see that you have libdvdcss2 installed.    

[ThirdOfSix]

dangbert,

There are some details that you have not told us.

When you say the other operating systems will play the DVD, you have not told us if they are running on the same hardware that PCLOS is running on.

More importantly, are they running on the same optical drive?

I was getting very strange behavior on my systems until I figured out that my most recently bought (at the time) optical drives which were the same brand (and I thought) model as on my main machine were actually not the same hardware and could not recognize and or read both DVD +R and DVD -R media.

If I remember right, most consumer DVD recorders will only write to a particular media type.

It is quite possible that the drive that is connected to PCLOS is not capable of reading the media or format that you recorded the DVD with. Or, the drive may be defective.

I did discover that some programs could get the drive to access the disks that the drive was not designed for...but not consistently.


As I recall, the media have an industry standard identification that describes its characteristics. The optical drives have a look up table that they use to see how to best work with each type of media.

My "new" drives did not have the latest media types in the table so they would make a best guess which sometimes worked and sometimes did not.

I spent days experimenting with about ten drives and four computers and three or four brands and types of media to figure out why things sometimes worked and other times did not.

My intent was to write it all up and post it here.

Unfortunately I have some memory problems and if I am forced to leave a project for a day or two, I forget all about it. That happened here. One of these days, I'll come across my notes and hopefully be able to post some of the results.

There is a very handy tool in the repositories called APxTool QPxTool that can be used to determine the capabilities of your optical drive and media.

It will allow you to run tests to see how a particular media performs on your drive.

[dangbert]

You are all correct, I failed to give enough info.

The OS's are on separate machines.  XP and Mint are on the backup box and PCLinuxOS is on my main box.  I just tried to run a commercially prepared DVD and it would not read and gave the following message

The first time I tried to play it, VLC gave the message that it could not access the DVD, which appeared to be a codec problem. 

Playback failure:
VLC cannot set the DVD's title. It possibly cannot decrypt the entire disc.

[/color]

I then popped the DVD out and reinserted, this time I got the error message that it could not read the disk.

This disk has been read on this machine, with this optical reader, under PCLinuxOS about four weeks ago with no problems.

On the recorded DVD I get the same error message, when I first tried to play it.  Now it shows the disk but does not give the option of opening the program with any video player.  When I go to menu and use Xine, I get the error message, "No plugin device to handle /dvd.  Maybe MRL syntax is wrong, or file/stream source doesn't exist."

When I try to open it from the Menu with VLC I get,
"Playback failure:
DVDRead could not open the disc "/dev/dvd".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///dev/dvd'. Check the log for details."

One last comment.  The hardware on the main machine has not changed for quite awhile.  However, the OS has.  I blew the change from KDE4 to KDE in the repositories and did a complete reinstall.  I am running "libdvdcss2," "win32-codex-all" all the Xine and VLC (which isn't much in the latest update out of PASS) that I can find.  The kernel is 3.2.18 pae-bfs. 

Prior to the reinstall and update the system worked like a dream.  Since, not so much.  The screensaver and related apps issue.  Now this. 

Deb

[Just17]

So far, as I understand it, the DVDs you have tried have all been movie/film/video DVDs.

Can you successfully view data CDs & DVDs?

Can you boot from a LiveCD/LiveDVD in that machine?


The reason for those questions is to help eliminate a hardware problem with cabling to the drive or a lens problem.

The more we know about what WILL work as well as what will NOT work the easier it will be to isolate the problem.

Also make sure you have

libdvdnav4
libdvdread3
libdvdread4

installed.

[JohnW_57]

My optical drives are in PCC  (hardware ->check hardware) as sr0 and sr1.
Be sure the name of the drive(s) in vlc settings is/are correct!
/dev/sr0 or /dev/sr1 for me.

JohnW

[Phil]

When I install any distro I check for:

libdvdcss, win32codecs, vlc

Sorted?

[Bald Brick]

When I install any distro I check for:

libdvdcss, win32codecs, vlc

Sorted?

Oh, yes. But I'd still suspect a hardware failure. I've had more CD and DVD drives going bad on me than I have fingers to count them with. And have you cleaned the lens of your optical drive?