Problem with DVD playback

[John@TunerUK]

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

[totallymaxed]

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

[John@TunerUK]

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.

[John@TunerUK]

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

[totallymaxed]

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.

[John@TunerUK]

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.

[John@TunerUK]

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?

[Zaerc]

I think maybe you broke a few things when trying to solve the initial playback problem. 

[John@TunerUK]

Very  possible, but the background images have never worked, leading me to believe that this fault was always there.
Any idea regarding a fix?

[cht_winston]

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.

 

[John@TunerUK]

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.

[tschak909]

question... are you running UI2 with Alpha Blending?

-Thom

[John@TunerUK]

Yeah, could that be a problem?

[tschak909]

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

[John@TunerUK]

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.