lack of proper dvd playback

All players work via the command line, "player name dvd ://" (e.g. vlc dvd://) but not from anything GUI.

john@ubuntu:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10
Codename: intrepid

john@ubuntu:~$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 2.6.27-7-generic #1 SMP Tue Nov 4 19:33:20 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

From the forums:
( http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4666778&postcount=6 )

"You see libdvdcss is not a specification, it's a hack. A very good one, but nevertheless still a hack. So sometimes it has a problem decoding certain DVDs with it's default parameters. If you run into trouble with different DVDs you can quickly change the environment by using the 'export DVDCSS_METHOD={title|disc|key}' string or make it permanent by adding it to your .bashrc file."

"Add the following string to your bashrc file:
echo "export DVDCSS_METHOD=title" >> ~/.bashrc

Once the change ios permanent you would need to logout and then log in back again for it to be effective in other applications.

Fabian,

Which bashrc file should it be added to?
I copy/pasted into the terminal, nothing happened, least that I could
tell. So I searched for any file named ."bashrc" and got 4 results, all
text files. I opened and looked at each. None of them contained any text
relating to libdvdcss2 or any variant.

Here are the pastes of the 4 files, file name and location are line 1
which I added:

http://paste.ubuntu.com/85144/
http://paste.ubuntu.com/85145/
http://paste.ubuntu.com/85148/
http://paste.ubuntu.com/85152/

Those are after adding the text in the terminal and restarting the
computer. I had tried the same command prior (adding to the bashrc) and
it didn't take that time either. That was the 4 page link on
ubuntuforums that I linked in my post there, same place I found the
terminal command that got the dvd to play properly.

Something must be named just a bit wrong or I'm doing something wrong.
Far as everyone says things should be working. Got me.

-John

On Sun, 2008-12-14 at 12:53 +0000, Fabián Rodríguez wrote:
> Your question #54351 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/54351
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Fabián Rodríguez proposed the following answer:
> >From the forums:
> ( http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4666778&postcount=6 )
>
> "You see libdvdcss is not a specification, it's a hack. A very good one,
> but nevertheless still a hack. So sometimes it has a problem decoding
> certain DVDs with it's default parameters. If you run into trouble with
> different DVDs you can quickly change the environment by using the
> 'export DVDCSS_METHOD={title|disc|key}' string or make it permanent by
> adding it to your .bashrc file."
>
> "Add the following string to your bashrc file:
> echo "export DVDCSS_METHOD=title" >> ~/.bashrc
>
> Once the change ios permanent you would need to logout and then log in
> back again for it to be effective in other applications.
>

Have you tried using ogle to play the DVD? I have been able to play DVDs using ogle that wouldn't play properly using mplayer, totem, vlc or xine. If other DVDs are able to play properly, it's probably because of the copy protection, in which case you may need to use paid software if you want to play that DVD.
____________________
Currently running: Dell Inspiron 1420n w/ Ubuntu 10.10, Franken-HP media center w/ Ubuntu 10.04, Samsung Q1 UMPC waiting for me to troubleshoot a WUBI installation failure.
http://cyrusct.tk/