Trouble getting DVD to play

[skeeter33]

I recently installed Kubuntu 9.04 on a laptop. The laptop has MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ862AS (/dev/sr0). It will recognize/mount both CDs and DVDs. However, it will only play the CDs. I am a complete noob at this, so I appologize if this was covered elsewhere. I have searched many guides and forums trying to get the DVDs to play, but no luck.

I have installed the following libraries(as verified with $ dpkg -l):
ii libdvdcss2 1.2.10-0.2medibun Simple foundation for reading DVDs
ii libdvdnav4 4.1.3-3 DVD navigation library
ii libdvdread4 4.1.3-4ubuntu2 library for reading DVDs

I have installed and attempted to play the DVDs on VLC, mplayer, Kaffeine, and SMPlayer. Also, it should be noted that the DVD that I am attempting to play is a region 2 DVD. I have installed regionset and receive the following output when run:
$ regionset version 0.1 -- reads/sets region code on DVD drives
Current Region Code settings:
RPC Phase: II
type: NONE
vendor resets available: 4
user controlled changes resets available: 5
drive plays discs from region(s):, mask=0xFF

Would you like to change the region setting of your drive? [y/n]:y
[2]+ Stopped regionset
bash: y: command not found
[2]+ Stopped regionset

When VLC tries to run it(settings for codecs set to "/dev/sr0" and the disk device as "/media/cdrom0/VIDEO_TS") the program fails with an error message that reads:
Playback failure:
VLC cannot set the DVD's title. It possibly cannot decrypt the entire disk.
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL<path>. Check the log for details.

Thank you for any help that can be provided! This is the last major issue I'm having with Kubuntu 9.04. I would really like to see this working as well so that I don't have to make a boot to Windoze.

EDIT:
When I attempt to play the DVD now with VLC using (settings for codecs set to "/dev/sr0" and the disk device as "/media/cdrom0/VIDEO_TS") the program attempts to run the DVD. The chapter buttons appear, but then the program stops as if nothing had been running. At least it's not crashing with errors now. Help?

[D-cat]

You can attempt to play the individual .VOB files, which are just MPEG-2 streams. They'll be located in /media/cdrom0/VIDEO_TS . I don't know if libdvdcss can decrypt in file mode or not, but it's worth a try.

Getting the right menu based playback when region code setting is failing is probably a bust. Try playing some other DVD that is in the current region set just to verify the media player and DVD-ROM work. Once that's established, we can attempt the region code playback problem.

[rokytnji]

I have installed the following libraries(as verified with $ dpkg -l):
ii libdvdcss2 1.2.10-0.2medibun Simple foundation for reading DVDs
ii libdvdnav4 4.1.3-3 DVD navigation library
ii libdvdread4 4.1.3-4ubuntu2 library for reading DVDs

Don't forget win32 codecs. Its in synaptic.

[skeeter33]

Thanks for getting back to me! I tried playing a american region dvd and got the same thing, but with a black video screen momentarily appearing before the program stopped. I was not able to get the VOB file on the DVD to play either.

EDIT: I checked, and I do have win32 installed. Also, after playing with the VOB files I was repeatedly encountering a "cannot access" or "cannot read from resource".

[rokytnji]

Have you tried what is in this guide skeeter

Install Mplayer and Multimedia Codecs (libdvdcss2,w32codecs,w64codecs) in Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty)|Ubuntu Geek

[rokytnji]

When using the guide be sure to make sure you know if you are running 32 bit Ubuntu or 64 bit Ubuntu. There are different codecs for each version on page so be sure to use the right ones.

EDIT: Good Night skeeter.

[Kieren]

You can install support for multiple restricted formats such as DVD, Java, MP3 and Flash on Kubuntu with the kubuntu-restricted-extras package:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-restricted-extras

[skeeter33]

Good morning everyone! Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I've gone and installed the restricted-extras and I followed the guide posted by rokytnji. VLC still spits out an error about not being able to read title and decrypt the entire disk. Would this point to a permissions problem?

Playback failure:
VLC cannot set the DVD's title. It possibly cannot decrypt the entire disk.
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///media/cdrom0/VIDEO_TS'. Check the log for details.

Where do I find this log so that I can get more details? Thanks!

[D-cat]

This is starting to sound like a physical access issue with the drive. If all the codecs and libdvdcss are installed, it should just play.

VLC keeps its own log window.. Tools -> Messages

[skeeter33]

Thanks D-cat, found the log!

main info: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
logger info: using logger...
dvdnav error: cannot set title (can't decrypt DVD?)
dvdread error: fatal error in vts ifo
dvdread error: DvdReadSetArea(0,0,1) failed (can't decrypt DVD?)
main error: no access module matched "dvd"
main error: open of `dvd:///media/cdrom0/VIDEO_TS' failed: could not create access: no access module matched "dvd"

It baffles me that I can read and play audio CDs, but then DVDs are giving me such a hard time. I read somewhere about changing the DVD from DMA to UDMA2(or something like it) in BIOs. Anyone else heard of such? I thought linux OS didn't have BIOs?

EDIT: Just had a mini-breakthrough! Kaffeine and SMPlayer were both able to open up and play a seconds of the opening sequence. Mplayer started to open the same segment, but crashed saying about too many packets I think. All players stopped playing the segment at the same point(ratings screen). Hopefully this helps.