Cannot play dvds

jaunger · 2026-06-26 01:08:45

I've been struggling to play dvds. The one in question is a Canadian copy of Marty Supreme. I tried one other dvd in the past which also didn't work.
I have libdvdread, libdvdcss, and libdvdnav installed.
The program I'm trying to use is mplayer. I also tried vlc and mpv which didn't work.
I can play cds and video files with mplayer.

I'm targeting the correct drive.

Arch% cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17

drive name:		sr0
drive speed:		24
drive # of slots:	1
Can close tray:		1
Can open tray:		1
Can lock tray:		1
Can change speed:	1
Can select disk:	0
Can read multisession:	1
Can read MCN:		1
Reports media changed:	1
Can play audio:		1
Can write CD-R:		1
Can write CD-RW:	1
Can read DVD:		1
Can write DVD-R:	1
Can write DVD-RAM:	1
Can read MRW:		0
Can write MRW:		0
Can write RAM:		1

This is what happens when I try to play my dvd.

Arch% mplayer -dvd-device /dev/sr0 dvd://1
MPlayer SVN-r38542 (C) 2000-2024 MPlayer Team
226 audio & 468 video codecs
do_connect: could not connect to socket
connect: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing dvd://1.
libdvdread: Could not open /dev/sr0 with libdvdcss.
libdvdread: Can't open /dev/sr0 for reading
Couldn't open DVD device: /dev/sr0 (No medium found)
No stream found to handle url dvd://1


Exiting... (End of file)

seth · 2026-06-26 06:04:55

getfacl /dev/sr0

How do you start the session? xinit/startx? See the last link below, 2nd blue note about what to include at least.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Users_ … emd_groups

jaunger · 2026-06-27 01:32:13

Arch% getfacl /dev/sr0
getfacl: Removing leading '/' from absolute path names
# file: dev/sr0
# owner: root
# group: optical
user::rw-
user:jaunger:rw-
group::rw-
mask::rw-
other::---

jaunger is the user I'm logged in as.

sway --unsupported-gpu

is what I use to start the session. The --unsupported-gpu is included because I use an old laptop with an intel integrated/dedicated nvidia card setup. Is Wayland the problem?

edit: oh I'm guessing I need to add myself to the optical group. I'll give that a shot.
edit 2: it didn't work

Last edited by jaunger (2026-06-27 01:38:23)

seth · 2026-06-27 07:18:07

The permissions are ok, "jaunger" got rw access via acl.
Is this *every* dvd (including demo ones or.… err… backups)?
You might run into problems w/ the rc, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Optica … DVD-Drive)

jaunger · 2026-06-27 13:26:53

So far I've tried 4 dvds all with the same issue. I'm not sure what a demo dvd is but these aren't "backups." They're all standard discs you'd buy in a store.

The regionset package doesn't build from the aur but I built it myself from an archive on the wayback machine recommended in an aur comment.
It gave this error with the dvd in.

Arch% ./regionset /dev/sr0
ERROR: Could not open drive "/dev/sr0".
Ensure that there is a (readable) CD or DVD in the drive.

I'm starting to think my optical drive might be broken because I tried a cd which had worked in the past but isn't working now.
mplayer gave me this error from a cd.

Audio device got stuck!
A:   0.0 (00.0) of 4797.6 ( 1:19:57.6) ??,?% 96%

seth · 2026-06-27 15:00:16

"demo" would be a dvd w/ rc0 (because there's no copyright) and likewise would "backups" not have a region code.
Are there IO errors in dmesg when trying to access those discs?
How old is the drive?

Arch Linux

#1 2026-06-26 01:08:45

Cannot play dvds

#2 2026-06-26 06:04:55

Re: Cannot play dvds

#3 2026-06-27 01:32:13

Re: Cannot play dvds

#4 2026-06-27 07:18:07

Re: Cannot play dvds

#5 2026-06-27 13:26:53

Re: Cannot play dvds

#6 2026-06-27 15:00:16

Re: Cannot play dvds

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