How To Play A DVD
If you are like me, you probably have several DVDs that you enjoy watching every now and then. Then one day you decide that you'll watch a DVD on your computer, only to discover that it won't play. It plays perfect in your DVD Player that's connected to the TV, but it won't play on your computer. You wonder if your DVD player/burner on your computer is broken, so you put in a music CD and the music sounds great. You put in a homemade video that you created with your camcorder and it plays perfect. You put in an older DVD and it plays perfect too, so you know that your DVD player/burner is working. Since the DVD played perfectly in the DVD player connected to the TV, you know the DVD is ok.
You realize that you have a DVD or possible several DVDs that are encrypted. If you have some encrypted DVDs it is still possible to play them in your computer. Just follow the steps below. |
In order to watch these encryted videos, you need to have certain codecs installed on your computer. A codec is a device or computer program for encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. Install the packages below in order to play your encryted DVD.
How to Install Codecs Needed to Play a DVD:
1. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T)
2. Type the following commands: sudo apt install libdvdnav4 libdvdread4 gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly libdvd-pkg
4. Press Enter or Return and type in your password
3. Type the following command: sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras
5. Press Enter or Return
6. Reboot your computer
You may have to install and configure libdvd-pkg to prevent you from getting the following message when you update your repositories, "libdvd-pkg: `apt-get check` failed, you may have broken packages. Aborting"
7. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T) and eneter the following commands: sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg
1. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T)
2. Type the following commands: sudo apt install libdvdnav4 libdvdread4 gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly libdvd-pkg
4. Press Enter or Return and type in your password
3. Type the following command: sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras
5. Press Enter or Return
6. Reboot your computer
You may have to install and configure libdvd-pkg to prevent you from getting the following message when you update your repositories, "libdvd-pkg: `apt-get check` failed, you may have broken packages. Aborting"
7. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T) and eneter the following commands: sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg
Illustrated Instructions:
Open the Terminal and enter the folling commands: sudo apt install libdvdnav4 libdvdread4 gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly libdvd-pkg Then press Enter and type in your password.
Open the Terminal and enter the folling commands: sudo apt install libdvdnav4 libdvdread4 gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly libdvd-pkg Then press Enter and type in your password.
Select Y each time it asks you if you want to continue.
A Package configuration dialog box should appear allowing you to configure the libdvd-pkg file. Press the Spacebar or Enter key to continue.
Press the Spacebar or Enter key to Enable automatic upgrades for libdvdcss2.
It will take you back to the Terminal. You can clear the clutter by typing clear and press Enter.
Type the following command: sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras and then press the Enter key.
If needed, the Ubuntu Restricted Extras will be installed. I installed them when I installed Ubuntu MATE.
Eneter the following commands in your Terminal: sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg
Restart your computer and try to play that DVD you had trouble with. You probably already have VLC Media Player installed. If you do, you can play your DVD with it or you can install another DVD player like MPlayer, SMPlayer, MPV, Gnome Videos (formerly known as Totem), or etc.
I hope that you are able to watch your entire DVD collection on your computer.
Take care!
Take care!