DVD playback problem (New system) [Solved]

[Bald Brick]

but you are not the only one to meet it from what I have read - although that is not quite certain either  

I reported precisely the same problem in October last year: http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,110147.0.html.

One day I just noticed that I couldn't watch commercial DVD videos any more, not even DVDs that had worked a month or two earlier. But I could access the files on data DVDs in the same drive.

I still haven't found a solution. I even cannibalized an older computer and moved its DVD drive to the one with the problem. The problem remained.

The cannibalized drive was an IDE drive, the normal drive was a SATA one.

I just decided I'd have buy a new drive when I got some spare cash. But the strange thing isn't that the drive suddenly stopped working; it's that it stopped working with videos while it continued working with data disks.

After finding this thread I will set the region code to 2, even if I've never had to do that before with the same drive, and even if most video players in Linux are supposed to ignore the region code.

The cannibalized drive is indeed a Samsung. The one that came with the computer? I'll report when I find my screwdriver. (PCC identifies it as an HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH40F.)

[µT6]

hl? that sounds like a lg dvd drive

i have seen many drives in the past doing this, stopping playing dvd video but remained functional with cdroms and some dvds, yours sounds like a old dvd ram drive, only reading dvds?  or am i identifying it wrong?  maybe it is simpler to replace it Bald Brick

that is one of the reasons i stopped using them completely, only use a external dvd writer now and only play movies for system test purposes

[richiereyn]

but you are not the only one to meet it from what I have read - although that is not quite certain either  

After finding this thread I will set the region code to 2, even if I've never had to do that before with the same drive, and even if most video players in Linux are supposed to ignore the region code.

The cannibalized drive is indeed a Samsung. The one that came with the computer? I'll report when I find my screwdriver. (PCC identifies it as an HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH40F.)

Bald Brick, how many DVD drives do you have? I have two and as a precaution I set one drive to region 2 and the other to region 1 just in case for some reason the drives ended up getting locked to that chosen region. That way I figured I was covered as most of my DVD's are region 2 plus a handful of region 1. But the good thing is all the players I've tried, VLC, SMPlayer, Xine etc, they all now ignore the region code I've set in the drives and will play any disc.

[Bald Brick]

hl? that sounds like a lg dvd drive

i have seen many drives in the past doing this, stopping playing dvd video but remained functional with cdroms and some dvds, yours sounds like a old dvd ram drive, only reading dvds?  or am i identifying it wrong?

You got it (except that the drive is just a couple of years old).

I've had many DVD/CD drives die on me before, so that is not something that would surprise me. I just found it strange that it continued working with data disks - and also that I had the same problem with a replacement drive, albeit an old one.

 
maybe it is simpler to replace it Bald Brick

That's what I'll do.

that is one of the reasons i stopped using them completely, only use a external dvd writer now and only play movies for system test purposes