Cannot play DVDs or CDs

[Sillymoo]

None of my players - Totem, MPlayer or Banshee will play DVDs or CDs. Now when I insert a DVD or CD, a list of disc folders opens. The problem only cropped up this evening.

I'm getting the following errors,

The filename "VTS_02_3.VOB" indicates that this file is of type "MPEG video". The contents of the file indicate that the file is of type "plain text document". If you open this file, the file might present a security risk to your system.

Do not open the file unless you created the file yourself, or received the file from a trusted source. To open the file, rename the file to the correct extension for "plain text document", then open the file normally. Alternatively, use the Open With menu to choose a specific application for the file.

Couldn't display "/media/cdrom0/VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO"

Could not open "VIDEO_TS"

File not found.

I also get the message 'seek failed' when I click on MPlayer
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Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[dijetlo]

VOB is a kind of specialized mpeg file. Often times you can simply make a copy of it, change the name to "whatever.mpg" from "whatever.vob" and it will run. Make sure your changing the copy and not the original or else if it doesn't work,, you've lost your movie.
If it wont play like that repost which player your using and I'll help you get it to load a VOB codex.

[Sillymoo]

VOB is a kind of specialized mpeg file. Often times you can simply make a copy of it, change the name to "whatever.mpg" from "whatever.vob" and it will run. Make sure your changing the copy and not the original or else if it doesn't work,, you've lost your movie.
If it wont play like that repost which player your using and I'll help you get it to load a VOB codex.

Many thanks for that tip, djetlo. Much appreciated.

I did a full recovery of my Debian because none of my players would open the video window at all. An error message kept saying CD-ROM not recognised or file can't be found. I suspect this is something to do with the CD-ROM not being mounted or something and I didn't quite know how to correct it hence the recovery.

However, I'm still getting problems with playing some DVDs, but not all. On some DVDs, the credits at the beginning of the movie will play and then it all stops working.

I found a way round it though albeit not a correct solution, but I'm happy enough using this method as below.

In the DVD movie file, it lists the various VOB links that the movie's composed of. I just double-click on each to find the beginning of the movie and the movie plays without probs, from there and I've found the start is usually near the top or in the middle of the list.

[reed9]

Do you have libdvdcss2 installed? It's generally required to play any commercial DVD. You need the debian multimedia repos enabled to download this. There are a number of other programs with proprietary components in these repos that debian won't ship with. Debian Multimedia Packages::Home

[Sillymoo]

Do you have libdvdcss2 installed? It's generally required to play any commercial DVD. You need the debian multimedia repos enabled to download this. There are a number of other programs with proprietary components in these repos that debian won't ship with. Debian Multimedia Packages::Home

Reed, thanks for your recommendation. Appreciated!

No, I don't have libdvdcss2 installed.

I performed this procedure yesterday before I did my OS re-installation.

Before that,Totem was opening OK, but not playing. After I inserted the appropriate string starting with .deb into the repository and the corresponding appropriate command line in the Terminal, Totem or Banshee wouldn't open at all. Granted, I don't know for definite if it was this procedure that made things worse, but it's left me a bit hesitant to try it again.

[reed9]

I performed this procedure yesterday before I did my OS re-installation. Before that,Totem was opening OK, but not playing. After I inserted the appropriate string starting with .deb into the repository and the corresponding appropriate command line in the Terminal, Totem or Banshee wouldn't open at all. Granted, I don't know for definite if it was this procedure that made things worse, but it's left me a bit hesitant to try it again.

I'm not clear which procedure? You mean you tried to add the multimedia repo before and something went wrong?

[Sillymoo]

I'm not clear which procedure? You mean you tried to add the multimedia repo before and something went wrong?

Hi reed.

The procedure I read in the thread,

'How to play DVD under Ubuntu - Debian/Ubuntu Tips'

[jmadero]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

[Sillymoo]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

Thanks for the Ubuntu link. I had this in my Bookmarks before I did a re-installation 2 days ago.

I substituted ubuntu with debian-restricted-extras and got

Reading package lists Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information Done
E: Couldn't find debian-restricted-extras

[jmadero]

I didn't realize you're using debian, only Ubuntu has the restricted extras packaged that way.

You'll have to go one by one, here is the list of things included in the package:
Ubuntu -- Details of package ubuntu-restricted-extras in hardy