Getting dvd to play

[Loïc Martin]

Linda wrote:
> I finally got around to installing a dvd player. I followed the 
> instructions for Resticted Formats Playing DVD someone posted for me 
> last week, but I get an error message from Totem Movie Player that it 
> can not read from resource.
> If I try to play a commercial dvd  from VLC  I get  a title page showing 
> the movies title with a choice to play movie and some other things but 
> in about 1 second it disappears and I have the choice to push play pause 
> etc across the top and a blank white box. If I push play it repeats 
> title then blank screen
> 
> At this point I can play a home movie dvd with Totem or VLC although it 
> does give me a green stripe across the bottom of the frame.

It's because of the resolution, see my other post.

> Can anyone give me any suggestions on how to get the commercial dvds to 
> play?
> 
> In your opinion which program is the best choice for playing DVD there 
> are quite a few of them?

Some commercial DVD use protections methods that gives troubles when
reading them on a computer (and even some DVD players), even when using
 libdvdcss. For those you can decrypt them with DVDFab HD Decrypter,
which is a free-to-use Windows software that works with wine (see f.e.
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=12638 ) and
will output the files to the harddrive (as a rule it's always better to
cache a DVD to the HD before reading it, as it will spare your DVD
player and be more silent, if not smoother). Then you just need to open
the folder with the video with VLC or any *MPlayer.

Loïc