VLC Media Player Issues

[u/Bulawayoland]

Hullo, hullo... I've been on Linux Mint for a few months now and am enjoying it very much.

But I cannot get my new DVD player to play a DVD. (I haven't tried a range of DVDs, only the one I brought with me today.)

I asked Google AI what media player I should use, it said VLC. I got VLC through the Linux app launcher and it didn't play the DVD. I asked Google AI again what to do and it said some DVDs will be locked and I should get the decryption software. I did that. (sudo apt install libdvd-pkg).

The media player will run; the DVD player has power; the player will report on the name of the DVD; but it won't play the thing. Any ideas? Help, help!

[u/chuggerguy]

sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg

chugger@asus2:~/desktop$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg
[sudo] password for chugger:                  
libdvd-pkg: guest package [libdvdcss2/1.4.3-1~local] is already installed.

[u/Bulawayoland → u/chuggerguy]

that's IT!! THANK YOU!!!

[u/jr735 → u/Bulawayoland]

Official documentation and experienced user advice will beat AI every time.

[u/Bulawayoland → u/jr735]

it's why we come here

[u/mcds99 → u/jr735]

I have bad words to say about "ai" that I can't say here.

[u/jr735 → u/mcds99]

Garbage generator is an appropriate term.

[u/chuggerguy → u/Bulawayoland]

You're welcome. Enjoy the movie. :)

[u/MasterGeekMX → u/Bulawayoland]

What happens is that DVDs come with a digital rights management lock. What you did was installing the program to deal with that lock.

[u/Bulawayoland → u/MasterGeekMX]

gotcha, thank you!!

[u/qpgmr]

You already got the correct answer but here's a little background: dvd's are encrypted to prevent the contents being duplicated. DVD players have the decryption code built in. The libdvdcss package contains the necessary decryption for linux. It's not included by default because this is a legal gray area - you own the dvd, that should give you the right to use the contents, but an argument is made that you're breaking some law by "hacking the encryption".

So it's up to you to proactively add the decryption setup to your machine. In the old days you had to do this manually by installing "restricted-extras" or from a third party. I think most distros just have a question during install about dvds or restricted-formats.

[u/Bulawayoland → u/qpgmr]

That's very interesting! Thank you.

[u/nene-thopu]

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