• Registered: 2010-07-30
  • Posts: 56

Topic: DVDs won't play, no idea why

Hi:

I posted about this in another thread (http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … runchbang/), but since it's a tad off-topic, and I'm pretty desperate, I'm posting this separately here. Hope this isn't a problem.

Basically, DVDs won't play. I'm using Totem, and when I start Totem in terminal, I get this:

** (totem:12104): WARNING **: Failed to create dbus proxy for org.gnome.SettingsDaemon: Could not get owner of name 'org.gnome.SettingsDaemon': no such name
/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/gdata/tlslite/utils/cryptomath.py:9: DeprecationWarning: the sha module is deprecated; use the hashlib module instead
  import sha

If I then try to play a DVD, I get:

(totem:12104): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: g_mount_guess_content_type_sync: assertion `G_IS_MOUNT (mount)' failed

(totem:12104): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

I didn't have gnome-settings-daemon installed, so I installed that, then rebooted. It's like nothing happened. Same error message on starting Totem. I also have libdvdcss2 installed, so I doubt that's the problem. I'm not sure if it's a permissions issue, since I don't know where to look.

PLEASE help! I've looked through wikis, Googled the error message, and not found anything to fix this yet.

  • From: Ontario, Canada
  • Registered: 2009-06-29
  • Posts: 1,420

Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

just to narrow things down, have you tried playing it with some other software, like vlc?

just call me...
~FSM~
  • From: Hamburg
  • Registered: 2008-12-20
  • Posts: 103

Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

Is it a USB DVD? Is it mounted when you plug in "normal" DVD (no video)?

According to the first error, have you tried this? http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-767958.html

  • Registered: 2010-07-30
  • Posts: 56

Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

Thanks for the ideas.

@FiniteStateMachine: Apparently it does play in VLC, but I'd still like to try to get it up in Totem.

@shanall: It's a laptop DVD-RW drive. Laptop's a Gateway NV53A. I saw that page you referred to. I installed, removed and reinstalled the codecs a couple of times before testing the DVD, so I doubt that's it (though it's still possible, I suppose).

  • From: Ontario, Canada
  • Registered: 2009-06-29
  • Posts: 1,420

Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

Ok well, if it plays in VLC that helps us, because it means this is a totem problem, and not a dvd or dvd-drive problem. Sadly, i have no experience with totem. Though it did mention something about being deprecated, perhaps you need a newer version of totem?

just call me...
~FSM~
  • Registered: 2010-07-30
  • Posts: 56

Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

Does the !# install come with GNOME? Maybe that's the problem. I'd rather not have to install that, though. I like my setup the way it is.

  • gareim
  • #! CrunchBanger
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  • From: Chicago
  • Registered: 2009-11-11
  • Posts: 154

Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

Time Lord wrote:

Does the !# install come with GNOME? Maybe that's the problem. I'd rather not have to install that, though. I like my setup the way it is.

It doesn't come with GNOME. I was going to suggest that this might be a CSS problem, but since VLC plays it, I dunno how it could be that.

  • pvsage
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  • Registered: 2009-10-18
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Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

I know this probably doesn't help with your 9.04 install, but I just tried a CSS-protected DVD in Statler a2 with Totem installed.  (DVD drive is an external USB device; PC is a Mini 9.)  Totem automatically opened and started playing the disc.

while ( ! ( succeed = try() ) );
  • gareim
  • #! CrunchBanger
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  • Registered: 2009-11-11
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Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

pvsage wrote:

I know this probably doesn't help with your 9.04 install, but I just tried a CSS-protected DVD in Statler a2 with Totem installed.  (DVD drive is an external USB device; PC is a Mini 9.)  Totem automatically opened and started playing the disc.

Hijacking this thread for just a moment.. Wow, that's awesome. I just tried a DVD today of Tron in Statler a1 and VLC failed to open it. Does this mean that Statler a2 now has CSS support, or it's just Totem?

  • pvsage
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Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

Couldn't tell ya; never tried a DVD with a1, and one of the first things I did when I installed a2 was apt-get my favorite add-on packages, including Totem.

while ( ! ( succeed = try() ) );
  • Registered: 2010-07-30
  • Posts: 56

Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

So what's the trouble here exactly? Is it the lack of GNOME? Anybody know how I can fix this? Should I go with mplayer/gmplayer instead or something?

  • gareim
  • #! CrunchBanger
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Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

Time Lord wrote:

So what's the trouble here exactly? Is it the lack of GNOME? Anybody know how I can fix this? Should I go with mplayer/gmplayer instead or something?

I don't see why GNOME would have anything to do with it. Check to see if libdvdcss2 (or it might be called libdvdcss) is installed. If not, install it because that's the thing that lets you play encrypted DVDs. I'm pretty sure that libdvdcss2 isn't available in the Debian repos though, so if it's not installed, you'll have to google for a way to get it.

  • pvsage
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Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

@gareim:  I would have suggested this as well, but in the previous thread (linked in the first post) Time Lord mentioned he's using 9.04, and aptitude search reported that libdvdcss2 *is installed*.

hmm

while ( ! ( succeed = try() ) );
  • Registered: 2010-07-30
  • Posts: 56

Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

EDIT: I posted a ton of error message stuff before I realized that doing sudo apt-get update in terminal while Synaptic is open is a Bad Thing (TM). My goof.

Still, though, I'm having trouble. I unstalled and reinstalled libdvdcss2 from the Medibuntu repository, but I got the same old error message in terminal when I ran Totem and tried to open a DVD, same as above. I have no clue what I'm doing wrong.

Last edited by Time Lord (2010-08-04 16:31:06)

  • gareim
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Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

@pvsage Ah, sorry, didn't know that. I thought that he was on Statler.

@Time Lord Was Synaptic open when you ran that command? EDIT: Nvm.

I tried googling for an answer, and over at http://projects.gnome.org/totem/, it mentions that

gst-plugins-ugly good-quality plug-ins that might pose distribution problems, needed for DVD playback
gst-plugins-bad a set of plug-ins that need more work, needed for DVD playback as well

I'm not sure if these come with the default 9.04.01. Sorry, I'm really no help for these things. Just throwing out idea.s hmm

Last edited by gareim (2010-08-04 16:40:11)

  • pvsage
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Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

^ Yup, those are part of ubuntu-restricted-extras (or whatever the heck Canonical called that meta), and Philip had included it in 9.04.  In Ubuntu & Debian they're actually gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad and gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly, but at any rate...

while ( ! ( succeed = try() ) );
  • Registered: 2010-07-30
  • Posts: 56

Re: DVDs won't play, no idea why

Ugh, I'm totally lost. Now NOTHING works, not mpeg/wmv/other video files, not my dvds, nothing. I swear I must have installed a dozen different packages from a dozen different repositories. I don't know what to do here. Can someone help? I'll gladly post any diagnostic feedback anyone needs. I just want audio and video of all kinds to work without being choppy, slow, out of sync, or otherwise messed up.

EDIT: Ok, I've had SOME success. Seems smplayer + mplayer can now play my DVDs. Yay me.

Now I just gotta figure out how to play all the other video types. .wmvs are still a problem.

Thanks for reading all this, guys. You've all been a big help!

Last edited by Time Lord (2010-08-04 18:07:32)