VLC won't play DVDs

[Rick Grimes]

I am running VLC Version 2.0.8 on a Macbook Pro (OS X Version 10.8.4)

This is a new computer, so I just installed VLC on it. Whenever I try to open DVDs with it, it won't read them and a yellow caution symbol appears by the Disc name:



I have tried 3 different DVDs and none of them are opening. Can anyone help?

[Rick Grimes]

Anyone? Should I try re-installing it?

[Rick Grimes]

Okay, so I tried opening the DVD Player app to see if that worked and it made me select my region. I guess that was my problem. However, now the DVDs won't even play right in VLC. Both the audio and video is really choppy and unwatchable...

[Anjan30]

Rick, I read somewhere that VLC has issues with newer DVD players. Older DVD players work fine. If by chance you have a older DVD player that can be attached externaly to your computer, you may try it out as a test to see if this makes any difference. Another option you can try is to make a "disk image" of your DVD, the disk image can then be mounted from your hard drive, then try to play it using VLC. If this works, then the DVD drive on your computer may be newer than supported by VLC. You can make a "disk image" of your DVD using the Disk Utility included with Mac osX.

[TzTerri]

I installed VLC today on my 2011 Macbook Pro running 10.9 because I wanted to stream DVDs to my AppleTV and Apple has that function disabled on the built-in DVD player.

I was having the same issue with the video not playing properly. It was all messed up looking with a mostly grey screen.

Installing libdvdcss.2.dylib from http://download.videolan.org/pub/videol ... 11/macosx/ fixed the issue and DVDs now play perfectly and I can steam them to my AppleTV.

Hopefully this will be of help. I spent a few hours of frustration before stumbling upon this solution.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

We will fix for 2.1.3

[FerdinandGriffon]

We will fix for 2.1.3

Please do. I never had this problem before the last update or two, and installing libdvdcss.2.dylib isn't getting me anywhere.

[sredge]

So when prompted, I upgraded VLC to the latest version, so now I can't play any DVDs, new ones, old ones, none. All this copy protection is just so aggravating. I always think that I am stupid and not doing it right, then find out it is the equipment after all. And I want to cut off my cable, but can't do that if I can't even watch my own DVDs that I bought from the store. This is the new USA, enjoy! No high speed rail either.

[MtnMan]

I have had this issue with my MacBook 13" OS X 10.6.8 and VLC 2.1.2 (64bit), and I just found the solution.
You need a 64 bit version of libdvdcss aka libdvdcss.2.dylib

Download the libdvdcss.pkg and install it. Or manually install (that BTW I was unable to figure out how with the limited instructions ). The .pkg file though did the installation just fine and at reboot of VLC, there was my DVD, playing just fine!

The link I found my info was: http://gskluzacek.tumblr.com/post/44981 ... n-mac-os-x
But there may be another source out there... this one just worked for me, and I looked no further.

MtnMan


UPDATE: Probably better to use VLC's link: http://download.videolan.org/pub/videol ... 11/macosx/ to get the libdvdcss.pkg file. On MacOS X, just run the package file and it will do the installing for you.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Please share your logs if it fails.

[redsofa]

Hi,
Also version 2.1.3 does not fix the problem for me (Mac OS X 10.7.5 on a MacBook).
Here is the log file (is there somewhere some more logs?):

Code: Select all

main debug: VLC media player - 2.1.3 Rincewind\ main debug: Copyright \'ac\'a9 1996-2014 the VideoLAN team\ main debug: revision 2.1.3-1-g75c3652\ main debug: configured with ../extras/package/macosx/../../../configure '--prefix=/Users/fkuehne/Desktop/videolan/gits/vlc-2.1/release/vlc_install_dir' '--enable-macosx' '--enable-merge-ffmpeg' '--enable-growl' '--enable-faad' '--enable-flac' '--enable-theora' '--enable-shout' '--enable-ncurses' '--enable-twolame' '--enable-realrtsp' '--enable-libass' '--enable-macosx-audio' '--enable-macosx-eyetv' '--enable-macosx-qtkit' '--enable-macosx-vout' '--disable-caca' '--disable-skins2' '--disable-xcb' '--disable-sdl' '--disable-samplerate' '--disable-macosx-dialog-provider' '--with-macosx-sdk=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk' '--build=x86_64-apple-darwin10' '--with-macosx-version-min=10.6' 'build_alias=x86_64-apple-darwin10' 'CC=xcrun clang' 'CXX=xcrun clang++' 'OBJC=xcrun clang'\ main debug: VLC media player - 2.1.3 Rincewind\ main debug: Copyright \'ac\'a9 1996-2014 the VideoLAN team\ main debug: revision 2.1.3-1-g75c3652\ main debug: configured with ../extras/package/macosx/../../../configure '--prefix=/Users/fkuehne/Desktop/videolan/gits/vlc-2.1/release/vlc_install_dir' '--enable-macosx' '--enable-merge-ffmpeg' '--enable-growl' '--enable-faad' '--enable-flac' '--enable-theora' '--enable-shout' '--enable-ncurses' '--enable-twolame' '--enable-realrtsp' '--enable-libass' '--enable-macosx-audio' '--enable-macosx-eyetv' '--enable-macosx-qtkit' '--enable-macosx-vout' '--disable-caca' '--disable-skins2' '--disable-xcb' '--disable-sdl' '--disable-samplerate' '--disable-macosx-dialog-provider' '--with-macosx-sdk=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk' '--build=x86_64-apple-darwin10' '--with-macosx-version-min=10.6' 'build_alias=x86_64-apple-darwin10' 'CC=xcrun clang' 'CXX=xcrun clang++' 'OBJC=xcrun clang'\

Cheers,
Thomas

[dfuhrmann]

This is not a proper logfile. You need to open the messages panel before starting the DVD, to get a more complete log.

