VLC media player fails to play most DVDs

[Triophile]

Hi guys.

Just wondering if I'm missing something obvious here (probably).

I've got the latest TC installed, along with VLC downloaded through the apps browser. I've got alsa, alsaconf, and the alsa gui installed. From 'On Demand', I start alsa, then alsaconf, then alsagui, then vlc, and try and play a disc in a USB-connected external laptop drive, and most of the time, VLC will fail to play it. There's typically no error message popping up, just a quick stuttering from the external DVD drive and no film on-screen.

The same drive connected through the same USB cable to a Windows XP box running VLC (probably a relatively old version) plays the same discs fine.

Any suggestions much appreciated.

Cheers, Jon.

[bmarkus]

Is it an encrypted DVD?

[Triophile]

Don't know, I'm afraid. How can I tell?

All of the discs are pre-pressed, commercial DVDs bought in shops. All are region-2 (UK) or region 2+region x discs, and as mentioned above, the majority fail to play under TC + VLC, whereas all play fine on the Windows + VLC box.

I tried another external DVD drive, and an internal  IDE drive: same result. BTW, both external drives are powered from an external 5VDC power supply to ensure they're getting enough current to operate correctly.

Shame - TC's doing everything else so well :-)

Cheers, Jon.

[AmatCoder]

Probably they are encrypted DVDs... For that, you need libdvdcss library which is not in repository.

http://www.videolan.org/developers/libdvdcss.html

On windows, dvdcss functions are introduced into libdvdnav_pluging.dll so there it works.

[Triophile]

Thanks for that info AC.

I'll have a look at the link, and see if my very bad understanding of linux will allow me to get VLC working properly :-)

Cheers, Jon.

[Triophile]

OK, checked the link, and it's all pretty much Greek to me. Anybody fancy adding the file to the TC repository so I can get it that way :-) ?

Yours cheekily, Jon.

[coreplayer2]

You have to compile the library yourself which is relatively easy, then all DVDs will play in any player.
Liability reasons will probably keep it out of the repository.

[Triophile]

OK, thanks for that. I'll do a bit of reading and give it a crack.

Cheers, Jon.

[Triophile]

I just wanted to check that the following link explains the compilation and installation instructions correctly before I go ahead and start the process:

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/softinstall.html

Hopefully, the information there is correct, in which case, I'm pleasantly surprised by how easy the process is.

Cheers, Jon.

[coreplayer2]

when finished compiling you should have these files shown in the picture.  Then you will need to make an extension to load at boot.  Make as shown in the picture and you should be good to go.  see the wiki for instructions on the extension.   

You'll need at least compiletc and squashfs-tools and (linux headers)?  extensions installed to make all the above compiling and extension creation happen.




http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:creating_extensions  see creating a tcz

basically
(make the hierarchy of directories to drop your files into as required be the file system)

mkdir -p /tmp/pkg/usr/local/lib 

(copy all five files into lib directory as shown above then set owner and permissions)

(make tcz)
open a terminal at tmp and enter these two commands at the command line

sudo mksquashfs pkg/ libdvdcss.tcz

sudo chown tc:staff libdvdcss.tcz


then copy your new extension to tce/optional directory and use AppsAudit to place in the onboot list
ps also save a copy to a safe place

reboot and make popcorn

[netnomad]

hi coreplayer2,

thank you for your nice and comprehensible post to compiletc.
it´s so easy to follow your explanations step by step.

[coreplayer2]

You're welcome,  really though the guide was intended to simplify the process of making an extension using squashfs.   The other method is to add the compiled apps to a backup, which I find fails at some point leaving you without your program.  Ultimately you'll decide that an extension is the only way to save your program and allow it to integrate with menus etc etc.  this will lead you to the wiki, I feel that anyone who can follow the how to make a tcz wiki successfully already knows the answers!

[Triophile]

Many thanks for the info, coreplayer2. I'll have a crack at this tomorrow, when I should have a little time to focus on TC again.

Cheers, Jon.