Playing DVDs using totem?

Sat May 7 23:41:04 UTC 2005

Antonio Olivares escreveu:
> --- Toralf Lund <toralf at procaptura.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Marcel Janssen wrote:
>>
>>
>>>On Saturday 07 May 2005 11:12, Toralf Lund wrote:
>>> 
>>>
>>>
>>>>This has probably been discussed before, but is
>>
>>anyone actually using
>>
>>>>totem to play DVDs these days? I've tried variants
>>
>>from various distros
>>
>>>>and installed every gstreamer plugin I can think
>>
>>of, but it still won't
>>
>>>>work. Originally, it wouldn't recognise DVDs at
>>
>>all, of course, now it
>>
>>>>will either crash or give messages like
> 
> 
> Others in list have reported sucess with Totem.  You
> just need certain packages and it will work.  If I
> remember correctly something like gstreamer???? and
> other plugins will make it work.  
> 
> 
>>>>   
>>>>
>>>
>>>Do you mean you installed binary packages from
>>
>>other distros ? If so -> bad 
>>
>>>idea to begin with. Crashes will be very likely.
>>> 
>>>
>>
>>Bad choice of words, there. I meant "various
>>distros" as in "Fedora Core 
>>and different 3rd-party distributions of packages
>>built specifically for 
>>Fedora".
>>
>>
>>>I've tried totem, but I don't understand the UI.
>>
>>Play disc will not play the 
>>
>>>disc, so to my opinion it fails it's function ;-)
>>> 
>>>
>>
>>Calling that an UI problem is definitely stretching
>>things. When the 
>>function associated with an UI item doesn't work,
>>I'd say that the 
>>function is faulty, not the UI. But perhaps your
>>remarks wasn't meant 
>>too seriously...
>>
>>Anyhow, Totem or any other media player installed
>>with Fedora Core 
>>certainly won't play DVDs out-of-the box.
>>Apparently, Fedora/Red Hat 
>>dare not distribute the somewhat controversial code
>>needed to do the job 
>>along with the OS...
> 
> 
> Disregard this part.  Fedora will go with open
> standards and the controversial code.  Go and snatch
> the needed downloads to get the applications and
> codecs that you want for it to play.  At one point I
> disregarded Fedora for this reason, but the one
> missing out on a great OS was me.  I tried installing
> the missing parts and now it works great for me.  
> 
> 
>>>Also, many options that xine-ui has I miss in
>>
>>totem.
>>
>>Those seem to be options I don't need and don't
>>want, and they tend to 
>>get in my way when I try to find what I do need...
>>
>>
>>>xine-ui may not be the 
>>>nicest UI, but it can do the job which is most
>>
>>important I think.
>>
>>> 
>>>
>>
>>Of course... But when I've tried it, I've been left
>>with the feeling 
>>that it didn't get the work done because I had to
>>struggle too much with 
>>the GUI - not only because I found it hard to
>>understand, but also 
>>because it just wouldn't work some of the time - and
>>the whole 
>>application seemed somewhat unstable.
>>
>>
>>> 
>>>
>>>
>>>>And, no, I don't think I want to use xine or
>>
>>mplayer or whatever
>>
>>>>instead. I think they all have pretty lousy UIs,
>>
>>and mplayer in
>>
>>>>particular has also proven to be rather
>>
>>unreliable. 
>>
>>>>   
>>>>
>>>
>>>About the UI you can do something. There are many
>>
>>frontends to xine like 
>>
>>>kaffeine or gxine.
>>> 
>>>
>>
>>Yes. Or I may even use Totem with Xine as a
>>backend...
>>
>>
>>>Suggest using kaffeine
>>>
>>
>>Maybe I'll give it a try...
>>
>>
>>>Worked straight away to play DVD for me and has all
>>
>>>the necessary functions for me to support
>>
>>multimedia.
>>
>>> 
>>>
>>>
>>>>I know one 
>>>>application that generally just works most of the
>>
>>time, though: It's
>>
>>>>Ogle (http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~dvd/) Some of
>>
>>its features are
>>
>>>>incomplete, however, and it seems like there
>>
>>hasn't been a lot of
>>
>>>>development lately, and I've come across one DVD
>>
>>it won't play, so I
>>
>>>>thought I might try something else...
>>>>   
>>>>
>>>
>>>Another application is vlc
>>
>>(http://www.videolan.org/vlc)
>>
>>> 
>>>
>>
>>I've tried that one, and yes, while it also has some
>>dialogs and menu 
>>items that are rather cryptic, the UI is not that
>>bad. However, I'm 
>>struggling a bit to get it to play the actual film
>>or display the root 
>>menu; it seems inclined to start showing me some of
>>the "special 
>>features" or whatever whenever I open a disk.
>>
>>
>>>If you install any of these, please use yum or apt
>>
>>so that at least you're 
>>
>>>sure that your not working with broken packages. It
>>
>>really saves you a lot of 
>>
>>>hassle in the end.
>>>
>>
>>Yes.
>>
>>Meanwhile, I'm still inclined to conclude that Ogle
>>is still the player 
>>closest to Just Working, but unfortunately, it seems
>>like there are too 
>>few developers involved in the project. Maybe I'll
>>start a flame war by 
>>saying this, but I generally think that it would be
>>a lot more 
>>productive if the people behind some of the video
>>players would stop 
>>developing their own software, and start
>>contributing to other 
>>applications instead. There has probably been far
>>too much duplicate 
>>work in this area.
>>
>>- Toralf
>>
>>
>>
>>-- 
>>fedora-list mailing list
>>fedora-list at redhat.com
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>>http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
>>
> 
> 
> Sorry to add to tbe discussion, but I have a few
> remarks to add, I have both xine, and MPlayer on my
> pcs and I don't have any problems.  Most Dvd's play
> without a hiccup.  
> 
> There are the frontends for xine 
> http://xinehq.de/index.php/download
> I can't complain about the frontend for xine the
> xine-ui might not be the best but it works!  
> 
> To install xine I obtain the rpms from 
> http://cambuca.ldhs.cetuc.puc-rio.br/xine/.
> I follow almost all the instructions there.  you can
> get RealPlayer and install the w32codecs to play
> windows media/quicktime and other formats. 
> 
> As for MPlayer, you can install kplayer which is a
> nice frontend for MPlayer.  
> 
> I have no complains as both players work for me and as
> far as ogle is concerned, it never worked for me.  I
> tried it in Mandrake, and Fedora Core 2 and 3 and it
> did not work.  They say it is real good, but it never
> worked for me.  So I can't rate it.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Antonio
> 

I can play non-encrypted DVD's with no problem.
IMO, Totem is great!

Cheers,
Vinicius.