[redsofa]

Ok here is a more interesting log file

Code: Select all

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf1138\cocoasubrtf510 {\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Helvetica;} {\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;\red128\green128\blue128;\red255\green0\blue0;\red255\green255\blue0; } \pard\tx560\tx1120\tx1680\tx2240\tx2800\tx3360\tx3920\tx4480\tx5040\tx5600\tx6160\tx6720\pardirnatural \f0\fs24 \cf2 main debug: VLC media player - 2.1.3 Rincewind\ main debug: Copyright \'ac\'a9 1996-2014 the VideoLAN team\ main debug: revision 2.1.3-1-g75c3652\ main debug: configured with ../extras/package/macosx/../../../configure '--prefix=/Users/fkuehne/Desktop/videolan/gits/vlc-2.1/release/vlc_install_dir' '--enable-macosx' '--enable-merge-ffmpeg' '--enable-growl' '--enable-faad' '--enable-flac' '--enable-theora' '--enable-shout' '--enable-ncurses' '--enable-twolame' '--enable-realrtsp' '--enable-libass' '--enable-macosx-audio' '--enable-macosx-eyetv' '--enable-macosx-qtkit' '--enable-macosx-vout' '--disable-caca' '--disable-skins2' '--disable-xcb' '--disable-sdl' '--disable-samplerate' '--disable-macosx-dialog-provider' '--with-macosx-sdk=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk' '--build=x86_64-apple-darwin10' '--with-macosx-version-min=10.6' 'build_alias=x86_64-apple-darwin10' 'CC=xcrun clang' 'CXX=xcrun clang++' 'OBJC=xcrun clang'\ main debug: adding item `rdisk1' ( dvdnav:///dev/rdisk1 )\ main debug: Creating an input for 'rdisk1'\ main debug: processing request item: rdisk1, node: Playlist, skip: 0\ main debug: rebuilding array of current - root Playlist\ main debug: rebuild done - 1 items, index 0\ main debug: starting playback of the new playlist item\ main debug: resyncing on rdisk1\ main debug: no fetch required for (null) (art currently (null))\ main debug: rdisk1 is at 0\ main debug: creating new input thread\ main debug: Creating an input for 'rdisk1'\ main debug: using timeshift granularity of 50 MiB, in path '/tmp'\ main debug: `dvdnav:///dev/rdisk1' gives access `dvdnav' demux `' path `/dev/rdisk1'\ main debug: creating demux: access='dvdnav' demux='' location='/dev/rdisk1' file='/dev/rdisk1'\ main debug: looking for access_demux module matching "dvdnav": 14 candidates\ dvdnav debug: trying to go to dvd menu\ main debug: using access_demux module "dvdnav"\ main debug: looking for meta reader module matching "any": 2 candidates\ lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in /Users/tom/Library/Application Support/org.videolan.vlc/lua/meta/reader\ lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/share/lua/meta/reader\ lua debug: Trying Lua playlist script /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/share/lua/meta/reader/filename.luac\ lua debug: Trying Lua scripts in /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/share/share/lua/meta/reader\ main debug: no meta reader modules matched\ main debug: `dvdnav:///dev/rdisk1' successfully opened\ dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_HOP_CHANNEL\ main error: \cf3 ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called\ \cf2 dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_VTS_CHANGE\ dvdnav debug: - vtsN=1\ dvdnav debug: - domain=8\ main error: \cf3 ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called\ \cf2 dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_CELL_CHANGE\ dvdnav debug: - cellN=1\ dvdnav debug: - pgN=1\ dvdnav debug: - cell_length=334800\ dvdnav debug: - pg_length=334800\ dvdnav debug: - pgc_length=6390000\ dvdnav debug: - cell_start=0\ dvdnav debug: - pg_start=0\ dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_SPU_CLUT_CHANGE\ dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_SPU_STREAM_CHANGE\ dvdnav debug: - physical_wide=0\ dvdnav debug: - physical_letterbox=0\ dvdnav debug: - physical_pan_scan=0\ dvdnav debug: buttonUpdate not done b=1 t=0\ main debug: selecting program id=0\ main debug: looking for decoder module matching "any": 38 candidates\ main debug: using decoder module "spudec"\ spudec debug: invalid starting packet (size < 4 or pts <=0)\ spudec debug: spu size: 0, i_pts: 0 i_buffer: 128\ dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_AUDIO_STREAM_CHANGE\ dvdnav debug: - physical=0\ main debug: Buffering 0%\ dvdnav debug: buttonUpdate not done b=1 t=0\ dvdnav warning: \cf4 cannot get next block (Error reading from DVD.)\ \cf2 dvdnav debug: jumping to first title\ dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_HOP_CHANNEL\ main error: \cf3 ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called\ \cf2 spudec debug: invalid starting packet (size < 4 or pts <=0)\ spudec debug: spu size: 0, i_pts: 0 i_buffer: 128\ dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_VTS_CHANGE\ dvdnav debug: - vtsN=2\ dvdnav debug: - domain=2\ main error: \cf3 ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called\ \cf2 spudec debug: invalid starting packet (size < 4 or pts <=0)\ spudec debug: spu size: 0, i_pts: 0 i_buffer: 128\ main debug: removing module "spudec"\ main debug: killing decoder fourcc `spu ', 0 PES in FIFO\ main debug: Program doesn't contain anymore ES\ dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_CELL_CHANGE\ dvdnav debug: - cellN=1\ dvdnav debug: - pgN=1\ dvdnav debug: - cell_length=3546000\ dvdnav debug: - pg_length=3546000\ dvdnav debug: - pgc_length=118584000\ dvdnav debug: - cell_start=0\ dvdnav debug: - pg_start=0\ dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_SPU_CLUT_CHANGE\ dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_SPU_STREAM_CHANGE\ dvdnav debug: - physical_wide=128\ dvdnav debug: - physical_letterbox=128\ dvdnav debug: - physical_pan_scan=128\ dvdnav debug: buttonUpdate not done b=1 t=1\ dvdnav debug: DVDNAV_AUDIO_STREAM_CHANGE\ dvdnav debug: - physical=0\ main debug: Buffering 0%\ dvdnav debug: buttonUpdate not done b=1 t=1\ dvdnav warning: \cf4 cannot get next block (Error reading from DVD.)\ \cf2 main debug: removing module "dvdnav"\ main debug: finished input\ main debug: Program doesn't contain anymore ES\ main debug: dead input\ macosx debug: prevented sleep through IOKit (300)\ macosx debug: releasing sleep blocker (300)\ macosx debug: releasing sleep blocker (300)\ main debug: changing item without a request (current 0/1)\ main debug: nothing to play\ }

