[SOLVED] Commercial DVD Not Recognised

myrlin · 2012-03-14 14:20:13

I have recently bought a commercial DVD that will not play on my PC. When I load it into the drive, it is just not "seen". Kaffeine reports a dvd read error, while smplayer, etc think there is no disc in the drive. All my other DVDs (with various region codes) play perfectly. This particular disc works fine on the set-top player on my TV.

I have checked that libdvdcss, etc are installed OK.

Does anyone have any ideas what's causing this, and suggest any fixes?

Last edited by myrlin (2012-03-15 11:25:54)

toad · 2012-03-14 15:22:02

Do other DVDs play okay?

myrlin · 2012-03-14 16:31:55

toad wrote:

Do other DVDs play okay?

Yes - no other problems. I'm guessing that there's some kind of copy protection on this one that stops it playing on a computer?

R00KIE · 2012-03-14 22:40:31

Yay for going legit huh? On a more serious note, do you have any possibility to test the dvd in other drives besides yours? It might just be that your drive is getting old or the dvd quality could be better and your drive has some difficulty reading it. Even pressed media can be of bad quality and some drives work miracles while others seem to quit at the first sign of trouble and I guess it also depends on the type of defect.

As for the possibility of the problem being caused by a copy protection, could also be the case, although I can't say much about that as I haven't looked at that for a long time, you could look here [1] as it may have something interesting. On the other hand, I'd say many standalone players use the same drives as available for computers so I'm not sure if someone would risk breaking things in that case.

[1] http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cd … ions.shtml

ewaller · 2012-03-14 22:49:50

Who is the publisher of the DVD?

ewaller dons moderator hat: Of course, if it does turn out to be a copy protection problem, these forums are not to be used as place to discuss how to circumvent said copy protection. Feel free to continue only until that determination is made. Thanks.

David Batson · 2012-03-14 23:48:55

You probably need to install one of the following, 64-bit or 32-bit, depending upon your system.

http://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra … libdvdcss/

http://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/i686/libdvdcss/

myrlin · 2012-03-15 10:33:25

Thanks to everyone for your interest.

@ewaller (with moderator hat): I am NOT trying to copy the disc, just trying to PLAY it on my PC!!
@rookie: As I said, it plays fine on a set-top player (Sony). I have tried to play it using Windows XP/vlc on my own machine (dual-boot), but it still does not play. I will try it on a friend's PC to see whether that works.
@David Batson: libdvdcss is installed (see first post).

This is not a particularly important DVD, so if I don't get it to play on my PC, it's no big deal, just an inconvenience. I would just like to understand the reason.

myrlin · 2012-03-15 11:25:25

So, now I feel really embarrassed

I found out an old DVD cleaning disk, ran that a few times, and the DVD now plays. It was DIRT!!!!

I guess the lesson is "always try the obvious first".

My deepest apologies for wasting everyone's time, and my thanks for all your help and patience.

ewaller · 2012-03-15 13:16:27

myrlin wrote:

@ewaller (with moderator hat): I am NOT trying to copy the disc, just trying to PLAY it on my PC!!

I never meant to imply that you were. If the disk has access controls, attempts to circumvent them are likely to run afoul of the USA DMCA anti-circumvention provisions

Even if you are not in the USA, I am, and so are other moderators, TUs, etc... I think more effort needs to be made to get these ridiculous laws changed.

IANAL

Anyway, the issue is moot, I am glad your disk is working.

myrlin · 2012-03-15 14:52:05

I fully understand, and sympathise with, your position, ewaller.

On the original subject of my post, I did not realise that some commercial DVD pressings were so poor that a less than pristine drive could not even "see" them. I was confused by the fact that all my other DVDs played perfectly, so I never suspected a dirty DVD drive laser. The clue came when I tried another new DVD (a magazine cover-disc) which did the same thing. I then remembered a laser disc cleaner I had bought many years ago. It consists of a DVD with a small brush on it. I ran this a couple of times, and "hey, presto", all was well.

Thanks again for all the community's help and support.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-03-14 14:20:13

[SOLVED] Commercial DVD Not Recognised

#2 2012-03-14 15:22:02

Re: [SOLVED] Commercial DVD Not Recognised

#3 2012-03-14 16:31:55

Re: [SOLVED] Commercial DVD Not Recognised

#4 2012-03-14 22:40:31

Re: [SOLVED] Commercial DVD Not Recognised

#5 2012-03-14 22:49:50

Re: [SOLVED] Commercial DVD Not Recognised

#6 2012-03-14 23:48:55

Re: [SOLVED] Commercial DVD Not Recognised

#7 2012-03-15 10:33:25

Re: [SOLVED] Commercial DVD Not Recognised

#8 2012-03-15 11:25:25

Re: [SOLVED] Commercial DVD Not Recognised

#9 2012-03-15 13:16:27

Re: [SOLVED] Commercial DVD Not Recognised

#10 2012-03-15 14:52:05

Re: [SOLVED] Commercial DVD Not Recognised

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