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Re: [LUG] Fwd: DVD issues Xubuntu 16.04

 

On 09/05/17 07:25, Pentiddy wrote:

> /home/pentiddy/.dvdcss/CAPTAIN_FANTASTIC-2016112518315800-2e97321f51:
> total 8.0K
> drwxr-xr-x 2 pentiddy pentiddy 4.0K Apr 24 18:44 .
> drwxr-xr-x 6 pentiddy pentiddy 4.0K May  5 20:32 ..
> 
> /home/pentiddy/.dvdcss/DVDVOLUME-0000000000000000-:
> total 8.0K
> drwxr-xr-x 2 pentiddy pentiddy 4.0K May  5 20:32 .
> drwxr-xr-x 6 pentiddy pentiddy 4.0K May  5 20:32 ..

> So I open a terminal, type vlc, when I put the DVD in it auto-mounts..
> I drop the VIDEO_TS file into the open vlc window.
> 
> The processing power is better than the netbooks I was using before...!

Ok, this is confusing - your .dvdcss cache doesn't look anything like
mine with the Wallace and Grommit DVD subdirectory having multiple index
files... you've also got that "DVDVOLUME-0000000000000000" entry which
looks suspiciously like a default and hence incorrect placeholder. This
really isn't helped by the fact that I've only got a couple of much
older DVDs to hand to test with and they all work perfectly no matter
which machine I try them in, Linux or not.

Most of the next steps I'd try personally on my own systems are getting
a bit serious - enabling the "Proposed" repos to pull in the very latest
(and potentially unstable) software versions on Xubuntu, enabling PPAs
to get even more bleeding edge versions of the key components like VLC,
libdvdread/nav, etc, butchering some system config files... I don't know
if I can really recommend it unless you're confident tweaking things
under the hood and don't mind some potential breakage. It seems like a
lot of effort/risk to just play back one stubborn DVD when everything
else seems just fine!

Occam's Razor leads us to assume it's just a bad DVD, whether through a
faulty process in manufacturing or an unwise decision in mastering. The
fact that it worked on a Mac is irrelevant, because you don't have one
of course. The fact that it doesn't work on your Windows instance on the
same hardware isn't exactly inspiring confidence in investing more
effort in this either.

Up to you what we do next - I'm a bit bloody minded when it comes to
computer stuff and usually fight bugs and glitches to the bitter end but
you might well run out of patience well before me.

I would try a last couple of things before it gets to the point of
serious tampering:

mv /home/pentiddy/.dvdcss /home/pentiddy/Desktop/dvdcss.backup

Temporarily shift the dvdcss key cache out of the way and try the DVD
again, forcing libdvdcss to reinitialize the keys. This should rule out
a faulty/corrupt key. Move the .dvdcss folder back again if this somehow
breaks stuff or makes other DVDs stop working.

sudo apt install mpv

MPV is *the* video player on Linux (it's what I use for everything)
forked from the remains of mplayer/mplayer2. It's far more cutting edge
and has optional support for basically everything but in typical Linux
fashion, the best and sharpest tools are the least user friendly.
Install it anyway as it'll happily coexist alongside everything else and
try that for playback instead (basic tutorials for MPV are all over the
internet).

Final option before getting serious is to try and rip the DVD and
transcode it to a file. Handbrake is the friendliest tool for this by far.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases
sudo apt update
sudo apt install handbrake-gtk

DVD transcoding is a bit of an art form and potentially a bottomless
rabbit hole in itself, but a test rip with Handbrake on all the defaults
is low effort and would tell us quite a lot. Ideally it's what you kind
of should be doing in the first place with all your physical media
anyway. Rip everything to mkv, put in on a fileserver, store original
disk in box, done.

Cheers
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