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

dvdnav warning: \cf4 cannot get next block (Error reading from DVD.)

Sounds an issue in dvdcss

[Cmdr]

Same problem here. 2.1.2 played the DVD with extreme stuttering/artifacts, 2.1.3 only displays the yellow warning sign and no error message. Opening the VIDEO_TS folder gives stuttering/artifacts also on 2.1.3. Older version work fine (have to try out which versions exactly).

So I thought I just rip the DVD with HandBrake and watch it then, but as it turned out HandBrake 0.9.9 has exactly the same problem.

Thanks for your efforts in fixing this!

[fkuehne]

We tracked down the reason for the failure and hope to provide the fix in an update very soon!

[redsofa]

Hi,

2.1.4 works for me!

Thanks,
Thomas

[charlesthecat]

Still doesn´t work for me, although I did install the libdvdcss.2.dylib.
I tried both, 2.1.3 and 2.1.4.
I also want to use it for streaming DVDs via Airplay.

Would be very greatfull for further advices.

[Cmdr]

2.1.4 works here. I didn't install any additional libraries. Maybe try to uninstall the libdvdcss.2.dylib.

[charlesthecat]

I will try to uninstall them,
but it didn't work before installing them, that´s the reason I tried.
I´ve been using VLC for quite some years now, and I´ve never come across anything it wasn´t able to play,
so now this DVD issue came up quite surprisingly.

[charlesthecat]

2.1.4 works here. I didn't install any additional libraries. Maybe try to uninstall the libdvdcss.2.dylib.

How am I supposed to do so?

So here´s my particular Problem in detail:
On my 12,2 iMac the DVDs play just fine as long as I don´t connect to my Apple TV via Airplay,
which is, as I already know, done on purpose by apple.
But they also won´t play proper in VLC (no matter if connected to Apple TV or not).
The Player starts loading the DVD for like an eternity (might be around 15 min. until the Menu shows up),
then lets me select scenes or play all, but as soon as I want to change anything or go to the menu, it just gets totally stuck.
Movies from my HD can be played without any issue.
(same problem with my 14,2 iMac and a superdrive as well, have been trying to figure out what to do all day)

Thanks.

[Lekain]

With a MacBook Pro Retina, OS 10.9.4, VLC 2.1.4, and an Apple external DVD player, I am unable to play any DVD, except the trailers. This issue has been going on since July 2013 with VLC 2.0.7, and as far as I know, no solution has been posted. Any help would be appreciated.

[tanegger]

Now it's 2017 and I'm using VLC version 2.2.5.1 and the problem apparently STILL hasn't been fixed. No DVDs play. VLC recognizes them as media and puts them in the play list, but nothing ever plays.

[dfuhrmann]

VLC plays DVDs just fine for a very large number of users. So your problem is very likely specific to your setup.

Note that with some DVD drives, AFAIK you cannot play DVDs if the region codes do not match.