[SGVLUG] DVD Player on Linux

[Dustin]

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005, Emerson, Tom wrote:

> It's kind of hidden -- I think by default SuSE installs XINE, but
> doesn't install either the css decoder [fear of lawyers] or some other
> component (name & reason escapes me at the moment) that essentially
> allows xine to actually play a DVD.

This is the case with most distros, AFAIK.  It's usually super-easy to
fix, but of course only after you know the fix.  Under Debian I think you
can fix a lot of things by finding the right repository to add to
sources.list and then apt-getting "win32codecs".

> As such, "xine" isn't really "the player", but a more generic component.  
> The actual "player" is usually "kaffeine", which is the KDE
> front-end/skin on top of xine.

The Gnome equivalent would, I guess, be Totem.  It plays DVDs just fine, 
after you fix the patented-algorithm/encryption problem.

> I don't have the link handy, [meaning I may respond later when I get
> home] but there is a site called "packman" that has SuSE-specific RPM's
> for getting xine/kaffeine to play DVD's.  (the truly cool part about the
> packman site is that you can set it as "an installation source" and yast
> will then load it as if it were on the cd/dvd you got from SuSE/Novell)

> IN ADDITION to the dvd component and/or libdvdcss (or is it libdecss?)
> you should also load the "complete" codec suite -- this will allow you
> to play .avi's, .mpg's, .mov's, etc. all from xine/kaffeine

Yes, same idea as for Debian.  Oh, fine, I'll look...I believe this is the
line you want (except you have to set "stable" to whatever you're actually
running, of course):

deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ stable main

Then "apt-get install w32codecs".  That gets you most of what you want, I
think.  You might need to install libdvdcss2 as well.

Dustin