Ubuntu – DVD playback not working on 13.10

dvdvideo

I could watch DVD's in 13.04 but now that I have upgraded to 13.10 DVDs don't seem to be playable. In Totem video player I get:

An error occurred

The movie could not be read.

I seem to remember a /dev/dvd device file or /dev/dvdrw… VLC defaults to try to read from that as well, so I don't think I am imagining that. Anyway those are gone and all that remains that visibly pertains to my optical drive is /dev/cdrom.

I have DECSS and the usual stuff installed and playback used to work.

Some further information:

mike@sleepycat:~☺  totem --play dvd:///dev/cdrom
libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.13 for DVD access
libdvdnav: Using dvdnav version 4.2.0
libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.13 for DVD access
libdvdnav: DVD Title: Bronson
libdvdnav: DVD Serial Number: 3b977969
libdvdnav: DVD Title (Alternative): Bronson
libdvdnav: Unable to find map file '/home/mike/.dvdnav/Bronson.map'
libdvdnav: DVD disk reports itself with Region mask 0x00fe0000. Regions: 1

libdvdread: Attempting to retrieve all CSS keys
libdvdread: This can take a _long_ time, please be patient

libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.VOB at 0x0000012f
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_0.VOB at 0x00000177
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB at 0x0000017c
libdvdread: Error cracking CSS key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB (0x0000017c)!!
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_02_0.VOB at 0x001aa417
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_02_1.VOB at 0x001aa41b
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_03_0.VOB at 0x001dd024
libdvdread: Error cracking CSS key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_03_0.VOB (0x001dd024)
libdvdread: Elapsed time 4
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_03_1.VOB at 0x001ea6f0
libdvdread: Error cracking CSS key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_03_1.VOB (0x001ea6f0)!!
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Found 3 VTS's
libdvdread: Elapsed time 4

Anyone have some thoughts on debugging this?

Best Answer

It is a good question, and I have just been working through this too. As far as I know /dev/dvd is history, and dvds are now read directly from /dev/sr0 (as /dev/dvd is a symbolic link).

To fix this for 13.10, you can install the "trusty" 14.04 version of the Liborc 0.4 package, found here.

  1. Download the package from this site, making sure to choose the right one (amd64, i386) for your architecture

  2. Install the package:

    dpkg -i package-name-here.deb

  3. Restart your computer

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