VLC player stopped playing DVDs. What's wrong?

[MagisterDixit]

I run Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and have had no trouble with using my VLC media player until recently. I used to just plug in the DVD and play would begin automatically just like it is supposed to. But now VLC starts up and gives me the organge cone. Nothing else happens. What went wrong? Do I need to update something?

Edit: I just tried the update VLC PPA and it says I have the latest version already? I used synaptic package manager to upgrade everything that had an upgrade available. Seriously, what gives?

[varunendra]

Make sure you have libdvdread4 and ubuntu-restricted-extras installed -

sudo apt-get install libdvdread4 ubuntu-restricted-extras

If it still can't play DVDs, post back the output of -

dpkg -l | egrep 'libdvd|restricted|gstreamer'

[MagisterDixit]

GStreamer plugins from the "ugly" set
ii gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio 0.10.31-1ubuntu1.2 GStreamer plugin for PulseAudio
ii gstreamer0.10-tools 0.10.36-1ubuntu1 Tools for use with GStreamer
ii gstreamer0.10-x 0.10.36-1ubuntu0.1 GStreamer plugins for X11 and Pango
ii libdvdnav4 4.2.0-1 DVD navigation library
ii libdvdread4 4.2.0-1ubuntu3 library for reading DVDs
ii libgstreamer-plugins-bad0.10-0 0.10.22.3-2ubuntu2.2 GStreamer shared libraries from the "bad" set
ii libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0 0.10.36-1ubuntu0.1 GStreamer libraries from the "base" set
ii libgstreamer0.10-0 0.10.36-1ubuntu1 Core GStreamer libraries and elements
ii phonon-backend-gstreamer 4:4.7.0really4.6.2-0ubuntu0.1 Phonon GStreamer 0.10.x backend
ii ubuntu-restricted-addons 12 Commonly used restricted packages for Ubuntu
ii ubuntu-restricted-extras 57 Commonly used restricted packages for Ubuntu

[mc4man]

Put a dvd in the drive, close out anything that pops up or opens, inc. vlc.
Once the drive settles open a terminal & go -
vlc
Once vlc is open go > ctrl+d to open the "open media > disc" menu, click on 'play'.

Post the complete terminal output.

(vlc doesn't use gstreamer or any gstreamer plugins..

[MagisterDixit]

Put a dvd in the drive, close out anything that pops up or opens, inc. vlc.
Once the drive settles open a terminal & go -
vlc
Once vlc is open go > ctrl+d to open the "open media > disc" menu, click on 'play'.

Post the complete terminal output.

(vlc doesn't use gstreamer or any gstreamer plugins..

After entering "vlc" in terminal, it opens VLC. From there I'm lost. I pasted "> ctrl+d" and nada. The name@nameUbuntu12 doesn't come back up for me to actually use the command- or any other. Did I do something wrong?

[mc4man]

After entering "vlc" in terminal, it opens VLC. From there I'm lost. I pasted "> ctrl+d" and nada. The name@nameUbuntu12 doesn't come back up for me to actually use the command- or any other. Did I do something wrong?

That would have been ctrl+d on keyboard (just a shortcut to menu
Try again & after vlc opens either ctrl+d or go Media > Open disc (scr. 1), then play from that menu (scr. 2
Post all of the terminal output

[MagisterDixit]

Sorry. I had a duh moment. Here are the terminal results:

VLC media player 2.0.8 Twoflower (revision 2.0.8a-0-g68cf50b)
[0x9660908] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
libdvdnav: Using dvdnav version 4.2.0
libdvdread: Encrypted DVD support unavailable.
************************************************
** **
** No css library available. See **
** /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/README.css **
** for more information. **
** **
************************************************
libdvdnav: DVD Title: SERENITY
libdvdnav: DVD Serial Number: 3337a695
libdvdnav: DVD Title (Alternative): FULLFRAME_R0
libdvdnav: Unable to find map file '/home/travis/.dvdnav/SERENITY.map'
libdvdnav: DVD disk reports itself with Region mask 0x00fe0000. Regions: 1
[0xb5400618] main input error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
[0xb5400618] main input error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
[0xb5400618] main input error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
[0xb5400618] main input error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called

[MagisterDixit]

Thanks, mc4man! With that error message I was able to google the solution that you posted for another person way back in the day. I put
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

in the terminal and now I can watch movies again! I'm still confused about how I lost this ability though. I haven't done anything with the terminal or added anything to my computer in a long time. Any idea about what happened?

[mc4man]

/I'm still confused about how I lost this ability though. I haven't done anything with the terminal or added anything to my computer in a long time. Any idea about what happened?

It would seem libdvdcss2 was uninstalled somehow..

Another way to ck. for vlc warnings & or errors is right in the gui. Just open vlc as normal & go ctrl+m or tools > messages. Leave the message window open & go about using vlc.
There are 3 verbosity levels in the message window, start with the default of 0 which is errors only. (you can't change v while playing
Output can be saved to file when useful.

[euanbuntu2]

How are you guys getting dvds to play at all? Apparently mediabuntu repositories are now gone and any other instructions I have received on getting my dvd's to work are quite complicated, involving somethig called git (that I've never heard of) and I'd love it if someone could help me out with a walk through of what to do please as I'm really confused? I'm on 13.04