worked but now wont play dvds

[guihenneuc]

Hello,

Firstly, please excuse my technical ignorance...................

I originally had an ibook G4 for which VLC worked brilliantly. I now have a MacBook and am experiencing problems - well one really! The first time the new version of VLC I downloaded worked without a hitch and I enjoyed the new look too, but ever since I can't get it to play dvds. I'm not sure if it doesn't work with video files etc because I have never tried - sorry! I have only ever used it to play "other" zone dvds. Now I go through the usual routine of open disc, etc but when I hit the PLAY button it flashes up the name of the dvd in the control panel only briefly and immediately returns to display "VLC media player". During the process I can hear the dvd starting up but then it stops and nothing starts up.

Can anyone help me?? I have searched through this forum, removed the preferences etc, but nothing has changed.

THANKS!

Dominique Guihenneuc

[drmh]

Hi,

all I can tell you is that I just notived the same behaviour with my vlc - although I´m still on the same machine where it has always worked. I used some other SW to help transfer moies onto my video iPod - maybe this led to a chnage in some of my settings...???

Let´s hope someone has a helpful suggestion.

Thanks/regards,

Michael

[whildonen]

I'd better join in here since we may hope that more posts may attract some people who know answers.
I used VLC without any problems earlier but lately there are many DVDs it refuses to play. Sometimes it does and at other times it doesn't.
I am not sure, but it seems to me that it started with this last version. I've tried to trash the preferences but to no avail.

[whildonen]

Well, I am not sure whether this is the right answer, since VLC worked fine earlier but maybe I am thinking of my iMac here and the problem is on my iBook. On the forums of rcp1.org I found this post, however:

Most MASTSHITA drives have an extra region protection that disables VLC (and *any* other player for that matter) playing region-mismatching CSS encrypted movies.
The extra protection is that the drives REFUSES to read raw encrypted data sectors, that is, once the region mismatch has been detected, every read operation is aborted, i.e. I/O ERROR. It doesn't matter that VLC can do a crypto analysis and crack the CSS key, it can't READ THE MOVIE, so it can't play it.

The question is then whether you have a Matshita. I have it on my iBook.

[hjones]

Does anyone have an answer to this? I have the same problem on my ibook g4, but I didnt change anything. I just tried to play a dvd, which didnt work, so I used dvd player, and since then Ive only found one dvd that will work with VLC. VLC has worked brilliantly for me for nearly a year and I dont understand what changed.

In case it helps at all, I tried that dvd again and this time it started playing but the picture was in blocks and the sound was intermittent, and it crashed after a few seconds. The other dvds dont play at all - no video window appears and the dialogue on the controller window goes back to VLC media player after a few seconds. When I try opening without using the dvd menus I get this error:

dvdread: read failed for -1/4 blocks at 0x01

Please can anyone help with this? Is it worth reinstalling or something? I already deleted all my preferences.

Edit: I'm using version 0.8.5
Edit: I just installed version 0.8.6a and its the same.

Thanks.

[robus]

join the growing club...
http://lowendmac.com/fishkin/06/0912.html
http://macnewbie.wordpress.com/2006/04/ ... p-machine/

[robus]

There has been speculation that one can use Boot Camp to load up Windows XP and then use region-free software like AnyDVD or Region Free DVD on top of that to get through the protection.

While this works with other drives, I can confirm that I have tried it on my brand-new Macbook Pro (i.e. Matshita UJ857) and it DOES NOT WORK. The error is similar to that of the VLC media player (I also tried using the Windows version, with the same failure). The title screen comes up, but then the video stalls and/or plays completely corrupted. The sound comes on intermittently, and there is no video.

My guess is that, as another user suggested, the drive does a “double-check” as it is playing the dvd, and this checking prevents the region-free software from functioning appropriately.

My solution: a $50 external DVD player (running my local Japanese region 2 DVDs). And the joy of not having to boot up Windows.

[Frank_fen]

My solution: a $50 external DVD player (running my local Japanese region 2 DVDs). And the joy of not having to boot up Windows.

I've heard that the Mac has trouble playing videos from external drives. Have you had that experience?

What player did you get - I can't find any for less than $100 - (would love to get just reader/player but can only find burners with software that I don't need or want).

[Dred]

I've heard that the Mac has trouble playing videos from external drives. Have you had that experience?

Mac has'nt trouble playing videos from external drives