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General => Installation issues => Topic started by: John@TunerUK on September 20, 2007, 09:06:55 pm

Title: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: John@TunerUK on September 20, 2007, 09:06:55 pm
Hi All. I've recently installed Linux MCE, and have had various problems, but the most recent is DVD playback. With the help of a more Linux savvy friend, we discovered we had to install a few things to get dvd's to work, and they work just fine from the kubuntu desktop. However when in linux mce, I can only get as far as the menus, which take ages to load up in the first place. After hitting play movie, all I get is a black screen. The dvd drive seems to be reading the disk as I can hear it spinning, and the read light is going on and off, but other than that I have nothing. I must admit I haven't connected to an amp yet, so I'm unsure whether audio is playing.
Does anybody have any idea what might be the problem?

Thanks in advance

John
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: totallymaxed on September 20, 2007, 09:45:35 pm
Hi All. I've recently installed Linux MCE, and have had various problems, but the most recent is DVD playback. With the help of a more Linux savvy friend, we discovered we had to install a few things to get dvd's to work, and they work just fine from the kubuntu desktop. However when in linux mce, I can only get as far as the menus, which take ages to load up in the first place. After hitting play movie, all I get is a black screen. The dvd drive seems to be reading the disk as I can hear it spinning, and the read light is going on and off, but other than that I have nothing. I must admit I haven't connected to an amp yet, so I'm unsure whether audio is playing.
Does anybody have any idea what might be the problem?

Thanks in advance

John

Hi John,

First off have you added DVDcss from The Orbiters lmce menu -> 'Add Software' screen?

Secondly if you insert a DVD into the drive do you get a 'Disc Inserted' message on screen? If yes does the disc briefly play then display the   DVD on screen remote screen?

Andrew

Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: John@TunerUK on September 21, 2007, 12:56:31 am
DVD Css is installed from the add software menu inside linux MCE, and I've since tried it with an amp. There's sound, but no picture.

After disc insertion, everything goes as expected. Linux MCE recognises that there's been a disk inserted, and the dvd begins to play as expected, although it doesn't play any of video for the intro scenes to the DVD's menu, but it does play the sound to them.
You then get your normal menu options, this time with sound and video. Pressing play starts the dvd running, but you only get sound and a black screen. ???
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: John@TunerUK on September 21, 2007, 08:38:54 pm
I've trawled the web for the past 2 hours trying to find a similar situation with a solution, but to no avail.
I've tried the PC with 3 different screens, I've tried various DVD's, they all have the same problem.
They all work fine in Xine, but all I get in Linux MCE is audio. Does anyone have any ideas? Or is there some info I can supply that will help diagnose?
A video of what's happening perhaps?

Any and all help much appreciated
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: totallymaxed on September 21, 2007, 11:02:22 pm
DVD Css is installed from the add software menu inside linux MCE, and I've since tried it with an amp. There's sound, but no picture.

After disc insertion, everything goes as expected. Linux MCE recognises that there's been a disk inserted, and the dvd begins to play as expected, although it doesn't play any of video for the intro scenes to the DVD's menu, but it does play the sound to them.
You then get your normal menu options, this time with sound and video. Pressing play starts the dvd running, but you only get sound and a black screen. ???

It sounds to me like it might be region related as you say the menu options and trailers etc play... but no the main part of the DVD. Have you tried several different discs from different regions? If video plays at all then it cant be driver related.
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: John@TunerUK on September 21, 2007, 11:58:36 pm
I've just rooted out a region free DVD and tried that. The exact same thing happens. It plays fine in Xine, but in Linux MCE I get sound but no video.
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: John@TunerUK on September 22, 2007, 12:29:56 am
Just had another bit of fiddling, and found that it is actually playing, but to view it I have to go to the Kubuntu Desktop, and one of the open desktops at the bottom of the screen says 'Pluto-Xine Playback Window'
If I click on this the dvd is then playing in full screen.
Does anyone know how I can get this to work properly without having to leave Linux MCE?

Having noticed this, I have had a further look at the open desktops. There are 3 that I think should be part of Linux MCE

OrbiterGL - Clicking on this I get the GUI with a black background
PlutoGalleryViewer - Clicking on this I get what I expected to see behind the GUI, Lots of changing photographs
Pluto-Xine-Playback-Window - This seems to play any DVD video activated in Linux MCE

I haven't the foggiest what's going on; any ideas?
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: Zaerc on September 22, 2007, 12:40:43 am
I think maybe you broke a few things when trying to solve the initial playback problem. 
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: John@TunerUK on September 22, 2007, 01:04:48 am
Very  possible, but the background images have never worked, leading me to believe that this fault was always there.
Any idea regarding a fix?
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: cht_winston on September 22, 2007, 06:52:16 pm
I had a similar situation in an earlier version of LMCE where I made the mistake of playing a DVD in the desktop version of Xine before running the installer for LMCE. In that instance I reinstalled because I could not find where to change the file associations but I now know where to find the file associations under kubuntu so you may want to try there.

