A couple questions about playing DVDs

ZIYAD A. M. AL-BATLY zamb at saudi.net.sa
Tue May 31 00:13:29 UTC 2005


On Sat, 2005-05-28 at 22:51 -0400, Stephen R Laniel wrote:
> I've only just started playing DVDs on my Ubuntu laptop, and I have a
> couple questions:
> 
> 1) For some reason totem-gstreamer just won't play my movies properly.
> In particular, it can't seem to access the DVD menu on Almodovar's
> _Bad Education_. But totem-xine works just fine. Any idea why this is?
> I haven't the faintest clue what the difference between the two totems
> is.
Totem is programed in such a way that can utilize either Xine or
GStreamer as it's engine.  Totem itself can't handle *any* media stuff,
it's just a front-end.  (Previously, Totem had support for MPlayer as a
back-end, but not anymore as far as I know.)

GStreamer in it's current state is still immature when it comes to DVDs.
Future version will be much better.

> 2) The default subtitle font is quite ugly. How does one change that
> font? It really seems like this ought to be a Totem preference, but
> it's not.
If you're talking about DVD subtitles, it's not the fault of Totem (or
any of it's back-ends!).  DVD subtitles are (4 color) *pictures*
embedded in the DVD stream.

As for other subtitles (like SRT and such), I really don't know how to
change it (though, for me, and that's my personal opinion, I don't find
it that ugly.  Sure, MPlayer with Vera font is much beautiful and easier
to read).

> I should probably also mention
> 
> 3) Only with DMA turned on via hdparm -- which the kind folks on this
> list introduced me to weeks ago -- does DVD playing proceed smoothly.
Normal behavior.

> However, if I turn DMA on at bootup (via /etc/hdparm.conf), I get all
> kinds of flakiness in the boot process -- SeekErrors, long delays,
> timeouts during the LVM startup, etc. Has anyone else had these
> problems with hdparm? And can you suggest any way out of them? My
> solution up to now has been just to run hdparm after bootup, when I'm
> about to play a DVD or somesuch, but I'd prefer not to have to think
> about it.
No.  And I really don't know what's happening.  If you think it has to
do with LVM and you're not using it, just disable it (not recommended!).
Install a package called “bum”¹ which stands for “Boot-UP Manager” (and
be *very* *careful* when using it) and disable LVM and see if that helps
out.

WARNING:
        Missing with “bum” options may, easily, render your system
        nonfunctional!  Use it *only*:
              * If you had to, and
              * If you know what you're doing.


> (My motto is: if Windows users don't have to think about it, and their
> user experience is fine, then I shouldn't have to think about it
> either.)
Good motto!

> 
> Thanks for any advice.
> 
I don't know if this helps or not, but I hope so.

> -- 
> Stephen R. Laniel
> steve at laniels.org
> +(617) 308-5571
> http://laniels.org/
> PGP key: http://laniels.org/slaniel.key
> 


Ziyad.

Links:
     1. http://www.marzocca.net/linux/bum.html and the documentation for
        “bum” can be found at:
        http://www.marzocca.net/linux/bumdocs.html




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