cssdvdencryptionmedibuntu
I sometimes want to use my computer as a DVD-player. Unfortunately I know that I will often have to cope with encrypted DVDs, for example with CSS.
Therefore I installed the libdvdcss2 library from Medibuntu. But from now on, how can I be sure I will be able to read any DVD whatever its encryption, may it be CSS or another protection?
By the way, I precise that passing through such protective measures is allowed in my country, "for interoperability purposes".
To Enable Playback:
Install libdvdread4:
sudo apt install libdvd-pkg
Note: You may have to enable multiverse to install this package.
Then install libdvdcss:
Ubuntu 20.04 onward See this answer instead.
Ubuntu 15.10 to 19.10
sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg
Then follow the instructions to let it download and compile.
Ubuntu 12.04 to 15.04
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
(More about libdvdcss here.)
Best Players:
According to the Ubuntu Wiki, Kaffeine, MPlayer, xine, Totem-xine, VLC, and Ogle will play DVDs with libdvdread and libdvdcss installed.
I use both Totem and VLC to play DVDs. It's useful to have both installed, because sometimes one will have a playback quirk that the other will not.
Regions:
I believe playback will work in any region.
Are you using it client-side (in the browser)? If so, it's a single JavaScript file, just download it.
If you're using it server-side (from a NodeJS application), or want the lessc command-line tool, the recommended way to install is using npm (the Node Package Manager):
npm install less
If you don't have npm, it's in the Ubuntu 11.10 repositories:
sudo apt-get install npm
or Using Software Center
Best Answer
You can't be sure that you will be able to read every DVD.
libdvdcss2 will allow you to play, copy and rip DVDs encrypted with CSS (Content Scramble System). This is by far the most commonly used DRM on DVDs.
However there are other methods which are much more nasty. The ones I have come across were where some sectors of the DVD were deliberately corrupted so that they couldn't be copied. For these I used ddrescue which is a command line app similar to
dd.This program was designed for rescuing data from failing drives where there are accidental bad sectors. They can also be applied to get rid or the DVD DRM. If I remember rightly, this is the command:
You can then mount or burn the ISO file.