The file associations can be found by starting konqueror, settings, configure konqueror, chose File Associations.

There are 2 areas that I'd try - DVDvideo and DVD_Mounted - but there may be others.

On my working system both of these only mention Konqueror.

 :)
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: John@TunerUK on September 22, 2007, 10:04:45 pm
On mine both of those are set to Konqueror, are you saying that's correct? I tried adding LinuxMCE to the list above Konqueror, just to see if that would have an effect, which it has. DVD's didn't play at all. I'll switch that back now.

Just to clarify what I'm dealing with, here's a desktop snapshot.
I've loaded a DVD whilst in LinuxMCE, however it's playing here on the desktop by pressing the tab labelled Pluto-xine-playback-window.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v23/Chasarina/DesktopSnapshot.jpg)
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: tschak909 on September 23, 2007, 05:59:17 pm
question... are you running UI2 with Alpha Blending?

-Thom
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: John@TunerUK on September 23, 2007, 06:01:06 pm
Yeah, could that be a problem?
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: tschak909 on September 23, 2007, 06:20:02 pm
okay, this is popping up _EVERYWHERE_ wth? nobody seems to be making this connection...

in some setups, UI2 with Alpha blending literally creates a situation where the individual component windows are NOT overlapping correctly at all. I do not know how to fix this, except to completely reinstall...and it only happens on the core systems, not with any external media directors.

the simplest solution for now, is to change your settings to just UI2 with Masking (The middle option), and your videos etc will play correctly.

not so simplest? try reinstalling to see if that fixes it.

-Thom
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: John@TunerUK on September 23, 2007, 06:33:38 pm
Hell mate, if that fixes it I can live with the middle option.
I'll try swapping it right now and see if it works.
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: John@TunerUK on September 23, 2007, 06:50:18 pm
Absolutely spot on. I've changed to the middle setting, and everything plays as it should.
Huge thanks to all who replied ;D
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: danflo on October 22, 2007, 06:53:29 pm
I think i found a possible solution to this problem.

I found out that the composite manager (xcompmgr) was not running on my 0704 install. So i tried to start it manually in a shell konsole and voila, i have alpha blending menus.

Now i just need to find out how to autostart xcompmgr and everything should be fine. Maybe somebody has a solution for that?

Br

Daniel
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: ChrisC on October 14, 2009, 10:09:25 pm
okay, this is popping up _EVERYWHERE_ wth? nobody seems to be making this connection...

in some setups, UI2 with Alpha blending literally creates a situation where the individual component windows are NOT overlapping correctly at all. I do not know how to fix this, except to completely reinstall...and it only happens on the core systems, not with any external media directors.

the simplest solution for now, is to change your settings to just UI2 with Masking (The middle option), and your videos etc will play correctly.

not so simplest? try reinstalling to see if that fixes it.

-Thom


Thom, I am getting what appears to be the same/similar problem, but with 810 Alpha2. Please direct me to the correct thread if one exists, I was unable to find it.

I have reinstalled LinuxMCE and switched to UI2 w/o alpha, and still have the issue. Whenever I am playing media (TV, DVD, video library, ...) the orbiter screen seems to want to always be on top of the playback window. If I click on the screen, the playback window is visible for about 10 seconds. When I start the KDE desktop I get the same behavior, where the OrbiterGL window is on top of the underlying desktop. I was able to drag it using Alt+left_click in the computing screen. When I finally do get to see the KDE taskbar, right clicking on OrbiterGL shows that the "Keep above others" property is enabled. If I disable this property it seems to work correctly for a few minutes but eventually the property gets reenabled.

Is there a known fix for this? I tried looking through all kde config files on the system, but don't see any entry for the OrbiterGL program. I have an ATI HD4650 with the latest ATI-distributed drivers.

Thanks,
Chris
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: tschak909 on October 14, 2009, 10:11:35 pm
Please replace the card with an NVIDIA card of the same class.

-Thom
Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: ChrisC on October 15, 2009, 06:11:09 pm
Um... I actually had a 8600 sitting in another box... and it fixed it. ??? Another variable is that the HD4650 was using HDMI, the 8600 has no HDMI. Is this a driver issue, I know that ATI's have pretty crappy linux support? I may just buy a higher-end nvidia. Do you think this might also be fixed by switching over to the xorg ATI drivers?

Thanks for your help

Title: Re: Problem with DVD playback
Post by: tschak909 on October 15, 2009, 06:34:04 pm
nope, it won't. support for ATI cards is very meh at the moment..and has been for quite some time.

-Thom