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How-To: Play DVD under Ubuntu
DVD are usually encrypted and therefore, due to legal reasons, Ubuntu Linux does not ship the package which decrypt DVD.
However, Ubuntu offers an easy way to get this package install. This tutorial will show which packages have to be installed in order to get most multimedia applications to run under Ubuntu.
The default movie player on Ubuntu is Totem, a Gnome movie player based on GStreamer or xine. As GStreamer is the default library used with Totem, this tutorial will be focused on GStreamer backend.
To get started with the codecs, we are going to install all the GStreamer library packages available on the repository:
$ sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
From now on, you should be able to play any divx, non encrypted DVD and music.
In order to be able to play encrypted DVDs, we need to install libdvdcss2 package. As I said earlier, this package is not provided by Ubuntu for legal reasons. However, a script is supplied in order to easily install this package. This script is provided by libdvdread3 package.
Let's go back to the command line and, for people using Ubuntu Feisty 7.04 or Ubuntu Edgy 6.10, type:
$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh
People using releases prior to Edgy Eft, such as Ubuntu Dapper 6.04 will type:
$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh
People using Debian based distribution might have to use:
$ wget http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/deb/libdvdcss2_1.2.5-1_i386.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i libdvdcss2_1.2.5-1_i386.deb
Now, libdvdcss2 is installed and that's it :), insert a DVD in your player, Totem should open up and the DVD start playing.
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VLC is the best
The simplest resolution is to use VLC - the best free media player I used for 3 years!
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software downloads
I recommend VLC
Yes, as a previous user mentioned, I recommend using VLC instead of Totem. I followed the instructions listed here, as well as on the official Ubuntu documentation and did not have any luck with Totem. Totem would complain that I needed to install additional plug-ins.
After installing VLC the DVD played perfectly with clickable menus and chapters.
To install VLC in Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), select "Applications" > "Add/Remove...". Search for VLC and install the VLC media player.
-Mike
I totally agree with this recommendation
In my mind Totem is to Windows Media player, as VLC is to PowerDVD - yes I am a Windows to Linux convert. I am running Ubuntu 7.10 Gusty and also followed all instructions and applied the plug-ins for Totem to read a DVD disk.
VLC is the way to go.
-John
Using Mplayer, libdvdcss2 must point to DVD HARDWARE mountpoint
Mplayer works fine, at least on my Ubuntu Gutsy(partially updated offline Tribe 5) setup. The key to making it work is this:
Libdvdcss2 appears to work by reading the DVD itself and passing on the results to whatever program called it. It cannot do this, though, if you "mplayer /media/(whatever the DVD is called)"! instead you must point Mplayer to the DVD hardware mount point, in the /dev directory. This, in turn, is a link back to the folder that you see in /media. For some reason, Mplayer needs to see this in order to call libdvdcss to read the disc as a block device, instead of trying to play the files off the directory in /media, which would require a different process althgether.
Since this is a nuisance to do every time, I wrote a 1 line shell script to automate the process. Here it is for this particular machine:
gmplayer dvd:// /dev/sdc
You may need to edit this for your installation if the link in /dev to your DVD drivce is something else. I used the "gmplayer" call because I am still fiddling with the newest version of mnplayer, which I have conmpiled and installed locally, but which did not connect to some of the libraries and gives no video output. A "gmplayer" call brings up the older .deb packaged version, still installed in the normal location instead of /usr/local/(whatever).
mplayer conf file
For your information, the dvd device can be set in /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf
add the line:
dvd-device=/dev/scd0
or, to make the change only apply to your user in ~/.mplayer/config
and next time you can start reading the first title of your dvd with:
mplayer dvd://1
Hope this helps.
Debuntu
totem does not open
I followed all the instructions of the How-To: Play DVD under Ubuntu, but when I insert a Movie DVD Totem -Player does not open.
When I try to play the DVD by opening the GUI of Totem I get this error message:
Totem could not play 'dvd:/'.
There is no plugin to handle this movie
I spent already hours to get the movie player working. I tried, I believe everything relevant what the Ubuntu Forum has to offer.
No success yet.
Can sombody help, please?
Hi Cariboo, Are you sure you
Hi Cariboo,
Are you sure you ran:
$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.shafter you installed the packages?
Debuntu
Yes I'm sure... But anyway ,
Yes I'm sure...
But anyway , I solved the problem by installing VLC media player instead and it works well for me.
Thanks for you thoughts
Cariboo
need w32codec too
need w32codec too, w32codecs this is a package of codecs needed to play multiple formats, notably DivX. This package is not available from the Ubuntu repositories due to licensing and legal restrictions.
no w32codecs needed
w32codecs is not needed for Totem, which is the default movie player in Ubuntu.
other programs needed
You need to have debhelper, fakeroot, libc6-dev, make, and gcc installed.
vlc
I often have more success using the 'VLC' media player rather than totem:
sudo apt-get install vlcThe instructions on the original post were fine - I didn't need 'fakeroot' & co.
J